What Are We Doing Wrong When It Comes to Promoting Women

What Are We Doing Wrong When It Comes to Promoting Women Most of our clients come to Borderless with a genuine desire to build diverse and diversity-capable leadership teams. That is, after all, our expertise. And at the top of their concern? Women in leadership With women representing more than 50% of the world’s population and a rapidly growing percentage of the most highly educated portion of the world’s employable talent, this focus is not a surprise. Companies paying attention are increasingly aware that creating a work environment where women leaders can advance, contribute and succeed is a vital competitive business advantage. Nonetheless, despite often well-intentioned initiatives on women and their careers, many companies still fall short of their goals to promote and retain women in leadership positions and struggle to understand why. As you would imagine, the answer to this question is as varied as both the many women who are offered these opportunities and the environments in which such an offer is made. Despite the complexities and the lack of quick-fix answers, there is value in raising awareness around some of the more common issues that we see plaguing the advancement of talented women. In this spirit, we urge you to think about, ponder and explore these issues in the context of your own working environments. Treat women as individuals First of all, treat your promotable (female) executives as individuals. We will start with an issue that should be readily apparent but often is not (even to women themselves). Women represent more than 50% of the world’s population. They are not a minority and they are as diverse as people can be. As a result, their reasons for accepting and/or rejecting a promotional opportunity must always be negotiated and assessed individually. This does not mean that women will not have some shared experiences, especially as it relates to their treatment within a given working environment. Such experiences, however, will not be because they are a homogenous group, but because the work environment may treat them as they are. As such, if you are having problems promoting women, take a hard look at your working environment. The common threads preventing success are more likely to be in your work culture and environment than in the women themselves. Moreover, do not confuse professional women’s issues as always being synonymous with working parent or caregiver issues. Twenty percent of professional women will not be a parent or caregiver. However, if the woman you are promoting is a parent or caregiver, working moms do share many issues and challenges that need to be considered. But these issues are also quite relevant for all parents. In fact, these issues will be increasingly important to the younger generation of workers, both male, and female, as parenting preferences and traditional gender roles continue to erode. Flexible terms Secondly, signal a willingness to design terms, conditions and benefits for success. Within the context of any executive promotion negotiation, the terms and conditions should be designed to enable the candidate to succeed in the role. A standard package that has been designed for a traditional candidate may or may not be relevantly configured for your female candidate. For example, a woman who is a working parent and whose spouse also has an executive position, covering (and paying for) caregiving and/or balancing or reducing travel requirements may be significant threshold issues to address before the candidate will commit to the demands of the new role. Accordingly, to prevent women from just turning down positions as a result of these nontraditional considerations, it is important for companies to signal their willingness and commitment to have discussions about them in good faith and without future adverse impact. This can be communicated in a variety of ways. For example, at the time the promotion offer is made, you can simply ask the candidate what she would need to be successful in the role and express your willingness to address and explore individual needs that may require adjustments. You can also word a job description in such a way that it invites alternative discussions on terms and conditions. For example, instead of saying “50% travel required,” you could say “Extensive travel may be required, but terms of travel to meet global demands can be explored further.” Women are much less likely to self-disqualify if terms invite such openness to discussion. When invited to do so, we have seen female candidates have excellent alternative ideas for managing effectively. Finally, when negotiating terms, women should not be unfairly burdened with the fear that they are creating a precedent for all women unless such precedent considerations would also have been applicable to negotiations with male candidates. Give them time Thirdly, give your female candidates more time and support to consider a promotion offer. If a woman is being offered a promotion into an executive team that is (and has been) male-dominated and quite traditional, the task before her is daunting. She is not just considering accepting a new job with greater responsibilities, which on its own is a big decision. She is also often assessing her ability to be successful in doing so in an environment that is not designed for her, where there is little or no natural/social support, and where there are often unfairly high-performance expectations and no room for error. Constantly proving yourself in such an environment is an exhausting undertaking and can also be quite lonely. (Notably, the same is true for any candidate that will find themselves in a minority situation within the executive team). A woman may also have non-traditional personal and family obligations to consider. For many, work and family life may currently be in a perfect, but quite fragile, balance with many ‘moving parts’ to consider. In such a circumstance, many women’s first instincts are to refuse such a promotion, especially if their perception of the new role is a misguided assumption that it will be more work being piled on them. The reality is that executive promotions for women can often move them into a role where they will have much more control over how they work. It is the role just before that promotion that is often the worst in terms of workload and lack of control. This aspect of the promotion is often not fully appreciated or explored. In such circumstances, it can be extremely helpful to use the services of a third-party consultant during deliberations and negotiations. Women considering promotions often need a safe place to voice their concerns, explore their needs and express their insecurities without undermining their executive voice and closely guarded credibility. Tailored support At Borderless, we even recognized this as a need in our normal search and placement process, especially for female or minority hires, where they are placed into an environment where natural and social support may be lacking. In fact, we designed our Borderless100Days program with these challenges in mind, which allows us to provide continuing support for any placement during the first 100Days in a candidate’s new role. Our BorderlessWIN services (Women in Negotiation) enables us to provide such third party support on a consulting basis for internal offers and promotion. The services are designed to increase the rate and success of our clients’ internal efforts to promote and support their high performing women into leadership roles. As you might have guessed, such services will need to be customized for each individual circumstance. About the author: Rosalie Harrison is a Partner at Borderless Executive Search. Borderless finds and attracts senior-level executives for multinational companies in the Life Sciences, Chemicals, and Converting, and Food Processing sectors. The firm identifies leaders for Board positions, as well as for senior management, finance, human resources, administration, marketing and sales, operations, logistics, RD and specialist roles.  

