WHAT TO KEEP AN EYE OUT FOR…
€1.5 million fund created to offer work opportunities for people with disabilities
A new €1.5 million fund has been created by the Social Innovation Fund Ireland (SIFI) and US financial services group State Street to offer more opportunities in the workplace for people with disabilities.
The partnership will see the “ability to work fund” created to provide funding over three years to organisations working to help people with a disability gain employment. The fund is also supported by the Department of Rural and Community development.
SIFI and State Street intend that the fund will reach 500 educationally-disadvantaged students over its three-year lifespan and help 250 to progress to employment.
The ability to work fund is open for applications until February 2020 and successful applicants will receive cash grants as well as a place on a programme which includes training.
Applications are sought from organisations that work with people who have an intellectual, physical or sensory disability from the age of 17.
The partnership will see the “ability to work fund” created to provide funding over three years to organisations working to help people with a disability gain employment. The fund is also supported by the Department of Rural and Community development.
SIFI and State Street intend that the fund will reach 500 educationally-disadvantaged students over its three-year lifespan and help 250 to progress to employment.
The ability to work fund is open for applications until February 2020 and successful applicants will receive cash grants as well as a place on a programme which includes training.
Applications are sought from organisations that work with people who have an intellectual, physical or sensory disability from the age of 17.
There is much more to Gender Balance than just pay
There is a need to implement measurable, practical strategies to shift the scales.
While in the past month, a number of organisations announced details of their gender pay gap, the figures alone don’t give any real insight into what organisations are doing to align the gender balance of their workforce.
In fact, in companies that only employ a small percentage of females, the gender pay gap figure really is irrelevant to the gender balance conversation.
Research carried out as part of the Adare Human Resource Management HR Barometer 2019 found that just 14% of organisations are recording their gender pay gap data.
This is even though 45% of organisations surveyed believe their pay gap is either in line with or below the national average.
Many of the organisations we spoke with, 7 in 10, have done nothing to address gender balance in the past 12 months and don’t have plans to implement any initiatives either in the coming year.
This is startling given that legislation is a matter of months away, a promise made by the current Government to enact gender pay reporting legislation before the end of its current term.
In the UK gender pay reporting has been in place since April 2017 and there has been little sign that it is affecting any great change. A recent report highlighted that the pay for women over 50 is 28% lower than men in the same age group; that’s an average of £12,500 less pay.
It is not just about the pay gap
We know that addressing the gender pay gap is a global challenge. In November 2017, the World Economic Forum readjusted predictions that it would take 170 years for the pay gap to close, adding 47 years to the previous estimate.
This means women may have to wait 217 years before full workplace equality is achieved.
Figures compiled by the charity Dress for Success Dublin found that Irish women effectively work at least one unpaid month each year due to the gender pay gap.
A gap of 14 per cent means women effectively stop earning in mid-November compared to men.
But the focus shouldn’t simply be on the pay gap percentage; this is just a number after all.
In order to create a fairer working environment and achieve better balance, organisations must walk the walk as well as talk the talk.
The gender pay gap is just a measurement sparking the debate – it doesn’t invoke change.
Organisations must take a practical approach making changes within the work environment to create more equal opportunities and drive success and growth.
Meaningful change
In order to achieve any meaningful gender balance across an organisation, a holistic approach must be taken. Awareness is just step one; practical policies and practices should be put in place to back up an organisation’s intention to enact real change.
There is a need to implement measurable, practical strategies to shift the scales in favour of a fairer and more transparent gender balance landscape, including setting meaningful targets for change and involving both genders to deliver a better balance.
In addition to the ethical argument for gender balance, there are far-reaching economic benefits to an equal opportunity workplace.
We know getting the balance right across organisations drives a more successful business environment for everybody. This includes growth in revenue and profits and ultimately company success.
It creates better workplaces and better decision making led by an engaged workforce with opportunities for everyone.
Of course, for change to happen, the workplace must become a more welcoming environment for both men and women.
Balance is not exclusively a women’s issue, it involves everyone in the organisation from the top down, and success in shifting the dial comes when balance is embraced by all.
There are so many practical initiatives that can be introduced, but these cannot just be targeted at women: there must be a universal approach.
It’s about changing the dynamic towards a more equal and inclusive working environment without instilling fear that the pendulum will swing too far in the opposite direction.
While in the past month, a number of organisations announced details of their gender pay gap, the figures alone don’t give any real insight into what organisations are doing to align the gender balance of their workforce.
In fact, in companies that only employ a small percentage of females, the gender pay gap figure really is irrelevant to the gender balance conversation.
Research carried out as part of the Adare Human Resource Management HR Barometer 2019 found that just 14% of organisations are recording their gender pay gap data.
This is even though 45% of organisations surveyed believe their pay gap is either in line with or below the national average.
Many of the organisations we spoke with, 7 in 10, have done nothing to address gender balance in the past 12 months and don’t have plans to implement any initiatives either in the coming year.
