Gender diversity in the finance sector is not being addressed properly and could lead to worsening talent shortages, warns global finance careers website eFinancialCareers.

The cautionary advice came during a roundtable discussion with HR managers in Melbourne last week, organised by eFinancialCareers, to discuss the issue of gender balance in the finance industry.

George McFerran, Head of Asia Pacific for eFinancialCareers, warns that the finance sector needs to change its thinking to attract more female candidates and avoid a worsening talent crisis.

“Instead of saying that we need to employ more females, the key to addressing gender diversity in financial services is going to be to design jobs that suit women,” said McFerran.

While setting quotas and targets are still an important element in rectifying gender imbalance, McFerran said that providing long term, fulfilling, flexible roles that can fit around women’s lives will be crucial to maintaining a strong workforce.

This would mean more flexibility for women with young children, like job sharing, flexible working hours or part time positions.

Joanne Allen, head of HR at Citi has begun to embrace diversity and flexibility in the workplace.

“I’m working flexible working hours. I’m at my desk at 7.15. Then I try to leave between 4.30pm-5pm to take over from the nanny, and I work from home on Wednesdays,” she said.

Citi are running a program for emerging talent in their female workforce to give them skills to help them become more visible and confident in what has traditionally been a very male dominated industry.

For instance, they’ve extended parental leave to 16 weeks and have introduced a support network of intranet sites, packets of information and buddy programs for those taking parental leave.

Allen says that culture change is the most difficult aspect of diversifying. “It’s so important to not just have a single whack of the nail on diversity, it’s really about fundamentally changing how we think about diversity and realising its not just an HR issue, it’s a business issue.”