Buy, Build or Bust What to Do When a Competitor is First to Market

Buy, Build or Bust What to Do When a Competitor is First to Market HRTech is in a pretty heady heydey at the moment. VC funding is at an all-time high, companies are getting millions if not billions of dollars for features, and huge legacy corporations are building innovation labs to create new and innovative platform value-adds at a breathtaking pace. In Josh Bersin’s recent HR Technology Market 2019: Disruption Ahead report he notes the HR technology market grew at an astounding 10% last year, with organizations increasing their investment in HR tech by 29% year over year. If you’re in charge of an HRTech product or platform, you’re either part of this breakneck rollercoaster or you’re wondering how to get on the ride. After all, global VC investment into HR technology in 2018 surpassed $3 billion. With companies merging and buying startups all the time (taking the tech with them)how can you ensure your platform stays relevant and competitive? Typically, there are three strategies leaders can employ when a competitor suddenly comes out with a game-changing feature or product. Build, Buy or Bust. We’ll discuss the pros and cons of each because it seems like no field is quite so exciting as HRTech these days and new competitors are constantly cropping up. When a competitor is first to market, everyone else in the landscape or vertical will be paying very close attention. Some will get caught flat-footed and others will be working on a game-changer of their own. And some will choose to build. Build Your Own Version of the Competitor’s Tech There are a lot of great reasons to build your own tech in-house. By building on your own you can direct the product roadmap, you can watch any missteps your competitor makes and avoid them, you’ll own the IP, and it will integrate very well becausewell, you made it. But building your own tech in-house has its drawbacks as well. For instance, your CTO might be frustrated at the use of resources and changes to the product roadmap, your CFO may feel it’s just too big an investment to make this year, and practically speakingit just takes too darn long! By the time your product is scoped, built, tested, and launched, your competitor will have majority market share. If your goal is to compete in this new category right away, the building is a poor choice (Not to mention you’d be taking resources away from enhancing your core product with this approach). Buy a Startup Who’s Built Similar Tech Another common reaction to a new leader in a category is to acquire a company that seems to have the technology or platform to provide something similar to what your competition is selling. And in some cases, this has worked out really well. Buying a startup has its advantages. You can go to market more quickly, and cut the market share of your competitor, you’ll own exciting new technology and possibly some really smart people, and everyone loves a post-acquisition press barrage. All of the above sound pretty great but they’re only true if you do your research. And most companies scrambling to get out there and sell don’t. The flip side of this rosy picture is that sometimes the tech doesn’t integrate perfectly or even at all causing more problems than having no technology at all. Another common con is that the tech may not be as advanced as it looked at first blush. This can make the purchasing technology route a little worrisome. Dismiss a Trend and Keep Your Head Down In HRTech, we’ve seen lots of companies try this approach. Job boards come to mind. It can be comforting to keep your head down when a new trend hits the market but it’s a dangerous long-term strategy. Eventually, the new and shiny will become standard and then your solution will end up at the back of the room. While the immediate advantages are obvious, there are a LOT of cons to this strategy. After all, the global human resource management (HRM) sector is projected to reach $30 billion by 2025. Partner with Trusted Technology Partners I sort of fibbed. There is a fourth way to deal with a sudden market leader emerging and that’s to find a partner who is doing it well. An interesting trend is cropping up in the HRTechnology space wherein marketplaces, co-marketing, and partnership initiatives are making the landscape more competitive. Instead of one end-to-end system, HR buyers now have access to best-of-breed solutions and can pick and choose how they want their total talent management to look and feel, from core HR to Talent Management and Payroll. Partnering or integrating with a product that’s already gone to market and been vetted is the best way to ensure the underlying technology is sound, the company won’t suddenly be purchased, and your solution doesn’t have to wait forever to build its own. Some companies (mine included) even offer the possibility of owning part of the intellectual propertyultimately making your company more valuable and keep clients satisfied they’re getting access to the most cutting-edge technology About the author:  An experienced executive in startup, growth, and turnaround businesses, predominantly in IT, John Cusack has held commercial, sales, marketing, and general manager roles. In addition, he has mentored companies for Enterprise Ireland (Irish Government body) and the Irish Management Institute (Business school).

