Pay for Men, Pay for Women

How does pay stack up for men and women? This infographic shows that women get more pay raises, but men get more of the actual green stuff…. Is this true at your firm?

Work Watch Survey: American Employees Feel Overqualified for Their Jobs

From a Work Watch survey by Randstad, more than 1/3 of employees in the U.S. feel overqualified to do their jobs. However, they do want to acquire new skills or be more challenged at work.  

The recruiting firm found that among 1,000 participants, 33% felt overqualified, 65% felt appropriately qualified, and only 3% felt underqualified.  

“It’s surprising that one out of every three American employees feels over-qualified in their job,” said Jim Link, managing director of Human Resources for Randstad, in a statement.

“The data suggests that U.S. workers are less challenged by their current jobs. It also raises questions about how this will affect employee turnover and retention as the job market recovers.”

•  74% of younger workers and 56% of older workers want more skills 
• 50% of Gen Y and Millennial workers wish they had more hard skills (e.g., trade knowledge)
• 30% of overall American workers want more soft skills, such as social and leadership skills  

Read the Atlanta Business Chronicle article

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Nearly Half of American Workers See Little Value in Performance Reviews

A GloboForce survey supports the belief that performance reviews may not be as beneficial to employees as they are designed to be. According to the results, 51% of the U.S. workforce believes that the review does not accurately evaluate their work.  

The survey also revealed a couple other important issues for HR to consider:  

• They found an overall dissatisfaction with frequency and effectiveness of performance reviews
• Only 25% receive a review every year while a surprising 22% have never had a review
• 24% of respondents dread the annual review more than anything else on the job  

“Our survey results show what many in the HR community and business world feel right now: the annual performance review is broken. Providing employees with feedback and recognition only once a year is a huge missed
opportunity and simply unfair, given the fact it’s a based on a biased sample,” said Eric Mosley, CEO of Globoforce.  

Read the Boston Business Journal article  

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4 Ways to Better Communicate Fairness and Equal Treatment in the Office

One of the greatest challenges for human resources is promoting equal treatment of employees, especially when so many fear that managers show favoritism when it comes to promotions and raises.  

From Entrepreneur Magazine, there are a few ways that you can try to effectively communicate the organization’s policy for equal and fair treatment of all employees.  

It is essential that an employee understand the process for pay raises, rewards, or advancement in the organization. Also, employees should have a fair process for being heard when they disagree with their own progress and/or the advancement of their colleagues.   

• Reaffirm that everyone will receive an equal opportunity to be recognized for good work
• Communicate how/when promotions are handled fairly
• Add transparency to the pay structure and how employees are rewarded
• Provide a fair appeals or complaint process  

Read the Entrepreneur Magazine article  

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Women in Business Discuss the Barriers to Job Advancement

Women in the workforce have come a long way over the years. In this year’s Women in the Economy conference, a variety of mentors talk about the different challenges that women face as they climb the ladder into middle and senior management.  

Why aren’t there more women in management?

Hosted by Vikram Malhotra, chairman of McKinsey & Co., the discussion was centered on the corporate talent pipeline and the lack of aspiring female leadership. “There is a silver lining, a leverage point—middle-management women. They really want to move to the next level as much as men do, and we must capture their minds and hearts before their ambitions turn sour.”  

There is a compelling shift towards great change in corporate America. The presenting experts, including an economics professor from Harvard, director of the Women Leaders Program at the World Economic Forum, and others, all agreed on common trends occurring in the workforce:

• Women lack female role models and/or mentors
• They are often excluded from informal networks where connections are made
• Lifestyle issues are a problem (e.g., traveling, the 24/7 executive lifestyle)
• Entrenched beliefs about leadership held by men and women in management  

Read the Wall Street Journal article

  

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Myth Buster: Are MBAs the Best Bet for Management?

One of the most common myths about management starts at the fundamental level – who has the best chance to grow into a management position? In your HR roles, it becomes a constant challenge in communication to encourage aspiration in career growth at the organization. As employees become interested in exploring new ways to do more at the company, it is important to open doors to advancement opportunities.   
The answer is yes and no. This week’s topic depends on your HR strategy for hiring management roles. Does your organization’s recruiting strategy focus on hiring external talent, or promoting within? If you look outside the organization for management material, you can bet that anyone aspiring to senior-level management is or has achieved an MBA.   
On the other side of the coin, there is a great argument that much of the skills it takes to succeed as a manager are learned by experience with the organization. As many employers have found, management is more of an art than a science. For instance, some of the essential know-how of an effective manager includes:  

• Building rapport with the employees in their team
• Understanding the politics of the company
• Knowing what internal people and resources can help them in their jobs
• Recognizing the various talents of their team and how to foster them over time  

Do your employees understand how raises and promotions happen at your company? Depending on the type of organizational structure you have, you may want to invest more into internal promotions. However, if and when you open up management positions to current employees, it is even more so important to educate workers about how the advancement process works. Also, put effort into offering the resources and mentoring they need to successfully climb the ladder in the company.   
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