Over the week-end you may have read about the KPMG report that was commissioned to review the role of the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency. The report is currently being considered by the Federal Government.
One of the recommendations seems to have grabbed attention – it’s the one about workplaces being encouraged to have a voluntary 40 percent female representation at all levels within a three to five year period or wear a penalty.
So it’s back to the old argument of quotas vs merit. It’s extremely difficult to find a group of collective women at the top who would agree with quotas and after all who can blame them, they’ve done the hard yards and so can everyone else. But in the end the fact is that if it was all fair and even we would already have 50 percent representation. So what gives? How does this stalemate of low levels of participation by women in senior roles ever progress forward? And, more to the point, will any Government in Australia ever be prepared to go to war with employers on this matter? Can you imagine?
Mind you, overseas countries where Governments have taken the road of quotas as a fix-it tool, the business community seemed to very quickly find extremely talented women to appoint to senior management roles and boards. These women didn’t just suddenly come to light, surely? Might have had something to do with pulling out all guns to identify and attract the right women (not a token woman) or else be penalised with a hefty fine and outed as a poor performer on published lists. Amazing what you can find when you put your mind to looking for it!
Contributed by
Lynette Palmen.
Lynette Palmen AM is the Founder and Managing Director or Women's Network Australia. She started WNA 20 years ago to offer support, inspiration and services that would inspire women to succeed in their career and business endeavours. WNA is now the Nation's premier networking organisation for business and professional women. T: 1800 052 476.
It is critical, particularly during challenging economic times, that business owners recognize their employees for all their hard work. If you can reaffirm and re-enforce your team members’ value and contribution while your organisation is coping with the global downturn, you stand a better chance of retaining your best people when the economy turns around and opportunities to leave become plentiful. Read the rest…
Some time ago I facilitated a VIP Planning Day for a small accounting practice. During the course of the day we reviewed the progress they had made since the Planning Day we had the year before. As we were reflecting on their achievements before planning the future, one of the partners made the comment on how crucial their weekly meetings were. Read the rest…
Some days you just can’t help but think customer service is all but dead. This morning I encountered what could only be described as a comatose operator at a Woolies express checkout. I was doing my bit, on hearing the words “Next in line” I fronted up to the counter. On arrival I smiled and said “How are you today?” – there was absolute silence. So in an effort to see if the person serving me was actually alive, I repeated the question, this time in a tone that required her to display some form of basic manners and the ability of speech. She was obviously annoyed that I had engaged with her and appalled that I had an expectation of customer service. Read the rest…