A career in retail more than shop work

A career in retail more than shop work Our love of conspicuous consumption shows no sign of abating, despite the best efforts of the current recession. But few of us consider applying this interest to our career and many of us seem to harbour some pretty negative â€" and firmly entrenched â€" perceptions about the retail sector. It’s no wonder that the UK retail industry struggles to attract high calibre graduates to their ranks. Despite holding its position as the largest commercial sector in the world, this is one of the few areas that â€" year on year â€" sees  graduate vacancies go unfilled. One of our careers consultants* recently attended an  AGR retail focus group  to establish why graduates shun this sector and the feedback was conclusive, if not surprising. Retail struggles to gain a foothold with students due to some pretty pervasive myths: There are limited career opportunities and progression The hours are long, irregular and often unsociable The work is basic and mundane with little to challenge or stimulate The pay is low and certainly not comparable with other sectors It doesn’t require a huge quantum leap to understand why these views persist. For many of us our first experience of paid employment is in the retail sector â€" working in shops or supermarket during evenings and weekends, to help pay our way through college or university. Whether consciously, or otherwise, retail becomes synonymous with low paid, low status, menial jobs â€" not what you go to university for, right? But are you limiting your career horizons by holding on to a view thats  just a little outdated…? Retailing isn’t all about shops â€" it’s about the stuff that makes shops happen A recent survey by  RateMyPlacement  highlighted gaps in students’ understanding about the sector: more than 50% were unable to state with confidence what a career in retail involves. The variety both within and between job roles can come as something of a surprise. Yes, there are retail management programmes, designed and structured to develop the next generation of store and branch managers, but this is only one â€" of many â€" graduate functions. Other specialist areas include buying, merchandising, advertising, marketing and human resources as well as IT, finance, logistics and law. Thanks to my experience in HE careers, I can say â€" with some confidence â€" that these job roles remain pretty popular: rare is the student who discounts advertising, IT or finance positions because they are low status and poorly paid! So why not consider those options in the retail industry? Don’t discount the benefits of a generalist graduate programme either, particularly if youre looking for a challenge but havent found a niche yet. A generalist role will give you the opportunity to develop a broad skill set, whilst keeping future options open. Some retailers have their own in-house magazines, customer service departments, environmental policy and community liaison departments â€" all possible areas to move into from the foundation of a generalist graduate programme. So far so good, you say but what about the salary? Well, there are some organisations that offer an eye wateringly high starting salary of £40K step forward  Aldi. Now, it may be a little disingenuous to claim this is representative of the sector but with an  average starting salary of £24 000, you won’t be facing penury either. “The challenge is to bring retail to life Innovation and sustainability are central to the success of the sector in a globalised economy, and this is where you come in. There is a real opportunity for resourceful, creative graduates to contribute on all fronts, at all levels. You can shape society in real and meaningful ways by influencing decisions about what we buy and how we shop. Think ethics and retail are uncomfortable bedfellows? Think again.  The Co-operative  may be at the vanguard of fair-trade, ethical initiatives but many of the big UK (and international) retailers are close behind. Yes, its hard work. The retail world can be hard work and you may find evenings and weekends are not entirely your own. But the chances are you’ll be making sacrifices whatever career path you choose, particularly when you’re starting out and want to make an impression. Just ask those aspirational accountants, lawyers and ad executives how much free time they have. There certainly are graduate training schemes that operate a 9-5 working week, but don’t assume it’s the majority. Try to be realistic about your career choice and the demands of graduate employment. If youre looking for variety, challenge and the chance to take some early responsbility, then dont be quite so hasty to dimiss careers in retail. You might just be surprised.

