Motivational Speakers: It's time to get real

If you’re one of the plethora of self-styled motivational speakers who are pestering the world with their mixture of snake oil and psycho-babble, I’ve got some really sad news for you:

There are some problems in the world.

I guess that this won’t be much of a surprise to most of you, but there’s clearly a bunch of people out there who believe that simply adopting the correct positive mental attitude can make the world into a fairytale wonderland full of opportunities, jollity and general loveliness.

Take the guy ("motivational speaker, presenter, comedian") whose website I stumbled across yesterday. With a waggle of his magic finger (he does seem to point at the camera rather a lot) he’ll help you and your organisation overcome the barriers that hold you back from good performance in life, help you stop being miserable (apparently being miserable is much harder work than being happy) and generally “Make Work Your Play” (insert hand drawn smiley face here …)

His clients love him. One of the testimonials reads “he makes life seem like one big adventure with no real problems or obstacles.”

I have two words for purveyors of such nonsense:

Get Real.

Over the last two weeks, I’ve had the privilege of spending time in the West African nations of Niger and Burkina Faso. I’ve met inspiring women who have built up a collective in their village to scrape together just enough food to keep their families alive after the poor harvest. I’ve spoken to the elders of another village where the nutrition and food distribution programme means that infant mortality is gradually improving. I’ve sat in the rain under the corrugated iron roof with the group of women who are involved in a scheme to provide income by buying, rearing and selling goats. Average Gross National Income in their country is £330. They won’t get anywhere near that.

All of them were inspiring individuals, and their clarity of vision, commitment and rugged determination to succeed represents a challenge to all those who meet them.

But anyone who would dare to suggest that a quick dose of positive mental attitude could make their life “seem like one big adventure with no problems or obstacles” is a braver man than I am.

This world has its problems. Some of them are complex and demanding. But the right approach is to work together to tackle them, not to pretend that by adopting a fixed grin and a jolly demeanour they will all disappear and suddenly the world will become a magical wonderland.

Rant over. You may now get back to work. Or play. Guess it all depends on your attitude.

An Inspector Calls

It's strange how things sometimes work out isn't it?

A colleague today asked me if I'd write something on here about the 16 days of activism to end violence against women. I'll have to admit that my initial reaction was to think that such an item would appear rather out of place on a blog that's focused on HR issues and case studies from the world of work.

16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence Campaign

But a relaxing evening a home gave me the opportunity to put my feet up and read through J.B. Priestley's excellent and thought-provoking stage-play, "An Inspector Calls."

Without wanting to spoil it for those who may be unfamiliar with the play, an evening's entertainment is interrupted by a mysterious character who proceeds to question - and implicate - all the guests about the tragic suicide of Eva Smith, a young girl whose descent into despair was triggered by something very familiar to the readers of this blog: a rejected request for higher wages, followed by a dismissal by an employer.

In one of the most powerful speeches that you'll hear on stage, the Inspector speaks the following lines:

Just remember this. One Eva Smith has gone -  but there are millions and millions and millions of Eva Smiths still left with us, with their lives, their hopes and fears, their suffering and chance of happiness, all intertwined with our lives, with what we think, say, and do. We don't live alone. We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other. And I tell you that the time will soon come when, if men will not learn that lesson, then they will be taught it in fire and blood and anguish. Good Night.

Priestley's play is clearly fictional, but the facts are that over two women per week are killed by current or ex-partners, and that one in four women in the UK will experience domestic violence in their lifetime.

Whether or not we work in HR, as J.B Priestley says, we are responsible for each other, so don't brush this issue under the carpet. There's plenty of resources available on the issue: I've included a link to just one below. Check it out.

Restored: Ending Violence Against Women

[The editor of HR Case Studies walks straight out, leaving them staring, subdued and wondering. As they stare guiltily and dumbfounded, the curtain falls]

End of Play

Let's keep the Man in Management shall we?

As the current edition of Management Today correctly points out, Tuesday of this week was ‘equal pay day’.

If the average woman was paid the same annual salary as she gets now, but at the same rate the average man is paid, she'd effectively have stopped earning money on Tuesday, despite the fact there’s nearly a sixth of the year still to go

To mark the occasion, women’s pressure group the Fawcett Society has produced a report calling on the Government to do more to encourage equal pay.

And how does Management Today respond? With the decisive and courageous verdict of :

But as ever, the issue is far from straightforward…

Let's remind ourselves of some of the facts on equality of pay between men and women.

