Diversity and equality

Up front on job ads

| Subjects: Corporate and HR strategy, Diversity and equality, HR practice, Recruitment and talent management

A fascinating and sometimes challenging feature of working on People Management is when, every so often, we have to take a view on what constitutes good practice in recruitment advertising, whether on the website or in the magazine. I’m not talking about the obvious legal issues here – avoiding discrimination on grounds of race, sex, disability and age – but about grey areas, where best practice is well ahead of, or not amenable to, regulation.
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Hunks and babes wanted

| Subjects: Diversity and equality, Employee relations, Recruitment and talent management

Travelling to the CIPD south west London branch careers conference last Saturday I was intrigued by a short article on recruitment in this week’s edition of The Economist. A study by two Israeli academics finds that, in countries where jobseekers routinely attach a photo of themselves to CVs or application forms, good looking men are more likely to be called to interview while attractive women tend to get the dreaded “thanks but no thanks” reply . Continue reading →

‘Jerry can’ politicians are living in their own reality

| Subjects: Diversity and equality, Learning, training and development

I’m always amused when politicians, interviewed on the radio or the telly, use the prefix “The reality is…”  This is invariably followed by a totally biased opinion about something or other, with no facts to back it up, and a claim that it is happening “up and down the country” (always up and down, I notice, never across!)  Continue reading →

More women, more risks?

| Subjects: Corporate and HR strategy, Diversity and equality, Recruitment and talent management

What if having more women on a board, say in comparison to having an all-male board, has a negative impact on a business?

This might seem a strange argument to make in the light of an EU consultation on the need for quotas for women board directors.  However, a recent study into the executive boards of German banks for the period 1994–2010 reveals that the boards took greater risks when they appointed new women directors Continue reading →

Hitting the wrong target on top pay escalation?

| Subjects: Corporate and HR strategy, Diversity and equality, Management, Pay and reward

I see the High Pay Commission – which six months ago produced a compelling analysis of why top executive pay has escalated out of control – has been renamed the High Pay Centre. Somehow, its gravitas has been punctured. Did someone lean on it to drop “commission”, with its associations of Royal authority? Continue reading →

Employers need protection from bullying lawyers

| Subjects: Diversity and equality, Employee relations, Employment law

I read an interesting viewpoint this week from Simon Walker, Director-General of the Institute of Directors, who wrote in The Daily Telegraph that the biggest winners in tribunal cases are the lawyers. A remark always guaranteed to get a lot of nods – particularly from those who’ve been on the wrong end of an employment lawyer. Continue reading →

Learn from Lord Davies to deliver wider diversity on boards

| Subjects: Diversity and equality, Employee relations, Management

Dr Atul Shah is absolutely right that the push for greater diversity on boards and in business needs to encompass more than just women (Focus on gender balanced boards ‘stifling broader diversity debate’, 15 March, 2012). I understand the desire to have a holistic approach to diversity, but until the data shows that there are no longer disparities in the workplace there is still a need to campaign for black, Asian and ethnic minority people (BAME) in the boardroom with a separate voice. Continue reading →

‘Women on boards’ push will be weak without a talent pipeline

| Subjects: Diversity and equality, Management

The current level of media coverage surrounding Women on Boards shows no sign of abating. However, the attention paid to statistics on boardroom gender balance appears to have overshadowed the more pressing issue which needs to be addressed: the weak pipeline and talent pool of senior women executives who will be the leaders of business tomorrow.

Over the last 18 months we have seen a dawning realisation that more effort needs to be made to lower attrition levels, promote from within and encourage women to progress further – but the stark reality is that the pipeline remains weak, and there seems to be a degree of inertia. The way forward to find an effective solution to the challenges remains elusive. Continue reading →

Are women getting to the top?

| Subjects: Corporate and HR strategy, Diversity and equality, Management

It’s the first anniversary of the release of the Davies report on the 24 February. Lord Davies recommended that 25 per cent of FTSE 100 board members should be female (the average then was 12.5 per cent) by 2015, and that both FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 companies should increase the percentage of women appointed to the board from then on. This is now the government’s key programme to get more women at the top of British business. Continue reading →