Comment by Peter Truesdale. From the April/May 2010 edition of Corporate Citizenship Briefing, Issue 111.
Recipe for happiness? A job in CR
The Corporate Responsibility Salary Survey 2010 is certainly worth a read. It is full of figures. These however are best ignored. The sample size is too small and the methodology too opaque to allow us to concentrate too much on them. Happily, however, that does not invalidate the conclusions that are drawn.
The first is the most amazing. Throughout the workforce gloom reigns. Work-life balance is out of kilter. Fear of redundancy looms. Stress levels are higher than Kilimanjaro. But not in the Corporate Responsibility function. Here 80% are satisfied with their jobs. 80% believe their job security is on the up. A massive 95% would recommend a career in the sector. In short they are happy. Yup, hard to believe though it is, they are H-A-P-P-Y. Someone from HR should be called in to correct this highly irregular state of affairs.
To mitigate this shock finding the authors do manage to rustle up a few cautionary notes.
The profession is populated by women but its upper reaches are dominated by men. No change there then. Nor from the report would one conclude that change was likely anytime soon.
For CR oldsters like myself a further worrying feature is that of ‘an emerging generation of corporate responsibility professionals who have only ever worked in the field’. The creation of a professional political class has done little to foster respect for our MPs. Why should the career-professionalisation of the CR function be any different?
Worry is compounded by the fact that many coming into CR are entering from other corporate functions. One understands why. Indeed I did so myself. Yet surely the function would be enriched by core business skills and line experience.
Finally on salaries the message seems to be up-up-and-away. Note to self: forget the comment about the figures, book remuneration discussion with manager.
Peter is an Associate Director at Corporate Citizenship. Email him at peter.truesdale@corporate-citizenship.com to discuss reporting, assurance and external standards.
The DiversityInc top 10 companies for executive women
For the past 10 years, DiversityInc has been studying how some corporate cultures have sustainable and incremental track records of women being promoted into the highest levels, along with retention comparable to men. The DiversityInc Top 50 list is derived from submissions to a 200-question survey, which is divided into four parts: CEO commitment, human capital, corporate and organizational communications and supplier diversity. From the main Top 50 list, the top three companies in the executive women category for 2010 were; Sodexo (overall winners of the survey), PricewaterhouseCoopers and Johnson & Johnson. The survey found that out of the top 10 companies for executive women, all of them tie senior leaders’ compensation to diversity initiatives, 50% have onsite childcare, compared with 21% in the rest of the US and all of them offer the ability to work at home and telecommute, compared with 44% in the rest of the US.
Stress in the charity workplace; ‘a modern day plague’
Unite, the largest union in the country, announced the launch of its year-long campaign to eradicate stress on International Workers’ Memorial Day (IWMD), on April 28. Recent Unite research revealed that more than 90% of voluntary sector staff feel their well-being is being undermined due to the financial crisis facing charities. Rachael Maskell, Unite National Officer, Not for Profit Sector said ‘The object of the campaign, which will culminate with a national conference, probably in November, is to give the workplace activists representing our 60,000 members in the not for profit sector, the tools to take up the issues of stress with management.’
Salaries in UK corporate responsibility sector climb
The Third Corporate Responsibility Salary Survey results, released on April 28, were based on the responses of 595 CR professionals from around the world. The 2010 survey has revealed that compared to past years, average salaries of UK-based respondents appear to have risen significantly from around £49,600 to £54,560, while the percentage of those earning £80,600 or more rose from 12% to 17%, despite the economic climate. In this year’s survey found that, as in previous years, consultants were not paid as generously as those working ‘in house’. If consultants are to compete on salary in the future, the report suggested it is likely that they will need to move from providing technical advice and services, to providing management consultancy around sustainability.
On May 5, Sainsbury’s launched its Supplier Trainee Partnerships, a programme which aims to help over 100 people find work in the coming year. The Partnerships will be operated in conjunction with 60 of Sainsbury’s top construction, engineering, facilities management and retail suppliers and will provide real training opportunities for people in trades that, due to the economic downturn, have suffered a shortage of labour and investment. The initiative, which starts in July, is open to all unemployed people and it is hoped that all of the trainees will gain full employment from the supplier or enter into higher education once the programme has been completed.
The Bothered Britain 2010 report, conducted by healthcare provider SimplyHealth, has found that 55% of employees felt their employer was not ‘bothered enough’ about them through the recession, and just 12% said their employer went out of their way to demonstrate they ‘were bothered’. Taking this into account, it is perhaps unsurprising that the report also found more than four in ten employees will consider looking for a new job when the economic outlook brightens. This figure peaks at 51% amongst 25-34 year olds and 60% of those working in IT and telecommunications. The findings were also at odds with what employers thought. While more than half agreed they had been too focused on surviving the recession to worry much about employee wellbeing, three-quarters did not expect their workers to jump ship as a result.
UK employers that have demonstrated the most commitment workplaces where women can succeed were announced at a dinner on April 28, at the 15th annual Opportunity Now Awards. The awards recognise employers from the private and public sectors that have made addressing inequality a business imperative. Winners included IBM for its ‘Building relationships and influence programme for women’, Alliance Trust, Burberry and Pearson for the number of women on their boards and in executive positions, National Grid for the work it has done to embed values of diversity and inclusion into its business and The Olympic Delivery Authority for the work it is doing to increase the number of women in construction.
The DLA Piper General Election Survey 2010, conducted by YouGovStone and released on April 19 revealed that 86% of those surveyed felt that the Government should not pass legislation with the purpose of increasing the number of women on the boards of UK companies. In addition, 81% of respondents were opposed to proposals in the Equality Bill, which outline how employers will be able to use positive action to give priority to candidates from under-represented groups (eg disabled, ethnic minorities, women) in relation to recruitment and promotion. Over three-quarters of respondents would not support any change to the law to allow companies to voluntarily set quotas for numbers of women in senior positions.
Green work placements offered to 5,000 young people
Five thousand green work placements are to be offered to young people aged 14 to 19 in a partnership between the Eden Project, the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, the RSPB, the Institute for Education Business Excellence and leading businesses. The £2 million Department for Children, Schools and Families -funded “Green Talent” scheme aims to nurture and inspire the environmental leaders of tomorrow and will lead the Government’s drive to connect them with job opportunities in the emerging green economy. As well as creating placements, the programme will help transform more traditional work experience so it better prepares young people for 21st century jobs.
Contact: Institute for Education Business Excellence www.iebe.org.uk
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