Three questions to employers on their opinion of parental leave and working moms

1. Do you believe that working moms perform less than non-working moms?
2. Are you open to the idea of your employees taking leave and do you provide flexible working time to allow them to cope between the demands of the job and family?
3. Are you prepared for when your top performers take leave?

These are some of the questions that employers should ask regarding their approach to parental leave. This topic is a difficult one to approach as the policies differ between counties. There are pros and cons to having generous parental benefits, but whatever one’s opinion, we must certainly all agree that it’s a human right to have a family – one which employer, government and society should not hinder or forbid. Read the rest of this entry »

UK coalition government passed new laws to allow dads to take an extra four weeks paternity leave. Yet UK men are worried about the stigma of taking the daddy month – taking time off to spend with your family gives the message to your employer that you’re uncommitted to your career. Does it? Well, at least UK men feel so. Read the rest of this entry »

Read Simon Brown’s article “Do you have what it takes to be a good boss?” Having surveyed SSON members, he highlights the five most important characteristics of being a good leader and offers tips for improving your management skills.

As he rightly points out, your employer brand will have a big initial impact on the potential candidate selecting you as an employer of choice. Yet there is a well-known saying, “We join a company and we leave our manager”. If that’s the case, how can employers ensure their managers don’t frighten off talent?

The relationship an employee has with his/her boss will determine the “should I stay or should I go” phenomenon among your employees. In consecutive order, here are the five most important qualities managers in a company should aspire to:

1. Provide a clear vision of where you are going and lead by example
2. Empower and trust your employees
3. Offer support and provide regular coaching
4. Keep employees well-informed of the company’s progress
5. Manage the performance of your employees fairly, by either rewarding or challenging their results

Mr. Brown provides some excellent recommendations in his concluding must-do list for all leaders. To add to it, however, I would put in question a manager’s ability to inspire others.

Perhaps a more abstract quality to measure, but it determines the ability of top management to: arouse positive feelings, animate and quicken teams into action, and exalt influence on achieving corporate objectives. Ultimately, it’s about getting your staff to perform at the best of their abilities and make the impossible happen.

The meaning of inspiring top management
From an employer branding perspective, ‘inspiring top management’ is relatively important for young career-seekers who are considering various employers. For them it mainly means selecting a company based on top management’s ability to 1) inspire staff, 2) demonstrate competence and expertise in their area,  3) allow staff to partake & influence decision-making, and 4) act as role models.

True leaders are a rare breed and the best go down in history. The art to inspire others is a rare quality, which few are endowed with. Yet if you are gifted enough to be able to inspire others, you are in a good place – as your people will move mountains.

• Universum released the results of its UK student survey, based on over 13,000 respondents – the banks are back, but Apple and Google continue to dominate.
• BP holds strong despite last year’s negative publicity around the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
• Nokia that has lost significant market share has also lost important employer appeal.
• Job security was the fifth career goal in 2008, third in 2009 and 2010, and is now the second career goal in 2011.
• Research is available on UK students’ preferences of employers and career expectations – contact us!

Based on 41,532 employer evaluations, reflecting the opinions of more than 13,000 students, Universum released the UK 2011 Ideal Employer rankings.

Employers from the banking sector are back in students’ good books as they climbed the rankings. Yet employers with innovative and exciting products continue to be the favourite employers for engineering, IT and business students: Apple (1st business, 2nd engineering/IT) and Google (2nd business, 1st for engineering/IT). Read the rest of this entry »