Can You List Your Personal Brand Attributes - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Can You List Your Personal Brand Attributes - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career I think one of the more useful exercises in personal brand discovery is listing your brand attributes. How do you describe your personal brand? Today, I want to quickly go over the reason for choosing various attributes (personality adjectives, qualities), by using myself as an example. I want all of you to write down at least three of your attributes. Feel free to blog about your attributes or comment on this post, sharing your attributes with other readers of this blog. Brand Attributes: Functional or emotional associations that are assigned to a brand by its customers and prospects. Brand attributes can be either negative or positive and can have varying degrees of relevance and importance to different customer segments. allaboutbranding.com Why do we need to define our attributes? As brands, we have to constantly describe ourselves to others, through online and offline means. Aside from filming a video or using imagery, few bios on blogs, websites or social networks really describe the individual. In essence, our attributes define us and people judge us based on first impressions, so we need to listen for feedback, as well as project THE RIGHT attributes to others. Personally, I use my attributes on my resume, website and blog because they capture my personal brand in very few words. My brand attributes as an example Goofy: I have a very loud contagious laugh and say really random things sometimes. Animated: If youve seen my podcasts, you can probably tell that I use my hands a lot to convey my message. Sometimes I use them too much, but its partly because I get really excited and have passion for my subject area. Resourceful: When it comes to being a connector or answering someones question, I can get things done very quickly. I have a robust network, which has skills in various areas and can answer your questions, if I cannot myself. Creative: I like to come up with new ideas and implement them. Im also a graphic designer and web developer by trade. I do the covers for Personal Branding Magazine, as well as most of the graphics on my websites. Ambitious: I have really big goals in life, such as making sure every single college on earth teaches students about personal branding before they graduate. Ive been running this blog for two years, and also have a magazine, awards, a TV podcast series, an upcoming book and more. Prolific: Im a heavy content producer, including ten blog posts a week, videos, interviews, etc. Energetic: If youre ever met me, then you know Im high energy. My passion fuels my desire to work as hard as I do. Energy is an important attribute for me because it connects to my personality. You certainly wouldnt be bored around me (unless you hated personal branding). Its your turn! What are your brand attributes?