This is startling given that legislation is a matter of months away, a promise made by the current Government to enact gender pay reporting legislation before the end of its current term.
In the UK gender pay reporting has been in place since April 2017 and there has been little sign that it is affecting any great change. A recent report highlighted that the pay for women over 50 is 28% lower than men in the same age group; that’s an average of £12,500 less pay.
It is not just about the pay gap
We know that addressing the gender pay gap is a global challenge. In November 2017, the World Economic Forum readjusted predictions that it would take 170 years for the pay gap to close, adding 47 years to the previous estimate.
This means women may have to wait 217 years before full workplace equality is achieved.
Figures compiled by the charity Dress for Success Dublin found that Irish women effectively work at least one unpaid month each year due to the gender pay gap.
A gap of 14 per cent means women effectively stop earning in mid-November compared to men.
But the focus shouldn’t simply be on the pay gap percentage; this is just a number after all.
In order to create a fairer working environment and achieve better balance, organisations must walk the walk as well as talk the talk.
The gender pay gap is just a measurement sparking the debate – it doesn’t invoke change.
Organisations must take a practical approach making changes within the work environment to create more equal opportunities and drive success and growth.
Meaningful change
In order to achieve any meaningful gender balance across an organisation, a holistic approach must be taken. Awareness is just step one; practical policies and practices should be put in place to back up an organisation’s intention to enact real change.
There is a need to implement measurable, practical strategies to shift the scales in favour of a fairer and more transparent gender balance landscape, including setting meaningful targets for change and involving both genders to deliver a better balance.
In addition to the ethical argument for gender balance, there are far-reaching economic benefits to an equal opportunity workplace.
We know getting the balance right across organisations drives a more successful business environment for everybody. This includes growth in revenue and profits and ultimately company success.
It creates better workplaces and better decision making led by an engaged workforce with opportunities for everyone.
Of course, for change to happen, the workplace must become a more welcoming environment for both men and women.
Balance is not exclusively a women’s issue, it involves everyone in the organisation from the top down, and success in shifting the dial comes when balance is embraced by all.
There are so many practical initiatives that can be introduced, but these cannot just be targeted at women: there must be a universal approach.
It’s about changing the dynamic towards a more equal and inclusive working environment without instilling fear that the pendulum will swing too far in the opposite direction.
Agile is not necessarily flexible in the workplace
Flexible working is largely about time. It allows employees to work their hours outside the normal 9-5 constraints and may extend to working from home for one or more days a week.
Agile working is not really about time at all. It’s a mindset that encourages independent thinking and pushing the boundaries around the who, what and when of working.
IT professionals first coined the term to describe specific aspects of software development. However, agile practices quickly became an integral part of the tech sector as a whole before moving into the wider business community as techies joined multidisciplinary teams in other industries. Agility is second nature in the start-up world, and most of the big tech-driven companies were born agile not least because they had the infrastructure to support it from the get-go.
In this brave new world of agile working, however, established companies with traditional hierarchies are generally seen as lagging behind. But even behemoths can become agile if they put their minds to it.
Agile working is also known as ABW or “activity-based working”, and it’s not something an organisation can decide to do overnight. And it may not suit every business or indeed every department within it. For example, it’s typically more suited to software and product development tasks than to finance.
To date, the concept has largely been tried with small teams focused on innovation and, overall, it has been successful. However, scaling it up to other functions can be problematic, and there is little point splitting an organisation into so-called agile teams if it is still underpinned by a slow-moving central bureaucracy.
Giving people a lot more self-determination is also not without its challenges. It immediately raises an issue around trust. Letting people “loose” to do it their way is not something most mainstream business cultures feel comfortable with.
If it works, however, the payback is potentially attractive.
Agile working is not really about time at all. It’s a mindset that encourages independent thinking and pushing the boundaries around the who, what and when of working.
IT professionals first coined the term to describe specific aspects of software development. However, agile practices quickly became an integral part of the tech sector as a whole before moving into the wider business community as techies joined multidisciplinary teams in other industries. Agility is second nature in the start-up world, and most of the big tech-driven companies were born agile not least because they had the infrastructure to support it from the get-go.
In this brave new world of agile working, however, established companies with traditional hierarchies are generally seen as lagging behind. But even behemoths can become agile if they put their minds to it.
Agile working is also known as ABW or “activity-based working”, and it’s not something an organisation can decide to do overnight. And it may not suit every business or indeed every department within it. For example, it’s typically more suited to software and product development tasks than to finance.
To date, the concept has largely been tried with small teams focused on innovation and, overall, it has been successful. However, scaling it up to other functions can be problematic, and there is little point splitting an organisation into so-called agile teams if it is still underpinned by a slow-moving central bureaucracy.
Giving people a lot more self-determination is also not without its challenges. It immediately raises an issue around trust. Letting people “loose” to do it their way is not something most mainstream business cultures feel comfortable with.
If it works, however, the payback is potentially attractive.
