“The numbers don’t lie,” she said.

“Organisations could examine gender diversity when recruiting staff. Do they have a lens of ensuring that there are sufficient male and female candidates? Make sure you have measurements in place.”

She pushed organisations to measure pay increases, bonuses, and other incentives to identify whether they are skewed more towards men.

While emphasising that employees should be recruited and incentivised based on merit, Pannek highlighted that gender biases could exist in employers and leaders in an organisation.

“The problem is that we’re all human, which means we come with certain biases,” she said.

“Some of it is conscious, but a lot of it is unconscious. Therefore, until you as the management team measure your hiring and other practices and put the numbers down, you will never know if that’s something you need to address.”

On top of this, organisational values and culture are crucial for business leaders and executives to build a diverse team and facilitate innovative thought, Pannek added.

“I think it’s important to promote a growth mindset environment where people know that they can express diverse thoughts without being shut down. It’s only through thinking differently that we get innovation,” she said.

At the Women in Finance Summit, Pannek and a panel of speakers will share leadership insights and how women could overcome gender biases and flourish in their careers.

She recalled that in her previous roles when her organisation interviewed new candidates, the management team would ensure that the interview panel had gender diversity.

“You can take simple steps to ensure that unconscious bias doesn’t become the norm and people don’t default to the easiest path and hire, promote, and reward employees who look and think just like them,” Pannek said.

“If you create an environment where that is addressed, people would naturally be inclined to promote innovation and different ways of thinking.”

Pannek called for women to take chances and explore new roles as it could lead them down a career pathway that allows them to thrive and enjoy that experience.

Having worked in financial services for 25 years at investment banks, lenders, and aggregators before becoming the CEO of an industry organisation like the MFAA, Pannek highlighted that women can choose multiple career paths throughout their lifetime.

She advised them to consider their career goals, new skills they wish to acquire, and how they could develop their professional capability.

To gain valuable tips from Anja Pannek on how you could succeed in leadership roles, come along to the Women in Finance Summit 2024.

It will be held on Friday, 15 November, at The Star, Sydney.

Click here to book tickets and don’t miss out!

For further information, including agenda and speakers, click here.

This summit is produced by Captivate Events. If you need help planning your next event, email director Jim Hall at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..