6 Useful Tips For Employing Staff For The First Time

6 Useful Tips For Employing Staff For The First Time Photo Credit â€" Pexels.comWhether you’re just starting a business or have a growing company, becoming an employer isn’t something to take lightly. Whatever the place that your business is at â€" a brand new startup or a more established company, taking on staff for the first time can be daunting. Especially as lots of employers fail to take the right steps when taking on employees and end up in court. On a weekly basis, hundreds of employers are sued by disgruntled employees.However, don’t let that put you off taking on staff, it’s just a case of going about it in the right way, that’s all. To make it easier for you to navigate the minefield that is becoming an employer, here are six useful tips to take note of. These will make becoming an employer for the first time, much easier and less stressful.1. Register as an employerevalThe first step to becoming an employer should always be registering as one. You can’t just start taking on staff. First, you need to deal with th e legal side of things. By law, you have to inform the department that deals with business and employment in your area. Until you let them know that you plan on hiring someone, it’s against the law to do so. Ideally, you need to inform them that you’re becoming an employer at least a month before you start paying your first employee.2. Update your insuranceAs well as letting your Local Department for Business/Employment know, you’ll also need to get in touch with your insurance company. When you’re an employer, having basic business insurance isn’t enough. To stay within the law, you’ll need to have employer’s liability insurance. This will mean that should a member of your team get hurt while at work, your insurance will cover any costs that may come with it, such as court fees.3. Decide on what roles you need to fillPhoto Credit â€" Flickr The next step is to decide on what roles you will be filling. You most probably have an idea of what areas you need help with, bu t may not have created each role yet. It’s important to do this so that you’re able to work out exactly how many employees you need.Can a few tasks be rolled into one job or will you need to advertise for more than one position? It’s important that each staff member is clear from the outset about what’s expected of them. This is why it’s crucial that you have job titles and descriptions to refer to.4. Work out rates of payIf you want your employment opportunities to appeal to people with the right level of training and skills, you need to offer the right rates of pay. Ideally, a salary is the best option and tends to be more appealing. However, if you’re looking for part time staff, then paying a set amount per hour can also work well. The question is, how much should you be offering?For each role, decide on a low pay amount and a high pay amount. For instance, say you were to offer between USD 25,000 and USD 31,000 per annum. For a less experienced candidate, you would offer them a salary that’s on the lower end of that scale. While for a more experienced candidate, you’d offer them a salary on the higher end, such as the full USD 31,000. It’s important to get to grips with how much you can afford to offer before you start to interview people.5. Have a contract drawn upPhoto Credit â€" FlickrIf you’re going to be an employer, it’s crucial that you have a contract drawn up. This should detail all the ins and outs of the role, what’s expected of the employee, and what the workplace policies are. It should also discuss rates of pay and what happens should the role not work out. Unless you have a legal background, it’s best to use employment law services to draw up the contract. Else, you can’t ensure that it’s all legal and that everything that needs to be, is included.6. Know how to be a good interviewerevalHave you ever conducted an interview before? No â€" then it’s important that you know how to do so. Interviews are vital whe n it comes to selecting the right members of staff for your company. So take the time to perfect your interview technique. You need to have a list of questions to ask potential candidates to help determine who is a good fit for the role.It’s important that none of the questions that you ask relate to race, sex, skin colour, religion, or disability. They should all be linked to the role in question and previous experience. Under employment law, even potential candidates are protected in regards to discrimination. So make sure you are aware of what is and isn’t acceptable to ask.As you can see, there’s a lot more that comes with becoming an employer than meets the eye. Without being prepared and knowing what you’re doing, your chances of hiring suitable employees is low. That’s why it’s so important to take the time to prepare.

