Industry shows commitment to enablin women to succeed

DEPARTMENT FOR COMMUNITIES AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT News Release (015) issued by The Government News Network on 30 January 2007

Minister for Women, Ruth Kelly, launched a new drive today to step up efforts to reduce the gender pay gap and promote better work-life balance throughout the workplace.

She announced that more than 100 companies and organisations have signed up to a Exemplar Employer scheme since its launch in September. The Exemplar Employer scheme requires organisations to give a clear commitment to reducing the gender pay gap through projects ranging from encouraging women to find out and enter into jobs traditionally done mostly by men, to supporting mothers to return to work, to creating better quality opportunities for staff working part-time.

The first wave of organisations signed up range from high street names such as Asda to city companies such as Goldman Sachs to Parcelforce to construction firms.

Schemes include:

* on line job share registers to support women returning from maternity

* projects to retain women at a senior management level through mentoring schemes

* support groups for parents

* flexible working intranet sites

* parent support groups to help make childcare arrangements easier

* behind the scene days and apprentice schemes in engineering and construction

Ruth Kelly also launched and opened bids for a new Quality Part-Time Work Fund, available to employers to finance trouble shooters who will advise on how to create and retain more part time jobs for women at a senior level.

Both the Exemplar Employer and Quality Part Time Work schemes have been created by the Government in response to the Women and Work Commission report, which looked at the causes of the gender pay gap. Creating a more flexible working world was one of the key recommendations made by the Commission as a way to way to increase the number of women – and the quality of roles available part-time and flexibly – in the workplace.

Minister for Women Ruth Kelly said;

“Just because a woman trades down her hours does not mean she should have to trade down her status. The best employers understand the hard headed business reasons for extending quality flexible and part-time roles for women. As take up for the Exemplar Employer scheme proves, there is a huge appetite for change.

“This initiative provides industry with a wealth of information on what really works at a grassroots level. Tackling this issue means giving employers workable solutions for making the most of their female talent, such as the schemes awarded exemplar status, and the funding and guidance available through the Quality Part-Time Work Fund.”

Deputy Minister for Women Meg Munn said;

“The business case for making the most of our womens' skills is clear – enabling women to move into higher paid-occupations and roles could be worth between £15 billion and £23 billion a year to the UK economy, whilst more than 50% of women working part time are in roles that are below their skill level.”

John Cridland, CBI Deputy Director-General, said:

“Helping women reach their full potential in the workplace is a win-win for everybody – for the individual, for the business, and for the economy. The Exemplar Employers scheme is vital in promoting the benefits of diversity and equality.”

The Government's action plan is in response to a series of 40 recommendations from the independent Women and Work Commission.

Other actions by Government include a new 'Equality Check' that will help companies spot any emerging problems with equal treatment of staff such as determining the impact of family responsibilities and ensuring that from April 2007 all young people will receive careers information, advice and guidance which is free from gender stereotyping.

The Department for Education and Skills announced today the second wave of projects through the Sector Skills Council to provide women with the skills and confidence they will need to succeed in male dominated industries such as property services, cleaning services and facilities management, the retail motor industry and science, engineering and manufacturing technologies. The £10 million two-year scheme, which also forms part of the Government's action plan in response to the Women and Work Commission, aims to help up to 10,000 women find new careers or progress their careers in sectors where they are currently under-represented.

Notes to Editors
1. A full list of the 107 exemplar employers is attached. The scheme is supported by Opportunity Now – a membership organisation for employers who are committed to creating an inclusive workplace for women

2. The Women and Work Commission Report Shaping a Fairer Future was presented to the Prime Minister by Baroness Prosser on 27 February 2006. The Government published its action plan in response the recommendations in September 2006.

3. The action plan is on-top of the raft of new rights already introduced by the Government including:

– Extending the period of statutory maternity pay from 18 to 26 weeks, and to 39 weeks from April 07

– Giving all new fathers the right to two weeks paid paternity leave and a new right to an additional period of paternity leave of up to 26 weeks.

– All parents with children under six the right to require employers to seriously consider their requests to work flexibly. This will extend to carers of adults from April 07.

– All parents the right to 13 weeks of additional unpaid leave during the first five years of their child's life. Parents of disabled children are able to take 18 weeks' parental leave up to their child's 18th birthday.

CASE STUDIES

Occupational Segregation

Transport company Arriva increased its female drivers in Wales by 60% recently as a result of creating a particular recruitment guide for women. They also run a rota system to help couples who both work for them to cover childcare and to have the same rest days for time off together.

Royal Mail has a campaign to attract more women drivers to its ParcelForce Worldwide service.

