Founded in 2018, Voyc has rapidly grown to become a leading player in the field of AI-driven customer interaction monitoring for quality and compliance.
The multiple award-winning tech business is committed to helping financial services businesses handle 100% of customer interactions with consistency and care.
Voyc now supports a rapidly growing portfolio of UK firms in addressing the monitoring and reporting demands of the new Consumer Duty.
To mark International Women’s Day, IFA Magazine caught up with Lethabo Motsaledi, Voyc’s co-founder and Chief Technology Officer. Lethabo shared her insight on the gender gap as she sees it in the financial services sector – and what firms need to do to compete in the changing work environment….
IFA Magazine: Looking back over your career so far, what changes have you personally seen in the working environment for women in financial services?
LM: “Working extensively with financial services companies since Voyc began, I’d say there have been some promising changes – although not yet to the extent we’d like to see.
“The client personas we usually present to are at the CEO, Chief Operating Officer, Chief Compliance Officer level – and in the early days we would generally expect people we met to be male. But as time passes, we’re presenting to more female clients. Not all the time – but it’s no longer such a surprise when that happens.
“That’s promising and also encouraging.
“And from my personal perspective, when I enter a meeting room to present our solution,
“I’m feeling less and less out of place nowadays than I used to!
“In the past, people were sometimes almost shocked that I was the Co-founder and CTO presenting to them – but I see that reaction less and less now.
“Quite often, on video calls when my camera is off, I can tell people assume I’m male! But yes, we’re getting there. Things are more diverse than even a couple of years ago and it’s more expected that people in leadership roles will be female.”
IFA Magazine: Why might boosting greater gender diversity in financial services businesses be a win-win?
LM: “I think it comes down to the value that diversity brings in general.
“When decisions are being made by people of just one gender – or predominantly one gender – they can exclude the viewpoint of 50 per cent of people who have buying power.
“It’s widely known that in most households, purchasing decisions are heavily made by women – even if they’re not the main breadwinner.
“So, if the decision makers in your financial services business exclude women, you can radically miss the mark on understanding your customers and what best to do for them.
“I’d like to say this is a ‘no-brainer’ but it’s obviously not. The whole point is, if you put more women in positions of leadership and decision making, you start getting a more diverse and holistic view of what the best choices need to be.
“It’s better representation: a win for the business and a win for the customer.”
IFA Magazine: Does operating a more inclusive culture help financial services businesses recruit and retain talented team members? If so, how?
LM: “The short answer is ‘Yes’, but there are some interesting factors around creating such a culture.
“For example, if a potential candidate looks at the “About Us” section of a company’s website and sees no women, especially in leadership roles, she probably won’t apply. She doesn’t want to carry the burden of being the pioneer!
“Also, any history of high turnover amongst female staff is a potential danger sign.
“So, it’s vital to develop women internally and to retain those women so that the business is correctly seen as having an inclusive culture – and being a fair, attractive place to work for all good prospective candidates.”
IFA Magazine: Is the move to more flexible, hybrid and remote working options likely to support greater gender diversity within financial services businesses? What about other support such as childcare and maternity services? Is your business capitalising on and benefitting from any of these developments?
LM: “Remote working is a fantastic development because whether you’re a parent or not, work-life balance has gone out of whack for so many people over recent years. But for parents in particular, children do require time and attention. So working remotely and being able to balance responsibilities is a great advantage.
“We’re still a young company, but I’m thrilled to say that we’ve recently had our first successful maternity leave retention!
“The first decision that needs to be made is to ensure that there is a place for female team members to come back to after maternity leave. That must be set in stone, with commitment from senior leaders.
“In fact, I think that companies should welcome the idea of seeing children on Zoom calls. After all, we’ve essentially taken our office into the mother’s home – therefore we should be open to seeing the whole family! I think that’s great and more companies need to welcome it.
“For another recent recruit, remote working was a major factor in her decision to join Voyc. It’s important for her to take her young daughter to school and back and to be flexible about her working hours.
“We understand that our team members do have lives outside of work and that the traditional 9 to 5 routine doesn’t work any more. People can work outside of those rigid hours and blend their working and private time in a way that works well for everybody. The mothers at Voyc readily confirm that this is great for successful staff retention. It also reinforces the importance of having women in senior leadership roles – to ensure that women’s needs are fully considered when it comes to children.”
IFA Magazine: Has your business taken any other steps in recent years to support greater gender diversity or diversity and inclusion more broadly? If so, in what ways and how have you benefitted?
LM: “In the Voyc team right now, we’re exactly 50 per cent women and 50 per cent men.
“This wasn’t by chance. It was by design. In our founding principles, we decided that we would always work towards hiring the best talent – but do what we could to make sure the team is half female and half male.
“This is even reflected in our investor profile. We have more female than male investors, which we know is rare.
“Very early on, we learned that you need to follow a certain approach if you want women to apply for roles. Women will typically check every detail of a job description and then perhaps disqualify themselves if there’s not a complete match – whereas men are more likely to apply anyway. So sometimes, we reach out specifically to female candidates, to say: ‘Hey, you might have seen this ad, but we think you could be a great fit – so please apply’.
“Also, in cases in the tech and development space where we’re planning to train people up, it’s known that there are a lot more male software developers than females. So we try to select female applicants where possible. That makes the process harder – a lot harder – because we have to screen many applicants out. But it’s better in the long run because that’s exactly why we’re 50 per cent women and 50 per cent men and are blessed with having the most exceptional talent.
“There was never any compromise in taking this approach.”
IFA Magazine: What else can we do as a sector to help close the gender gap and also boost diversity and inclusion overall?
LM: “The industry needs to stop looking at the lack of women as a ‘woman problem’. It isn’t.
“There aren’t enough female candidates because there aren’t enough women already in the industry to help attract them in.
“The problem needs to be solved by senior leaders – currently mainly men – hiring more women. And being deliberate about that choice.
“For example, if you’ve been sitting on the Board of a company for a couple of years, why not consider stepping down if possible and give the opportunity to the best woman for the role?
“There’s no room for women at the senior table if all the roles are filled by men. Companies need to address this and change needs to happen – starting very much with the approach to succession planning.”
IFA Magazine: How optimistic are you that the gender gap in financial services is likely to close over the next five years?
LM: “Although things are improving, I think the wheel is turning more slowly than that. I think there’s still a need for much more awareness – otherwise, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. So, I’m not optimistic about five years.
“The number of female CEOs and women in top leadership positions is still very low. So I don’t see the gap being closed in five years unless we see what I suggested before: a mass exodus of men stepping aside for women.
“Most companies are unlikely to be looking at changing their CEOs or senior leaders that frequently. And it’s unlikely that if you look at the succession plans of most companies, they’re actively looking to fill these roles with female candidates.
“So I think it will take a lot more effort than most companies are applying right now – although it’s important to remember that the flexibility to work from home will create a much larger pool of female candidates for senior roles also.
“Something that excited me a lot, a very inspiring image, was to see Whitney Wolfe Herd, founder and CEO of Bumble, there ringing the bell at the IPO, holding her baby!
“That’s such an iconic and unusual image. As the CEO, she was able to create the company culture that made that possible. She decided to do that and she went ahead and did it!
“In the future, I hope and believe we’ll see many more examples of companies making this possible too.”
Click here to find out more about Voyc and the services they offer to UK financial services.
