Dear Firstname
It's all about culture
At the end of last year, global recruitment consultancy, Leathwaite, invited me to write the foreword to its 2019 Global HR Survey of more than 1000 HR executives in Financial Services. The report gives an easy to digest overview of the issues currently facing HR. The top 4 are (4) Diversity & Inclusion, (3) Talent Retention, (2) Digitization and (1) Culture with D&I having moved from bottom to fourth place since 2018. Looking forward, Global Regulatory Demands, the "Gig" Economy and, of course, Brexit are cited as likely to have the greatest impact in the next 12 months with Head of Culture being the job role most likely to be in the HR Leadership Team within the next 3 years.
Female talent is everywhere but it needs the right culture to thrive
The Gender bias in workplace culture research published this week by Murray Edwards College, Cambridge, highlights the cultural shift that's needed for women to thrive. The report reveals that 81% of senior female employees say their workplace culture presents career advancement challenges for women with as many as 50% reporting they face these challenges ‘always’ or ‘often’.
Last weekend the Sunday Times Magazine published an article by Christine Armstrong. Headed How do we fix the growing resentment between the sexes in the workplace? - Men sneer at flexible working, while women are more stressed than ever... The author painted a less than rosy picture of working life in professional services.
Whilst some businesses are shortening the working day/week, a woman at the top in corporate finance recently stepped down to start her own business citing the "always on" culture as the reason. A board level woman in banking says that when someone asks her to speak about diversity and women in finance, her heart sinks. Another's home office was decorated the same as her workplace so clients couldn't tell whether she was at work or at home whilst on video calls.
The article concludes with a comment from our Woman of Achievement Award Winner, Emma Codd of Deloitte UK who says that the cost of not addressing flexible working in her firm added up to £200m – yes, it makes business sense in more ways than one.
The article is firewalled, but I tweeted a short threat with images captured from the magazine which you can view here.
Part-time work has downsides, but Hospitality, Travel and Leisure sector shows improvement for female progress
Meanwhile the Modern Families Index 2019, a report from Working Families and Bright Horizons, has revealed that part-time workers (predominantly women) have just a 21% chance of being promoted within the next three years, compared to 45% for their full-time counterparts.
However, the Hospitality, Travel and Leisure sector's latest Diversity report shows improvement in this sector with the percentage of women in board level positions at FTSE 100 hospitality, travel and leisure companies having increased to 32%, up 3% from 29% in 2018. This is slightly better than the cross sector average of 30%. There has also been improvement on the number of women holding executive committee and direct report positions (into the Executive Committee) in companies.
Scroll down
- to sign up to a Menopause Masterclass (7 March)
- to attend a Wales in London Week businesswomen's lunch (27 February)
- to read a selection of blogs from the Women in the City and Project Diamond websites.
GWEN RHYS
Founder & CEO |
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Menopause Masterclass for City HR Leads (and other women!) 7 March, 8-10am, UBS, Broadgate
Menopause affects half of the population at some point and the physical and mental effects can impact their working lives, too. Even though it is experienced by women, menopause can affect men too – family members, friends, colleagues and line managers. Despite this, menopause is still a taboo subject.
This means that it is largely misunderstood and surrounded by myths and stereotypes. The majority of employers do not address menopause within health and wellbeing programmes for their staff, because they don’t recognise it as an important issue and/or because they are unsure of how to approach it.
With recent TV programmes and an ongoing campaign to bring menopause into public view, the taboo and stigma surrounding menopause is slowly being eroded.
Led by Dr Theodora Kalentzis – a City-based GP specialising in menopause – Business Healthy presents the “Menopause Masterclass”, in partnership with UBS and Women in the City.
To book your complimentary place click HERE
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Wales in London Week - Women's Lunch 27 February (noon - 2.30pm)
Join like-minded Welsh professional women for the second Women's Lunch organised by Rebecca Jones. The lunch will be held at Tom Simmons' eponymous restaurant 2 Still Walk, London SE1 2RF.
Cost: £52, sparkling reception followed by 3-course Welsh-inspired menu.
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INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY 2019
The theme for IWD in March 2019 is #BalanceforBetter. So put your hands out and STRIKE THE #BalanceforBetter POSE and make International Women's Day YOUR day - and do what you can to truly make a positive difference for women everywhere.
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Check out our micro-website Project Diamond which contains content to help you progress your career.
If you'd like to provide valuable career- related content please get in touch. |
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LATEST FROM WOMEN IN THE CITY
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In brief:
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UK workplace culture stalls women’s careers
UK workplace culture stalls women’s careers say three in four women and two in five men reports year-long study involving almost 6,000 UK employees. Everyday examples of unintentionally gender biased behaviour in workplace culture are stalling women’s careers, according to a year-long study released on 13 February 2019 by Murray Edwards College, University of Cambridge. […]
TO READ MORE, click heading.
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Hospitality, travel and leisure sector improves gender diversity
This year’s Women in Hospitality, Travel and Leisure 2020 Review shows improvement on gender diversity over the past year. New analysis of gender diversity in the hospitality, travel and leisure sector shows the industry has made positive progress in the past year to address the number of women in senior positions. While improvements have been […]
TO READ MORE, click heading.
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Promotion chances are reduced for part-time parents
The UK’s working parents are penalised for working part-time and suffer from poorly-designed jobs that force them to work extra hours, according to a major new study published today by Working Families and Bright Horizons. Part-time penalty leaves mothers behind The 2019 Modern Families Index reveals that parents working part time – most of whom […]
TO READ MORE, click heading.
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Flexible working megatrends
Flexible working is not easily defined. This is because it is often seen by what it isn’t – not the 9-to-5, not the daily commute to a central workplace – as opposed to by what it is. Nevertheless, people think they know it when they see it, and as a result certain working patterns or […]
TO READ MORE, click heading.
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LATEST FROM PROJECT DIAMOND
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Latest from Project Diamond:
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Courage and better processes are keys to senior level roles
[Author: Gwen Rhys] My 25-yr old godson recently attended a corporate away-day: “Did you know research shows that women only apply for jobs when they met 100% of the qualifications listed, as opposed to men, who apply if they met 60%?” he asked me. I replied that well, yes, I had heard this (yawn!). I […]
The post Courage and better processes are keys to senior level roles (http://citywomen.co.uk/project-diamond/courage-key-senior-roles/) appeared first on Project Diamond (http://citywomen.co.uk/project-diamond) .
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Culture matters when it comes to the acquisition and retention of female talent
I was delighted to be asked by Leathwaite to contribute to its 2019 Global HR Leadership Report. This data-rich document is the result of a poll of 1000 Global HR leaders including Chief Human Resources Officers (CHROs), Heads of Specialist Functions (including Talent, Reward, Learning and Recruiting) and those at the vanguard of HR Transformation […]
The post Culture matters when it comes to the acquisition and retention of female talent (http://citywomen.co.uk/project-diamond/culture-matters-acquisition-retention-female-talent/) appeared first on Project Diamond (http://citywomen.co.uk/project-diamond) .
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Value your differences, and include generously.
Ma’am, are you lost? A first-hand account of bias in tech, and some practical suggestions for those who want to fix it. In this blog, first published in Medium in early December 2018, Ramona Liberoff, Founder Link Mission 2, StartupFounder, StoriesAngel, InvestorsEuropeVC discusses her experience in tech. I’ve been fortunate enough to work in and […]
The post Value your differences, and include generously. (http://citywomen.co.uk/project-diamond/value-your-difference-include-generously/) appeared first on Project Diamond (http://citywomen.co.uk/project-diamond) .
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