Working with schools to deliver non gender stereotyped career advice

Female graduate engineers working for the National Grid go out into the community to give presentations to girls Behind the Scenes Day shows local girls aged 14-17 what happens within the company.

Women and Construction

Women Builders Ltd is a female building company who recruit and provide on the job training for women to work in the construction industry, particularly catering for women who prefer a female team working within their home.

Flexible Working

Over a third of the workforce and 47% female staff work flexibly at Lloyds TSB. An online job share register and flexible working intranet site with guidance for managers and staff has been instrumental in this process. Training days are run to fit in with people who work flexibly and academic training can be done on line wherever and whenever fits.

Quality Part-time work

Asda

Asda is well-know for its flexible working practices, but working mums Saheeda Hussain and Sara Cunningham are very grateful for its part-time manager scheme.

They have always been career orientated and ambitious and when they had families, they still wanted to fulfil their potential and use their skills to the full.

Neither of them expected to be able to work part-time and develop their management roles, but Asda let them do just that by job sharing as people managers at its High Wycombe store.

Saheeda, 33, has worked for the firm for 16 years and has nothing but praise for the opportunities Asda has given her and for the chance to maintain a healthy work-life balance.

'When I completed my business administration degree at Teeside University, I really hadn't considered retail as a permanent career. I had been working at Asda while I studied and was offered a management opportunity to cover someone else's maternity leave.

'It was then I realised I actually loved the world of retail and wanted to make it my career. I've never regretted it and even though my personal circumstances have changed a great deal over the years, Asda has always accommodated me.

'I've had a two year career break and took maternity leave when I had my son Amaan, who is now two, but I've still been able to continue working at management level, doing a job I love,' she said.

Her colleague Sara was the original people manager at Asda's High Wycombe store. Her maternity leave overlapped with Saheeda's and that is how they ended up job sharing.

'I had always worked full-time, but when you have children your priorities change. I wanted the flexibility to do a job that would challenge me and let me use my skills and experience, but I also wanted to spend time with my daughter, Mia,' said Sara.

'I'd already spoken to my manager about wanting to work three days a week and they were very open-minded and happy to accommodate me.

'I thought I would have to settle for a non-managerial role, but was really surprised when I was offered the chance to job-share with Saheeda, with both of us being able to work at the level we were used to.'

Both women agree that Asda's progressive attitude to women returning from maternity leave makes sense for everyone, not least the company.

Saheeda said: 'Between us, we look after the needs of 650 colleagues at the High Wycombe store and because we are highly organised, trust each other and communicate well everyone gets a seamless service.

'Our personalities are very different but we have very similar ways of working and skills which complement each other. We can share problems and on our days off we don't need to worry about work, because we know the other one is taking care of everything.

'Its an ideal situation, because we both get huge job satisfaction and the store gets the benefit of managerial cover for seven days of the week instead of the usual five.'

And Sara agrees that the idea makes complete sense all round.

'Asda has the right approach. It would be such a waste of a great resource if all mums had to work below their skills level just because they have children.

'This way everyone is happy and the company retains good managers.'

Equal Pay

The University of Staffordshire has undertaken a review of its pay arrangements through;

* an evaluation of all staff jobs has been undertaken using a recognised equality-proofed scheme, in partnership with the Trades Unions and in accordance with the EOC guidance.

* a review and modernisation of pay policies and procedures. The University has now agreed in principle with the recognised trade unions a range of new, modern, relevant policies in relation to both pay and reward issues. Wherever possible, the University has also harmonized terms and conditions between differing staff groups.

* a new unified pay scale where all staff groups (academic, management, support etc) are placed on one pay scale and are not segregated by differing terms and conditions. This has been an important step forward as this will create transparency and equality when looking at an individual's total reward package.

During 2007, the University is planning its first Equal Pay Audit. It is planned that equal pay audits will be conducted by the university on a regular basis to inform future policy design and implementation.

Women into Management and Leadership

Manager Celia Melville was sceptical about management training aimed specifically at women, but she has already felt the benefit of a course run by her employers Cambridgeshire County Council.

Celia, 35, has worked in local government for 12 years since leaving university and she was getting to the stage where she wanted to move on to the next phase in her career.

She had heard good things about the council's Senior Women Managers programme, known as SWIM, but was not totally convinced about the need for women only courses.

After discussing it with her manager, Celia decided to give the five-day programme a go.

'I have to say that it didn't take me long to realise its value. There are so many things, just like language and behaviour, where women differ from men in the way they promote themselves at work.

'For example, we were told men always say I in interviews where women often share the credit and say we. It was very thought provoking and actually made me think about the way you relate to people both at work and in other environments,' said Celia.

