Women still underutilized?
Despite the fact that women outnumber men in the workforce, they still remain underrepresented within top management.
A 2007 Catalyst, Inc. census of Fortune 500 leaders indicated that women represent just 15.4 percent of corporate officers and only 2.5 percent of CEOs. A more recent study by Development Dimensions International suggests why the dial has hardly moved since: employers fail to include women in their high-potential programs where future leaders are groomed. According to DDI, there were 28 percent more men than women in high-potential programs at the first level of management and 50 percent more men than women in such programs at the executive level.
Filling a talent gap is not the only reason for employers to reexamine their recruiting and leadership training approaches. Catalyst, Inc. reports that having a higher number of women in senior leadership correlates to higher return on equity and total return shareholder – nearly 35 percent higher on average.
Sources
“Women: The Overlooked Advantage for Success,” Nancy M. Carter, Ph.D., Opus College of Business. “Gender Bias Found to Start Early in Career,” Workforce Management, June 2009.
Employer focus
Employers reach out to nontraditional workers
Awhile back, the human resources department at Johns Hopkins Hospital, rated one of the best hospitals in America by U.S.News and World Report every year since 1980, had a dilemma. “We looked at our retirement projections and realized there weren’t going to be enough workers for the jobs we had,” explains Pamela Paulk, vice president of HR for Johns Hopkins Hospital and Johns Hopkins Health System. The department devised a three-pronged strategy to remedy the situation. One of them was definitely out-of-the-box thinking: recruit ex-offenders and the homeless.
Hopkins is one of many large employers around the country that have developed a business case for hiring nontraditional workers. Often the shortage of jobseekers is the primary motivation, being a good corporate citizen a close second.
At Hopkins every applicant goes through a criminal background check. If individuals try to cover up their criminal history, their resumes automatically go into the “do not hire” pile. If the applicant is honest, however, Career Services and Security jointly review the application to identify the nature of the crime, time served, how long ago it occurred and the individual’s personal history since then.
Last year five percent of Hopkins’ 2,000 new hires had a criminal record, some with more than one offense. Most were entry level; others highly skilled. “We discovered a whole population of excellent workers,” says Paulk. “These employees work hard and are happy to be here. Their average retention rate is better than our overall employee population.”
A key reason for success at Hopkins is HR’s work with nonprofit community partners, such as homeless shelters and faith-based groups, to screen and refer applicants. Community partners also provide job coaches if challenges arise. Creating the right match is critical. “We put ex-offenders in jobs where they can succeed,” states Paulk.
In the public arena, the city of Philadelphia has offered a carrot – namely a tax incentive – to local employers who hire ex-offenders for full-time jobs with benefits. Participants annually receive $10,000 per employee for up to three years. So far, six large employers, mostly supermarkets and shopping centers, have used the credit, says Everett Gillison, Philadelphia’s deputy mayor of public safety. He’s hoping that by next year participating employers will be willing to go public about it. Meanwhile, he’s revising the legislation to offer a similar incentive to nonprofits – not subject to the business enterprise tax – to encourage them to hire ex-offenders also.
Offering a hand to people with disabilities
“Diversity has always been important to our business model,” says Andy McMahon, distribution center manager for Lockheed Martin in Baltimore. In 1998 he reached out to transitioning veterans and others with disabilities when his department had job openings. The center stores and distributes eight million publications a year for the National Cancer Institute. He researched local organizations that could help with recruitment and partnered with Humanim, a nonprofit in Columbia, MD.
“The cost of providing reasonable accommodations is often the ‘boogeyman’ some companies use to resist hiring people with disabilities,” says McMahon. But according to the Job Accommodations Network, a service of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy, more than half of all accommodations cost less than $500. McMahon agrees with this assessment and goes a step further. He’s convinced that some of the accommodations his staff has needed, such as large signage, have helped everyone perform their jobs better. “It sends a clear message that our company practices what it preaches about diversity and inclusion,” he says.
We speak your language
Sometimes creating an inclusive workplace means bilingual instruction. That’s what Decc Co., a family-owned manufacturer of industrial coating products, decided when they were changing from a paper to a computerized recordkeeping system.
“Most of our second shift workers who rack and process parts speak only Spanish or limited English,” explains Kim Kooy, Decc’s human resources coordinator. “During training, our production engineering manager discovered many individuals did not have basic computer skills, such as logging on, using the mouse, etc.”
Another company might have let these workers go. Decc wanted to keep them. “We have a family culture that embraces change and tries to be fair,” says Kooy. In addition, Decc had found it difficult to fill jobs which involved piecework. So the company arranged for 15 to 20 of its workers, mostly Hispanic, to receive basic computer training offsite on company time from a nonprofit organization that offers bilingual instruction. The training also built confidence. “Some of our Hispanic workers have become comfortable in using the intercom and ask questions on their own without using an interpreter,” said Kooy. As for the new computer system? Decc expects it to launch by year end.
Resources
Job Accommodations Network, a service of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy, www.jan.wvu.edu/links/faqs.htm
Mayor’s Office for Re-Entry of Ex-Offenders, www.phila.gov/reentry/index.html
