The Great Debate UK
Managing staff shortages during the volcano disruption
-Melanie Franklin is CEO at Maven Training. The opinions expressed are her own.-
Businesses should have learned by now, from the unexpected eruptions of volcanic ash and the global havoc it has wreaked, that flexibility, creativity and the ability to adapt to an unpredictable environment is crucial to survival.
Having the skills to manage a crisis, such as what to do when 25 percent of the workforce may not turn up to work on Monday morning and how to manage the impact, is vital. Those that learned such project management skills will have been putting contingency plans in place as early as Thursday – when the mass flight cancellations started totting up into the thousands.
Below are top ten tips for dealing with such a crisis:
1) Review existing contingency plans to see what transferable actions can help. No-one plans for these highly unusual circumstances, but most organisations have plans for fire, flood and terrorist disruption.
2) Meet with the management team to organise resources internally and assess the situation. Identify what resources are missing and find out from remaining employees the impact delayed staff returns will have. Then, if possible, speak to those that are trapped abroad and allow them to contribute to help analyse the gaps.
3) Reassure those that are directly affected. Staff maybe more concerned with the safety of their job than getting home. If staff are to be effective when they return to work, they must be reassured that their workload is being passed to others and they are not going to be disciplined. Having staff worry about this when they are already experiencing the stress of being trapped abroad will not increase their productivity on their return.
Battle over wages: the male-female wage gap
- Alison Steed is the editor of the personal finance website for women and families MyMoneyDiva.com. The opinions expressed are her own. Reuters will host a “follow-the-sun” live blog on Monday, March 8, 2010, International Women’s Day. -
Women have often been given a bad deal when it comes to work, whether we like it or not.
That, to me, is encapsulated in the fact that despite there being an Equal Pay Act in place in the UK since 1970, women still earn on average 17 percent less per hour than men for doing the equivalent role in the workplace, according to figures from The Fawcett Society.
Let’s not get confused here. This is not about women working part-time when men are working full time. This is the average gap for men and women working full time.
If you want to talk part-time, no problem – the figures actually get worse. The average woman is being paid 36 per cent less – more than a third – than a man doing the equivalent part-time role. When you get into London, this rises to 45 per cent – almost half, according to The Fawcett Society.
So what is going on here? A number of things really. Experts estimate that 40 per cent of the pay gap is down to old-fashioned discrimination on the part of employers. Add to that the reality that women are still, in many cases, primarily responsible for the role of caring for the family, and it makes it hard to do the extra hours that some men can take for granted.
I’m sure plenty of people will disagree with what I am saying, many will agree – but let’s get one thing clear. This pay gap is still here because of two things: the government is not enforcing pay equality at present, even though we have had 40 years – and governments of a variety of hues – who could easily have sorted it out.
MEN have lost battle for Jobs as women get them sigh by being allowed to tender cheaper IT IS JUST NOT FAIR
When our biggest challenge is ourselves
-Carol Hall is a partner and new Head of Walkers’ Investment Funds Group in Hong Kong where she specializes in hedge funds and private equity funds and advises on general corporate matters. The opinions expressed are her own.The opinions expressed are her own. Reuters will host a “follow-the-sun” live blog on Monday, March 8, 2010, International Women’s Day. Please tune in.–-
Seeing women succeed in management positions is uplifting and empowering. But I think it is fair to say that the challenges women face in the workplace depend very much on the profession. There are certainly some professions that view women and men as equals at all levels, but some professions present more of an obstacle to women. As a general rule, women are still underrepresented in the senior management level of most professions, particularly related to finance.
In my view, one of the biggest challenges that women still face in the workplace, regardless of their industry, is themselves. We think we have to be the Superwoman – the high-flyer at work, the super Mom, the darling daughter, all things to all people. We try to participate in the classroom. We bake the cookies for bake sales. We help out at scout meetings. In short, we try to do everything. It’s likely we’ve all been guilty of trying to do everything at one time or another.
An important key to our success is to realise it is not possible to do everything and do it well. We need to plan, prioritise and set realistic expectations as to what we can do. We also need to realise that as more women succeed and gain prominence in business, there will be more pressure on women to do it all.
In the global financial and legal industries there is an expectation of long hours and extensive commitment. There is a struggle for power and an expectation to win – all the time. But that doesn’t mean we need to sacrifice a work-life balance.
Personally, I’ve benefitted from working at a firm that highly values diversity of gender and ethnicity within its management. There is a real camaraderie on the local level and on the global level which makes for a great working environment.
The firm is very business orientated and there is a strong commitment to delivering a high quality work product and to developing our various practice groups to meet the challenges of an ever changing business landscape.
Kiran Bedi on being India’s first woman police officer
One of India’s most recognised faces, Kiran Bedi is India’s first woman police officer and has a larger-than-life image in a country where police are mostly perceived as inefficient or corrupt or both.
She was an Asian and national tennis champion before she made it to the Indian
Police Service in 1972. Bedi has worked in traffic and narcotics control, prison management and has also been an adviser for United Nations peacekeeping operations.
As head of Delhi’s Tihar jail, one of Asia’s largest, she introduced yoga, meditation and literacy classes for prisoners as part of a reform programme that drew global notice. Bedi broke the mould in a country where many women, particularly in the countryside, continue to be discriminated against and harassed. Her life was also partially adapted to create a TV series that became popular on national television.
Reuters interviewed her ahead of International Women’s Day.
Q: What influenced your decision early in life to join the police force?
A: “My resolve to grow up to make the difference and be the difference. My upbringing, my education based on personal discipline with sensitivity to gender injustices set the foundation of the choice. The rest is destiny.”
Kudos to Kiran ! Very honest observations. Just one point to add about workplace harassment -unless the public perception of women who point out such wrongdoers change, all the helpdesks and action teams that are set up will never make a difference. In India, it is still an unwritten rule that a woman who points a finger of harassment against a colleague will have to look for somewhere else to work. Because henceforth she will be branded as “that woman”, and not in an appreciative sense of the term.