• Men earn an average of £16.07 per hour, women earn merely £13.43 – a difference of 16.4%.
• In some sectors, notably air transport, financial services and textile manufacturing, the pay gap between men and women is even wider.
• Despite the passing of the 1970 UK Equal Pay Act, which was intended to bring the pay of men and women into line at the current rate of progress it will take until 2067 before the gap between men and women managers is eliminated.
• The average UK salary for a male manager is currently £10,031 more than that of a female manager.
• At senior level male, pay outstrips female pay by as much as 24%.
• Even at junior level the gap is significant, with male junior executives receiving £1,065 more than their female counterparts.

So in view of all this, what's Management Today's response to the evident inequality? Here are a selection of words used:

• But it’s not necessarily that easy.
• Figures are invariably skewed by women who choose to take time out to have children
• Women may earn less than their male contemporaries because they have less experience.
• ... even if the figures are correct ...
• Many businesses simply don’t have the funds at the moment to up pay rates.

Most worrying of all is Management Today’s comment on the recent CIPD report which has predicted that Government cuts will be responsible for 650,000 job losses in the private sector:

If businesses started raising wages for women, the likelihood is that more jobs would be lost.

That's OK then. No argument. We'll just carry on with the inequality. We've done it for so long it would be a shame to change, wouldn't it?

Britain: It's just not fair!

Let's be provocative!

Every three years the Equality and Human Rights Commission is required to report to Parliament on the progress that society is making in relation to equality, human rights and good relations.The first such review was laid before parliament yesterday.

The headline on the BBC website accompanying the publication depressingly announces: "Gender pay gap progress grinding to a halt" and goes on to explain that:

Attempts to close the pay gap between men and women appears to be "grinding to a halt", the Equality and Human Rights Commission has said. Its wide-ranging 700-page report said women on average earned 16% less than men, widening to 27% for women aged 40.

But the EHRC report focuses on much more than just pay differences between men and women.

If you're already feeing a bit down today, then I suggest that you skip the rest of this article. Here are some of the other findings of the EHRC report:

• Black Caribbean and Pakistani babies are twice as likely to die in their first year as Bangladeshi and white British babies.
• The highest performing group at 16 are Chinese girls, with those on free school meals outranking every other group except better-off Chinese girls.
• White British boys on free school meals are the lowest performers at school, apart from Gypsy and traveller children.
• Women with degrees face a 4% loss in lifetime earnings as a result of motherhood, while mothers with no qualifications face a 58% loss.
• 50% of disabled adults are in work compared to 79% of non-disabled adults.
• The number of women prisoners has nearly doubled since 1995 in England and Wales, and in Scotland since 2000.
• One in eight people in England provide unpaid care to adults.
• Disabled men earn 11% less than other male workers, while the gap is 22% for women.
• Black graduates earn up to 24% less than their white counterparts.
• Total household wealth of the top 10% in society is almost 100 times higher than for the poorest 10%
• Men and women from the highest social class can expect to live for up to seven years longer than those from lower socio-economic groups.

It's perhaps all too easy to turn the spotlight on the pay gap between men and women, but that's far from the full picture.

As the EHRC reports states:

21st Century Britain faces the danger of a society divided by the barriers of inequality and injustice. For some, the gateways to opportunity appear permanently closed, no matter how hard they try; whilst others seem to have been issued with an 'access all areas' pass at birth.

So, my fellow HR professionals, what are you going to do about it?

Nine (Business) Ladies Dancing

"Where are the influential women?" was a comment left in response to the HR Case Studies item on Management Thinkers earlier this week.

So, let's restore the balance a bit with a few female firsts (again courtesy of the excellent Economist publication, "The World of Business" - a snip at £9.99)

1809 Mary Kies - first woman to receive a US patent (for weaving straw in hatmaking)
1963 Katherine Graham - first woman CEO of a Fortune 500 company (The Washington Post Co.)
1997 Marjorie Scardino - first woman CEO of a FTSE 100 company (Pearson)
1999 Carly Fiorina - first woman CEO in the 30-company Dow Jones Industrial Average (Hewlett-Packard)
2001 Clara Furse - first woman to become CEO of the London Stock Exchange
2002 Baroness Sarah Hogg -  first chairwoman of a FTSE 100 company (3i)
2006 Bishop Katherine Jefferts Scori -first woman leader in the Anglican Church
2009 Helen Alexander - first woman to head the Confederation of British Industry (CBI)
2009 Ursula Burns - first African-American woman to head a Fortune 500 company in the first woman-to-woman CEO handover in a Fortune 500 company

Fag-Ash Lil appointed as FTSE 100 Chief Executive

A woman (not the new Chief Executive of a FTSE Company) smoking

Alison Cooper’s appointment as chief executive of Imperial Tobacco means that the number of women in charge of FTSE 100 companies leapt by 25% yesterday. She joins Dame Marjorie Scardino (Pearson Publishing), Angela Ahrendts (Burberry Fashion), Cynthia Carroll (Anglo American Mining) and Katherine Garrett-Cox (Alliance Trust Finance) in the select group of women at the helm of UK companies.

