Wimbledon pays women equally - but will Gordon Brown?

The Fawcett Society today issued a challenge to the new prime minister to be the first to ensure that women and men in the UK are equally rewarded for their work.

Although equal pay legislation has been in force for more than 30 years, there's still a pay gap women working full-time still earn on average 17% less per hour than men working full-time, and women working part-time earn 38% less.

Dr Katherine Rake said: “Women tennis players are finally enjoying equal pay at Wimbledon – it’s time for Gordon Brown to give all women a sporting chance and finally end the pay gap. The ball’s in his court.”

Practical steps to end the pay gapAs the leading campaign for equality between women and men, Fawcett has set out the practical measures that Government could take to end the pay gap. These include:

• Safeguards: Compulsory pay audits for all organisations
• Bold ambitions: The Government to set dates for finally closing the pay gap
• Tackle long hours: Full sign-up to the EU’s Working Time Directive and other steps to tackle our long hours working culture, which limits the ability of women with caring responsibilities to compete on an equal basis with men.
• Include men: Government and employers to encourage men - not just women - to engage with work-life balance issues.
• New rights: a right to work flexibly for all employees, unless there is a strong business case against it

Research by Capital Consulting and Cranfield School of Management reveals UK companies are failing to develop top people

Training and development experts have championed the importance of talent management after a new report found more than half of UK businesses are failing to develop their top people.

Research by recruitment outsourcing provider Capital Consulting and Cranfield School of Management, found that only 49% of UK businesses had implemented talent development programmes.

Having questioned 608 HR directors, the research pointed to a lack of financial investment and insufficient senior management support as the main obstacles to talent development.

It found that while six in 10 respondents said talent management was essential to increasing profit, only four in 10 strategically managed their star talent. One in five did not link the strategy to their business plan, while only 15% measured the return on investment.

Victoria Winkler, training, learning and development adviser at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, told Personnel Today she was not surprised by the findings. However, she believed that skills awareness was growing, and was not only on the agenda of HR departments, but also chief executives and finance directors.

"HR teams need to put a talent management structure in place to get the most out of their employees," she said. "It can have a major impact on the bottom line and retaining staff."

Jeremy Tipper, group managing director of Capital Consulting, said: "Creating an effective talent management framework has the potential to make HR directors organisational heroes because of the ever-growing impact it will have on business performance."

Dr Emma Parry, research fellow at Cranfield School of Management, said the report should serve as a wake-up call to employers. "The disconnect between what senior managers are saying and what they are doing is very worrying," she said.

Investing in disabled people’s skills could boost the economy by £35 billion

Improving the skills of disabled people to world class levels by 2020 would boost the economy by £35 billion over 30 years, equivalent to 18 months growth, and help tackle child poverty, argues SMF Chief Economist Stephen Evans in a new report, Disability, Skills and Work: Raising our ambitions, published by the Social Market Foundation in association with the Disability Rights Commission.

The report argues that, as well as the benefits from raising the skills rate of disabled people to world class levels, improving the employment rate of disabled people to the UK average through skills improvements would give a boost to the economy of some £13 billion, equivalent to six months economic growth.

To achieve this prize Disability, Skills and Work recommends:
• A national commitment to reducing the relative skills gap between disabled people and the national average
• Employers be required to take greater responsibility, aided by improved support, but backed by tough new legal duties if progress falls short
• Out of work disabled people be given much greater opportunity to improve their skills as a route back to work

These proposals would not only result in increased productivity and employment, but also help tackle poverty, in particular child poverty.

Children from deprived backgrounds often risk becoming trapped in a cycle of disadvantage. Given one in three children living in poverty in Britain has a disabled parent, the report contends that transforming the employment prospects of disabled people by investing in their skills must be a central part of the Governments efforts to end child poverty by 2020.

Commenting, author of the report, Stephen Evans said:

“The size of the challenge is daunting. But the scale of the prize is huge and the cost of inaction is mounting by the day through wasted talent. The past decade has shown how empowering disabled people and supporting employers can work. The next decade needs to see a step change in this approach and a dramatic boost to the skills of disabled people.”

Agnes Fletcher, Director of Policy and Communications at the Disability Rights Commission, said:

“Despite rising levels of employment for disabled people over recent years, too many are still without jobs and living in poverty as a result. Supplying disabled people with the skills they need is the missing link between ending child poverty, boosting the economy and getting more people off benefits and back into work. As this report shows, investing in disabled people’s skills is a win/win situation for Government, creating massive dividends for the economy and delivering greater equality at the same time.”

Ann Summers CEO Jacqueline Gold claims ban on men in work is only way for women to succeed

The chief executive of adult retailer Ann Summers told delegates at the Brighton conference that the only way for women to succeed in business was to do away with men in the workplace.