The courses are run once a year but are divided into two sessions, one several months before the other, giving participants the chance to reflect on what they learn during the first three days.

'It really did help me realise what I was good at and where I wanted to be. I already knew I had gone as far as I could in my role at the time and wanted to progress, but I wasn't sure what I wanted to do next.

'The course helped me focus and when an opportunity came up for promotion I went for it and got it. The course helped me realise my skills lay in general management, which is what my new role is all about,' said Celia,

She was Corporate Knowledge Manager when she went on SWIM and her main responsibility was dealing with the content for the council's website. She is now Head of Business Support, a very different role from her previous one, but one which allows her to use her skills to their best advantage.

'I would encourage all women to be open-minded about this kind of training. It helped me get my new job and I know it will stand me in good stead for the future.

'It's not a question of positive discrimination, it's about learning to promote yourself in the best possible way and give yourself the best chance of realising your full potential.'

Returning from maternity

Camelot's flexible working project uses part-time working, early/late starting and finishing times, working from home or other office locations, and days off in lieu to ensure that their overall return rate for women after having a child is an impressive 99%.

Training at a junior level

Tesco supports its staff to study for A levels and the opportunity to the fast tracked. Tesco wants 65% of the staff on the scheme to be women, as 65% of its workforce are women.

Attracting women from BME, mature or disadvantaged communities

Providing flexible working hours has played a major factor in the Crown Prosecution Service's scholarship programme attracting more women. 70% of those qualifying are women on this four stage scheme, which starts at A level and ends with a training contract or pupillage.

Women's networks

Ernst and Young has updated its maternity benefits to ensure a smoother cash flow for those on maternity leave and more guidance to managers to ease the transition. A parents' network includes maternity buddy scheme and seminars on sleep and work life balance. They are also experimenting with maternity coaching for senior managers.

Exemplar Employers in alphabetical order

ABB

Aberdeen College

Aberdeenshire Council

Accenture

Addleshaw Goddard LLP

Affordable Accounts Group

Alliance and Leicester plc

Anglia Ruskin University

Arriva plc

ASDA

Avon Cosmetics

Aviva

Avon Fire and Rescue Service

BAE Systems

Bank of England

Bank of Scotland Corporate

BDO Stoy Hayward LLP

Belfast City Council

Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC)

Bombardier Aerospace

BP plc

Brent Council

Britannia Building Society

British Airways

BT

Buckles Solicitors LLP

Cabinet Office

Cambridge City Council

Cambridgeshire County Council

Camelot Group plc

Centrica plc

Citigroup

Cleveland Fire Brigade

Clifford Chance

Co-operative Group

Cranfield University

Crown Prosecution Service

Denbighshire County Council

Dept for Communities and Local Government

Dept for Constitutional Affairs

Dept for Employment and Learning (NI)

Dept for International Development

Dept for Work and Pensions

English Partnerships

Ernst and Young

Regional Enterprise Developers

Rolls Royce plc

Royal Bank of Scotland Group

Royal Group of Hospitals Health and Social Services Trust

Royal Mail

Saros Research Ltd

Serco Science

Shell Group

Tesco Stores Ltd

Transport for London

United Utilities/Scottish Power

Exemplas Holdings Ltd

Faber Maunsell

FPM Accountants

Ford Motor Company Ltd

Friends Provident

Goldman Sachs International

Greater Manchester Sports Partnership

Guardian Newspapers Ltd

HBOS plc

Hertfordshire County Council

HM Revenue and Customs

Homefirst Community Health and Social Services Trust

HSBC Bank plc

IBM

John Lewis Partnership

JTL Training

KPMG LLP

Lancashire and Blackpool Tourist Board

Lehman Brothers

Leicester City Council

Leics and Rutland Improvement Partnership

Lloyds TSB

Local Government Staff Commission (NI)

Metropolitan Police Service

Microsoft

Ministry of Defence

Mitie Group plc

National Grid plc

Newham College of FE (Her Business)

North Lanarkshire Council

Northbrook Technology of Northern Ireland Ltd

Northern Rock plc

Omagh College

One North East

Oxford and Cherwell Valley College

Peter O'Neill (Services) Ltd

Pfizer PGRD Ltd

PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP

Procter and Gamble Product Supply Ltd

Queens University Belfast

University of Glasgow

University of Sheffield

University of Southampton

University of Staffordshire

University of Sunderland

Wakefield Metropolitan District Council

Welsh Assembly Govt

West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service

Women Builders Ltd

Women's Sports Federation

Yorkshire Forward

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