| Women Are Good For Business! |
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6th March 2008 Local Consultant goes head to head with Alan Sugar In the run up to International Women’s Day on 8th March, Dr Sue Hewitt, leading North West Women’s Development Consultant from Brampton, Cumbria based Milecastle Consultancy, today challenged Alan Sugar’s idea that employing women is risky for businesses. In a leader article in the People Bulletin she cogently stated he case for achieving equal gender ratios in the workplace. “I was astounded to read about Alan Sugar throwing women’s CVs in the bin and I felt that this represented a missed opportunity for UK plc. We have a demographic crisis on our hands and discounting half of our workforce is not going to help to keep Britain great” Sue said. Sugar has been reported in The Telegraph recently as saying that the current equality legislation goes too far. The UK legislation has existed for over 30 years to level the playing field. Yet recent press reports indicate that wide scale structural discrimination still exists for women. The purpose of recruitment is to get the best people into the right jobs. Companies that get it wrong pay the economic price. It now costs on average £8,000 to recruit and train a new member of staff. “If companies are still ignoring the skills and abilities of half of our workforce by throwing their CVs in the bin then they are also throwing pound notes after them” Sue commented. “I felt that I should challenge the position taken by Alan Sugar. The hard facts are that without more women and older workers playing a full economic role in our workforce we cannot maintain our economic position, let alone secure economic growth”. Fact: There are fewer qualified men available to fill positions Employing and developing women is good for business because:
Legislation is not delivering what businesses need so there must be more emphasis on equipping women themselves with the tools and techniques to advance their own careers and put what is needed into the commercial and public sector. Developing the talent you already possess is the most effective route to take advantage of this diversity dividend. ”We have been doing this in the public sector for some time with the delivery of targeted programmes for women and older workers.” Sue says. “This has been driven by government targets, and the commercial sector, free from such controls, is lagging about 5 to 10 years behind in their investment in this area. We need to move fast if we are to save ourselves from the ticking demographic time bomb. I don’t yet see any business support organisations taking the initiative”.
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