She is now likely to become one of Britain's best-paid women. Last year she earned £1.3m, but she will clearly be expecting to pick up more in pay, perks and other incentives if her objective of increasing worldwide sales of the Company’s brands is successful.

Her predecessor (40 cigarettes per day) has (bewilderingly!) consistently refused to accept the direct link between smoking and lung cancer.

Ms Cooper (Occasional smoker) has yet to make public her opinion on the subject.

Guardian: Imperial Tobacco appoints FTSE 100's fifth female chief

• Does Alison Cooper’s appointment to this role further the cause of women in senior business positions?

"Surf's Up!" says Harriet.

Harriet Harman, the UK minister for women, has told a Treasury Select Committee that a lack of women at the top of City firms is due to "institutionalised gender discrimination" and that action is needed to end the "nightmare" of male-dominated leadership of major companies.

Women need to get on their boards and ride the waves along with the guys said Ms Harman. (OK, she didn’t say exactly that, but sure that you get the drift.)

Apparently only 19% of senior employees at the Treasury are women, leading Ms Harman to say that both the private and public sector have room for improvement.

However, she said the UK would not be following the lead of Norway, which introduced a 40% quota for female membership on the boards of its largest companies.

Oddly enough, although it was new fathers that were also highlighted by the Equality and Human Rights Commission yesterday (for not taking their full entitlement to parental leave) chairman Trevor Phillips told the same committee that women faced "chronic" discrimination in the City due to entrenched structures. And to make sure that the wrinklies didn’t feel neglected, he also said City firms prioritised staff between 25 and 39, giving the impression that those over 40 had "nothing to contribute".

BBC Business News: Get more women on boards - Harman

• Should, as Harriet Harman suggest, firms take the lead themselves and encourage flexible and part-time working?
• What do you think of Norway’s approach of introducing a quota for female membership on the boards of its largest companies?
• Speaking at the same committee. labour MP Mark Todd said some industries needed a whole culture change in terms of their attitudes to female employees. What does he mean?
• “Make sure you have diverse boards and a proper meritocratic approach,” said Ms Harman. What does this mean in simple English?

The real bullies: older women

According to a recent survey undertaken by the Unison Trade Union, one in three young women in the UK claims to have been bullied at work. The publication of the survey’s results has been timed to coincide with the Union’s demands for new anti-bullying laws.

But it emerges that it’s not men who are the perpetrators of the bullying; young women are particularly at risk of bullying and the most common perpetrators were older women in more senior professional positions.

Of those who have been on the receiving end of the bullying, 73% believed that bullying was fuelled by increased work pressures during the recession and 40% felt that bullies were tolerated in the challenging environment created by the credit crunch.

The concern of the Trade Union is directed at the fact that although the vast majority of organisations have a policy on workplace bullying, many victims believe that the policy is ignored, leading to anger, mental stress, depression, lowered confidence and insomnia.

Dave Prentis, Unison’s general secretary, said: “Our research has shown that bullying is accepted in many organisations – we need to change this attitude now. This shocking survey shows that the bullying and harassment of young women in the workplace is spiralling out of control.”

People Management: One in three young women bullied at work

• What’s your response to the results of this survey?
• Is it a surprise to learn that it’s other women who are often the bullies, rather than men?
• If such behaviour is a result of the challenges created by the recession, will it just disappear when the economic situation improves?
• Can legislation be effective in removing unacceptable behaviour in the workplace?
• Can individual organisations address this issue without the need for a change in legislation?

Employers are unaware of the talents of women

Helen Alexander has been appointed as the new head of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) employers' group, the first woman to occupy the position of president since the group was founded in 1965. In her first interview she has stated that "industry in the UK is missing out by failing to exploit the talents of women." The statistics certainly seem to support her: of the board directors in the FTSE 100 index of leading UK businesses, only 11% are women. Ms. Alexander doesn't believe that there is prejudice against women in the boardroom, but suspects that many employers are simply aware of the talent that women can offer. She also stated that there was plenty of female talent around but does not personally favour positive discrimination.

CBI calls for more business women

• What's the current legislation on Equal Pay and Sex Discrimination in the workplace?
• Are there particular skills that only women can bring to the workplace, and in particular to the boardroom?
• Thinking of your answer to the last question, are there certain roles that are best undertaken by women?
• What examples can you provide of women who have "made it to the top" in what is a business area predominantly populated by men?
• What does Helen Alexander mean by "positive discrimination" and what's the current legislation on this?