Interview: Kate Tinsley – ‘Gender equality isn’t a female challenge, it’s a challenge for all’

After her appearance as a keynote speaker at our recent East Midlands Business Masters Awards, editor Sam Metcalf spoke to Kate Tinsley, the outgoing chief executive officer of the Buildbase group of companies, on gender equality in the workplace, the #yesshecan initiative and her next career move.

How did you first become aware of the #yesshecan inititative?
I was part of the initial discussions to start #yesshecan at the end of November last year. The team asked whether I thought the concept could work and would I be willing to act as an ambassador for them. I loved the concept and understood how helpful it could be to us at Buildbase. Given that I believed it could help us, I thought there must be other companies that would welcome the support. It’s such a difficult subject matter that any help and guidance is fantastic.

How do you feel about gender balance in the workplace? What should be happening to address the balance?
Gender balance is really important in the work place, as is diversity at all levels. We are privileged to live in such a diverse society and therefore we need our organisation to reflect society and ultimately our customer base.

Diversity brings different thought processes to organisation and it’s a known fact that companies with greater diversity perform better.

In terms of what we should be doing to help address the gender balance, that’s very much dependant on the specific organisation. Some organisations are considerably more advanced on the journey than others. The key for me is that organisations consider it to be important and have a plan to deliver progress with tangible actions not just words.

Kate Tinsley

Do you think business can learn from sport with regards to gender equality – or does sport have a long way to go too?
I think sport is making good steps in some areas but still has a long way to go dependent on the sport. The recent Nike advert that was shown during the SuperBowl was a phenomenal piece of marketing and very hard hitting. I don’t think any sector is the finished article and therefore it’s important that we learn across industries and share best practice where possible.

What are you doing in your professional and personal/FA role to promote gender equality?
In my professional capacity I initiated the ‘Women in Buildbase’ group within our organisation. This group has become a very important network for the females in our organisation to share ideas and challenges with each other. The critical thing is that this has been massively supported by the many brilliant male colleagues within Buildbase. Achieving gender equality isn’t a female challenge it’s a challenge for all of us.

Personally, I’ve obviously got involved with #yesshecan which I do on a pro bono basis in my own time. The concept has already had fabulous traction and I look forward to seeing it help not only women wanting to progress but organisations who are passionate to address the challenge in hand.

You mentioned at the Awards you were changing jobs – tell me more about that.
I’m moving to become a divisional CEO of the Ibstock Group, with responsibility for the Brick division. I was approached about the role and despite not wanting to leave Buildbase, it felt an opportunity too good to miss. I worked in a manufacturing business some years ago and was excited about the opportunity of going back into manufacturing to lead a business.

Do you envisage a time when boardrooms across the bigger companies will be truly representative of the communities we live in?
We have to envisage a time when boardrooms are more reflective of the communities we live in and our businesses serve. If we can’t see that happening our efforts are fruitless. There is no overnight fix for this, but where we have an ability to influence the future we should take the opportunity and help to make a difference.