Employment and Diversity

December 05, 2011

Comment piece by Stephanie Caun for October/November CCB

Business in the Community, Deloitte and BP launch ambitious social enterprise project to create 1,000 new jobs in the Olympic host boroughs

Gender diversity has been high on the business agenda in the recent past. Last month we received a 6-month progress report on Lord Davies’ business strategy to increase the number of women on the boards of listed companies in the UK. The results are not exactly mind-blowing. The figure of 12.55% of women that made up FTSE 100 directors, following a range of different strategies, has risen to 14.2% in the 6-month period. Undoubtedly, the rate of progress in this area has been slow but it is all too easy to dismiss these improvements. I think we can be optimistic that this progress report signifies the wheels are in motion and if efforts can be maintained then we are en route to achieving the ‘25% by 2015’ goal.

In his first report Lord Davies stated “when women are so under-represented on corporate boards, companies are missing out as they are unable to draw from the widest possible range of talent.” The same argument applies when women haven’t even the opportunity to reach a junior level, let alone board level. His was illustrated by Coca-Cola’s partnership with the UN Women’s programme which highlights that the issue is not just women climbing the corporate ladder, but getting onto the ladder in the first place.

The partnership shows that companies can use their branding and influence to bring about change in what is an imperative issue: empowering women in developing countries. As Michelle Bachelet, Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women, aptly puts it: “We can no longer afford to waste the potential of half the world’s population. It is both a matter of justice as well as good business and economic sense.” This view has been echoed by many other corporate initiatives to empower women that have emerged in recent years: such as Unilever’s ‘Project Shakti’, Nike Foundation’s ‘Girl Effect’ and Goldman Sachs’ ‘10,000 women’ programme.

All these initiatives successfully use strong partnerships to bring about change, and Coca-Cola’s is no different. Leveraging the global drinks brand’s expertise and their ‘5 by 20’ initiative to empower women entrepreneurs in support of UN Women’s Strategic Plan makes for a powerful concoction. It is time other companies realised the social and business benefit of investing in women as engines of economic growth, and followed suit.

Stephanie Caun is a Senior Researcher at Corporate Citizenship. She has a MA in Corporate Responsibility. Contact her at stephanie.caun@corporate-citizenship.co.uk to discuss China or charity partnerships.

BP and Deloitte are partnering with Business in the Community and Social Enterprise UK to launch arc a new campaign to stimulate the creation and growth of financially sustainable social enterprises and provide employment to 1,000 local people in the Olympic host boroughs.

BP and Deloitte are partnering with Business in the Community and Social Enterprise UK to launch arc a new campaign to stimulate the creation and growth of financially sustainable social enterprises and provide employment to 1,000 local people in the Olympic host boroughs. arc will combine the expertise and resources of Deloitte and BP with Business in the Community’s experience campaigning on responsible business issues and challenging corporations to make a positive impact on their communities The first two social enterprises have already been announced: Bikeworks is a social enterprise that offers a range of organisational and public cycle services while reducing landfill and creating employment and training opportunities for disadvantaged communities and Blue Sky Development & Regeneration is a social enterprise that provides paid work for people coming out of prison, to enable them to move successfully into long-term employment.

Contact: Business in the Community
www.bitc.org.uk

More businesses challenged to set out their plans to increase female representation at senior levels.

Six months after Lord Davies’ Women on Boards report, the progress made by companies who have pledged to increase the number of women in senior positions has been commended by David Cameron but he has also challenged more businesses to make the same commitment. The six monthly progress report finds that 61 of the FTSE 100 companies have responded to the Lord Davies review, acknowledging that gender diversity is an issue, with 33 setting themselves targets for the percentage of women they aim to have on their boards. The report also shows that only 21 women have been appointed to board positions out of a possible 93.There are now only 14 all male boards within the FTSE 100 – down from 21 in 2010.

Contact: The Department of Business Innovation and Skills
www.bis.gov.uk

Aviva Health Matters in the workplace report

Aviva’s latest Annual Health of the Workplace report has found that one third of employees are working longer hours on a daily basis. On average employees spend 1.5 extra hours working ‘overtime’ and 1 in 5 employees works 3 or more additional hours a day. 25% of employees attribute this to an increase in workload. The report finds that this increase in working hours is having a detrimental impact on employee health with 27% of employees admitting they are tired all the time and 21% feel a high level of stress. As a result over half of the business leaders surveyed said they felt stress would be the biggest occupational health issue of 2011.

Contact: Aviva
www.aviva.co.uk

Coca-Cola and UN Women to accelerate women’s economic empowerment

In response to the UN Women’s Strategic Plan and The Coca-cola Company’s global 5 by 20 initiative, a new partnership has been announced which aims to enable the empowerment of women entrepreneurs by building upon the strengths of both organisations. Both organisations have set out their intentions to help empower women in business through their respective plans. The collaboration will see The Coca-Cola Company and UN Women provide increased access to business skills training, financial services and support networks of peers and mentors in order to help women entrepreneurs overcome barriers commonly faced. The organisations are already working at country level to identify potential programmes to be implemented.

Contact: The Coca-Cola Company
www.coca-cola.com

UN Women
www.unwomen.org

Employee loyalty is declining worldwide says new report

According to new global analysis conducted by Mercer’s What’s Working Survey employee loyalty is dropping around the world. The survey was conducted among 30,000 employees in 17 geographic markets between 2012 and 2011. The research ahs found that the percentage of workers seriously considering leaving their organisation has risen since the last survey conducted over the period 2003-2006. Views on other workforce issues have also changed: views on pay and performance issues have improved but views on employee benefits have declined. The research suggests that non-financial factors play a prominent role in influencing employee motivation and engagement; workers consider being treated with respect as the most important factor, followed by work/life balance and type of work with base pay ranking sixth out of 13 factors.

Contact: Mercer
www.mercer.com

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