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.

Remploy HR director hits back at claims she should resign over her handling of the factory closure announcements

Remploy's HR director has hit back at union jibes that she should resign over the way her team handled the announcement of factory closures.

Last week the GMB union, which represents the majority of workers at Remploy, accused the HR team of mismanaging the announcement by using DVDs and failing to answer questions.

About 2,500 mainly disabled staff will be affected when 32 manufacturing sites are closed and 11 are merged with others. But Anne Jessopp, executive director of HR at Remploy, said the union's reaction was "very disappointing".

"We would rather the union wasn't making these kinds of comments, but it's our job to get on with things," she said.

Jessopp rejected the GMB's accusations of mismanagement by the HR team.

"We communicated with employees using [sign language] DVDs, on-site signers, face-to-face, and with leaflets and letters," she told Personnel Today. "Then we took staff into smaller groups and answered any questions they had."

She said professional counsellors were on hand to provide support, as well as senior managers, and a staff helpline had been set up.

Jessopp guaranteed there would be no compulsory redundancies among disabled staff, who would have the option to work for local employers on their existing terms and conditions.

Last week the GMB voted for industrial action at Remploy's factories. Jessopp described the decision as "premature", and said it would have a detrimental effect on the organisation's customers. A meeting between management and the union consortium is scheduled for tomorrow (Wednesday).

Former Remploy HR director hits out

The decision to close factories has been criticised by Remploy's former HR director Ray Fletcher. In a letter to the Guardian last week, Fletcher said the closure would "narrow the options" open to disabled people who want to enter the workplace.

Fletcher is now HR director at the Unite 'super-union' - which also represents Remploy workers - so perhaps should declare a vested interest.

This story was first published in Personnel Today

Women and Work Commission chairman Baroness Prosser pleased at pace of progress on gender pay gap

One year on from the publication of the Women and Work Commission's report into closing the gender pay gap, its chair Baroness Margaret Prosser said she was "surprised" with the progress that had been made.

At a trade and industry sub-committee hearing last week on the commission's Shaping a Fairer Future report, published in March 2006, Prosser was asked what she thought about the government's action plan on her 40 recommendations.

"I was pleased that [the government] produced an action plan at all," she replied. "I'm surprised so much has been done already. I'm certainly not unhappy with the pace."

Prosser cited the Department of Trade and Industry's £500,000 part-time work fund and the Exemplar Employers initiative as significant achievements.

"More than 100 companies have taken part in the Exemplar Employers scheme, and are trialling more women managers and providing better careers advice," she said.

However, Prosser said she had some concerns that many schools still stereotyped women when it came to work experience and career guidance.

"The Department for Education and Skills accepted our recommendations on work experience, but I'm not sure how carefully [the department] is monitoring it," she said.

Norma Jarboe, director of Opportunity Now, which oversees the Exemplar Employers programme, said: "Lots of government reports have not had that much impact and have simply been shelved, but the government has reacted well to this one."

Jenny Watson, chair of the Equal Opportunities Commission, said the gender pay gap remained a stubborn 17% for women working in full-time roles.

"We are glad the government is taking this forward and look forward to seeing the report," she said.
But Prosser warned that the gender pay gap would remain a complicated and difficult issue to overcome.

his story was first created and published by Personnel Today

Equal Opportunities Commission says fundamental cultural shift is key to employment opportunities for ethnic minorities

A fundamental cultural shift in the way black and Asian women are treated at work and by public policy makers is needed to increase their employment opportunities, according to a report by the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC).

Moving on Up: Ethnic Minority Women at Work, a two-year study of the issues, has established that Pakistani, Bangladeshi and black Caribbean women face significantly greater penalties than white women in the workplace.

Those who want to work are finding it more difficult to get jobs, progress within them and are more likely to be segregated into certain types of work, despite leaving school with the same career aspirations as white girls and similar or better qualifications than white boys.

In areas with above-average numbers of black and Asian women participating in the local labour market, women are entirely absent from a third of workplaces and under-represented in almost three out of five workplaces.

However, the EOC’s report found 28% of employers surveyed said they intended to introduce steps to improve the recruitment and progression of black and Asian women. However, the same percentage said they were unsure what action to take.

Between 2001 and 2020, ethnic minorities are expected to account for more than 70% of the growth in the UK population aged between 16 and 59, according to the report.

With UK employers facing skills shortages, the report concludes it is crucial to tap into a growing and increasingly well-qualified pool of young Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Black Caribbean women’s talent to maintain economic growth.

Jenny Watson, chair of the EOC said: “Young Pakistani, Bangladeshi and black Caribbean women are ambitious and equipped for work. But they are still suffering even greater penalties at work than white women. Time after time women told us about the ‘unwritten rules’ in their workplace, the hidden barriers that prevent them from realising these ambitions. Without tackling these unwritten rules, change will never come.”

John Cridland, the CBI’s deputy director-general, said: “Employers will welcome the examples of good practice highlighted by the EOC’s investigation, on which others can draw. As the report says, employers are keen to employ more women from ethnic minorities, but better guidance is needed to support them.

“The EOC’s call for better careers advice is also to be welcomed Ð this is something the CBI has repeatedly pressed government on.”

This story was first created and published by Personnel Today