Job Hunting with a Criminal Record - CareerAlley

Job Hunting with a Criminal Record - CareerAlley We may receive compensation when you click on links to products from our partners. Its tough to find a job in the current economy. Many college graduates are actually coming out of school and having trouble finding employment. Unfortunately, those with criminal records, even old ones, have an additional impediment in their job search. Its important for people to know how a criminal record can hinder their job search, but its even more essential to know methods that will lessen this effect. Only when an individual knows all of the facts related to criminal records and employment will they have the best chance of landing a job. It is important that you spend your time looking in the right places and speaking to the right people. Specialist recruiters who work in your industry and specialize in challenging backgrounds are a great source of help with your job search. They will be able to offer advice on your search and will have direct access to a wide array of available jobs. Identify recruitment firms in your space and seek out consultants who work in your area. You can find their information via LinkedIn and they are always happy to hear from new candidates. Tips to Boost Your Job Search How Criminal Histories affect Job Searches Every private employer in the United States has the absolute right to deny a person employment based on a previous criminal record. Unfortunately, many companies take full advantage of this right. It obviously makes sense in some respects. An organization that provides care to children would not want a convicted sex offender within their company, but not all cases are as cut and dry as this. source Other employment opportunities can be seriously affected by certain convictions. Any job that involves credit cards (i.e. waitress, call center representative, retail employee) would likely restrict a person with a financial crime conviction. The big issue, however, is the fact that employers can deny a person a job based on any criminal history. This becomes an issue when two equally qualified candidates come up for a job, but one of them has a criminal history. Lessening the Effect of a Criminal History Luckily, there are cases in which a person may be able to avoid the scarlet letter of prior convict as it relates to their job search. These instances will vary greatly from state to state. Some areas, for instance, restrict employers from asking about convictions that have been expunged. There are even states that have disallowed the inquiring of a drug crime if an individual completed a drug diversion program. Whether you talk to a criminal defense attorney in Orlando or one in San Francisco, most attorneys will tell you that the best thing that a person can do is file for their records to be expunged or sealed. This process will vary between states, but having these things done to a criminal record will essentially make the record nonexistent. Governmental employers will likely still be able to see these records, but a regular private employer will usually not be able to ask about the conviction or see it on a background check.

Do You Need to Write a Resume For Apprenticeship?

Do You Need to Write a Resume For Apprenticeship?It is not always easy to write a resume for apprenticeship. While this may seem like a straightforward job requirement, finding someone to write one of these can be difficult for some.The number of people who wish to write one of these often exceeds the number of people who actually have the skills to do so. This is due to the fact that employers are looking for one of these in a hurry and do not want to spend a lot of time trying to find a candidate that is qualified. Because of this, many people are left with little choice but to settle for the job they can get done quickly and easily.But while these skills are not in much demand, the very existence of these jobs should not be taken for granted. Since employers and other hiring managers have expressed an interest in individuals who are experienced in this field, then there should be a need for these individuals to write resumes for apprenticeship. Unfortunately, these are not always easy to find in the first place. There are some people who need to become trained in order to be able to write these.Of course, this is not something that you will just wake up one day and be ready to go, unless you have needed this skill for a long time. So you will have to put some effort into it. You will also need to make sure that you meet all of the qualifications necessary for the job. This means that you will need to ensure that you have had experience in this field, even if it is in another capacity.In addition, you will need to do a background check on the prospective employer to make sure that they will be responsible for paying the workers that are involved in writing the resumes. You will need to get a thorough understanding of what a resume is. You will also need to understand the various types of paper that are required in order to draft one of these. Most people tend to forget this aspect of what they are doing, but you will need to be able to prepare yourself so tha t you can give a resume that you feel is perfectly adequate.You will also need to get separate files for the various sections of the document. For instance, you will need to make sure that you have the cover sheet and the background sheet, as well as the section for education. Without these, the document cannot be properly completed.Since many people choose to write their own apprenticeship resumes, it is important that you have someone to help you. These professionals have experience writing resumes and can help you avoid common mistakes that most people make when they are dealing with this job. This can lead to great success and can make you a more qualified candidate.You will want to ensure that you have all of the work experience that is necessary to be accepted. Additionally, if there is any work experience that you have that is relevant to the job, then you should include this information. With the right people, you will be able to write a resume for apprenticeship that will g et you the job you are after.