And that is virtually what Jacqueline Gold has done in transforming the retailer from a turnover of £87,000 in 1987 to £155m this year, with 7,500 (all women) party planners and 141 retail outlets (mostly staffed by women).

Apart from a couple of exceptions, men are only employed at the company's head office. And even there the ratio is 60:40 women to men. But Gold justified this tactic by explaining that banishing men from most aspects of the organisation had created an environment in which women could thrive.

"Women [at other companies] will often say that they've had a fantastic idea, but they feel intimidated," she said. "The fact that we've got a female chief executive and a female managing director means we don't have that problem."

When asked from the floor how the public sector could be made to be more sexy, Gold replied that the way to create a dynamic workplace was to make it fun.

"But that has to come from the top. People at the top need to buy into it. [Your organisation] has got to be a fun place to work," she said.

This story was first created and published by Personnel Today

Half of dyslexics hide the condition from their employer to protect their image in the workplace

Almost half of people with dyslexia are hiding their condition in the workplace for fear that it will change the way their colleagues perceive them, according to research.

The study by the British Dyslexia Association (BDA) and Business Link for London advisory service found that 45% of the 103 respondents felt unable to disclose their dyslexia to their employer.

The most common reasons for respondents hiding their dyslexia were that it could have a negative effect on their image at work, act as a barrier to business success and hamper their career opportunities.

More than half (56%) did not believe their employer could cater for their needs if they were to reveal their condition, and eight in 10 (82%) also believed their dyslexia would prevent them from setting up their own business.

Vicki McNicol, director of development at the BDA, said: “When an employer is able to support the dyslexic individual’s differences and not see them as a threat, the individuals abilities and talents are able to shine through. Many employers/managers are not able to celebrate difference but, more commonly, want to penalise employees for it. At the BDA, we find that many highly intelligent, dyslexic individuals fail to reach their full potential due to ignorance and lack of understanding among employers and HR professionals.”

Keith Gilbey, director of strategy at Business Link for London, said: “Creativity and tenacity are just some of the traits associated with dyslexics, so they have huge potential to become successful entrepreneurs. Equally, employers need to create a supportive environment so that they can harness the skills that dyslexics typically possess.”

This story was first created and published by Personnel Today

Equalities review recommends public service contracts should be awarded on basis of diversity

Multi-million pound contracts could soon be won or lost on the diversity of a company's workforce.

The government-commissioned Equalities Review last week recommended that diversity policy should be a key factor when awarding public sector contracts. It said the law should be changed to place greater responsibilities on public bodies, including "a specific requirement to use procurement as a tool for achieving greater equality".

Panel member Sir Robert Kerslake told Personnel Today that private firms bidding for public service contracts should be made to provide details of their workforce make-up, and an outline of the steps they are taking to improve diversity.

"This can and should be an important factor in the decision to award contracts," said Kerslake, chief executive of Sheffield City Council. "It is a duty of the public body to actively take into account equality of employment."

Communities secretary Ruth Kelly signalled the government's willingness to act on the report, commissioned by prime minister Tony Blair in 2005. "This review makes clear that further progress will not happen without government action," she said. "We must remain prepared to take tough decisions."

A formal response is expected by the autumn, but the CBI insisted that public service contracts should be awarded on the basis of value for money, rather than the diversity of a workforce. It said employers should not be subjected to additional bureaucracy or legal risk.

The Equalities Review was led by Commission for Equality and Human Rights chairman Trevor Phillips. He warned that unless drastic action was taken, inequality in the UK would remain at an "intolerable level". At the current rate of change, it would take nearly 100 years for the ethnic employment gap to be closed.

10 steps to equality
Defining equality
Building a consensus on equality
Measuring progress towards equality
Transparency about progress
Targeted action on persistent inequalities
A simpler legal framework
More accountability for delivering equality
Using procurement and commissioning positively
Enabling and supporting organisations in all sectors
A more sophisticated enforcement regime

This story was first created and published by Personnel Today

Equalities Review recommends legalising ethnic minority job adverts

Job ads specifically targeting ethnic minority applicants will be legalised if the government adopts the recommendations of the Equalities Review.

The review called for "the repeal of existing legislation that limits positive action". It said an Equalities Act should be drawn up to cover all diversity issues, to provide for better targeting of disadvantaged groups.

"There are some areas where inequalities are so deep-seated, or where conventional means will take so long to make an impact, that not taking alternative action is condemning a whole generation to living with disadvantage," said the report.

"There is a case for introducing time-limited, proportionate, balancing measures of a type not currently permissible under UK law," it said.

Review chairman Trevor Phillips said organisations wanting to use these proposed powers should be able to do so "if they can make a case that it is in the best interests of the community".

This story was first created and published by Personnel Today