Umfrage: Managern fehlt eine klare Orientierung bei der Umsetzung von Diversity

Obwohl das Thema Gender-Diversity ganz oben auf der Agenda der Politik und gesellschaftlichen
Diskussion steht, haben lediglich 40% der Unternehmen die berufliche Chancengleichheit von
Frauen und Männern als strategisches Ziel definiert. Dies geht aus einer Umfrage des
Führungskräfteverband ULA und der Bertelsmann Stiftung unter 1.250 Führungskräften der
mittleren Ebene hervor. Continue reading

Study (E&Y): Global Mobility Programmes fail to foster Talents

International experiences and cross-national exchanges are among the most wanted aspects in globally operating companies. Transferring these ideals to reality seems to be more difficult, as Ernst & Young’s sixth annual “Global Mobility Effectiveness Survey 2013” suggests. The study examines business practices and movements of expatriates and business travellers and gives detailed information about Continue reading

The marginalized Billion – World Report on Disability includes the workplace

Worldwide about 1 billion people are affected by some type of disability, according to estimations of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the World Bank. The two international organisations released a 350-page report on living conditions of disabled people worldwide. The economic and societal situation for those 15% of the total population could be far better: Continue reading

Studie: Erwerbspausen beeinflussen kognitive Fähigkeiten im Alter

Manchmal reicht zur Lösung einer Aufgabe oder eines grundlegenden Problems einfach eine Auszeit. Im Falle des Berufsalltags kann der Abstand durch eine lange Reise hergestellt oder durch die Beschäftigung mit anderen Themen und Aufgaben erzielt werden. Eine unfreiwillige Auszeit wegen Krankheit oder Arbeitslosigkeit bewirkt hingegen Stress und Sorgen und dient kaum dem Wohlbefinden. Wie unterschiedliche Formen der Erwerbsunterbrechung zu einer Verminderung oder einem Ausbau kognitiver Fähigkeiten führen, wurde erstmals von Forschern der Universität Luxemburg wissenschaftlich untersucht. Continue reading

Real costs of neglecting the positive contribution of migrants and how EU policies hinder progress

In most European countries, public dialogue and media features focus on deficits of and conflicts with the migrant population. It has been perpetuated by politicians and media from all camps and colours who have consistently underreported on positive facts, such as the net tax contribution. A new report from the European Network Against Racism (ENAR) focuses on the human potential: “Hidden talents, wasted talents?” Continue reading

Entering the evaded minefield: Addressing religious diversity in the workplace

Most of the world’s significant conflicts of the past 15 years were based on religious differences. So, why would companies declare religion as a non-issue? So far, diversity strategies rarely went beyond practical arrangements around religious holidays, clothing or food. As a consequence of the cold-shouldering, religious issues have kept creeping into societies and workplaces, leading to a perceived threat of the respective mainstream groups. Continue reading

Research result: Managers favour men when asking for flex-time

Negotiating with your boss regarding important personal matters may not be an easy thing to do. When it comes to a pay rise, a reduction of work time or a simple shift of hours, employees often fear that their requests might be rejected. Men should worry less than women about this, a new study suggests. Results were published by researchers from three American universities in the Journal of Social Issues. Continue reading

Study: Older employees are more productive than younger ones

Older people are, on average, more reliable and more productive than younger people. This is one of the most surprising results of the Cogito-Study, which has now been published by the Max Planck Institute for Social Law and Social Policy. A team of researchers from Berlin, Frankfurt and Stockholm examined the mental performance of 200 individuals over a period of 100 days. Half of the group was 20 to 31 years of age, the half was older than 60 years. Continue reading

Weibliche und männliche Führungskräfte: Was treibt sie an, was macht sie erfolgreich?

Mit einer Reihe von Auswertungen wirft der globale Headhunter Korn/Ferry neues Licht auf die Erfolgsmotive und Stärken weiblicher und männlicher Führungskräfte, und gibt damit letztlich neue Hinweise, ob Frauen und Männer unterschiedlich führen. Die Ergebnisse der Befragungen widerlegen manche Vorurteile und zeigen einmal mehr, dass Unternehmen Vorteile durch mehr Geschlechter-Vielfalt im Management erzielen können. Continue reading

Number of over-65s in work tops one Million

The work force is aging as baby boomers move toward retirement. By now, one in ten over-65 year olds are still wage-earners. This question has recently been revisited by the Office of National Statistics in the UK (ONS). When they released a report showing that the number of employees older than 65 have reached far more than 1 million, that figure made the ghost of demographic shifts a spooky reality. Continue reading

Really real: Talent shortages are no longer just a future threat – how D&I can help

Talent shortages are having a high impact on a company’s ability to meet their clients’ needs. One out of five employers in the EMEA region that are in need of additional talent agree with this statement. This is one of the eye-opening results from the 2013 Talent Shortage Survey conducted by the Manpower Group. Especially in Asia but also in the EMEA region, organisations are having enormous difficulties to find enough of the rightly skilled talents now – while everybody thought this was only going to happen ‘some time in the future’. Continue reading

Swiss Boards are finally becoming international – German boards aren’t

What do the management boards of the largest Swiss corporations look like – with regard to internationality and gender? Since 2006, this question is answered by the annual Schilling Report which evaluates the composition of executive boards and so-called administrative boards (supervisory boards) of the country’s blue chip firms and other large organisations. A similar study was carried out for Germany in collaboration with European Diversity Research & Consulting. Continue reading

Female and male leaders: What drives them and what makes them successful?

Several studies by the headhunting giant Korn/Ferry looked into success factors and strengths of senior executive men and women. One finding may almost sound as an insult, when they say that women ‘are as qualified as men to lead an organization in top executive roles’. Their reports make up for this by showing how women outperform their male counterparts in more leadership skills than men outperform women. The studies, however, also confirm some of the sad anecdotal information that Diversity practitioners have come across frequently. Continue reading

Iraq & Somalia: Improving freedom of ethnic and religious minorities through conflict-prevention programmes

When the Human Rights Watch published their World Report 2013 drawing on events from the end of 2011 through November 2012, they detected great injustice and violent procedures, that were still undermining people’s rights. Improving fundamental rights and living conditions of ethnic and religious minorities is still an issue, for instance in Somalia or Iraq – and it gets addressed. Continue reading

One of Britain’s Top Employer 2013, Tesco, works beyond Davies report targets

The British multinational grocery and general merchandise retailer Tesco has been recognised as one of Britain’s Top Employers 2013 by the Corporate Research Foundation (CRF) Institute.
As a result of a recent research project, Tesco was named a British Top Employer among 68 other companies, all rated on opportunities for career development, training and development, cultural management and benefits offered. The participating companies have at least Continue reading