In recent times, employers have continuously introduced positive initiatives to create employment opportunities for young workers. These encompass a wide range of options, including but not limited to internships, apprenticeships, graduate programs, contractor roles, and volunteer expatriation missions to support global business expansion. While these efforts reflect a commitment to fostering diversity and inclusion within their workplaces, some employers have also started falling short in providing stable employment to their young workforce, relying too heavily on insecure contingent work arrangements after their initial purpose has been fulfilled. This analysis will explore the advantages and disadvantages of offering this type of employment and discuss strategies to mitigate the risk of developing an unfavorable employer reputation in the eyes of younger generations of workers.
Category Archives: CSR
5 Ways Companies Can Support Women’s Inclusion in Labour Markets
The pandemic is damaging the progress towards gender equality at work. According to the World Economic Forum’s (2021) Global Gender Gap Report, 5% of employed women lost their job compared to 3.9% of men, and less women were hired into executive or senior roles in 2020 as Broom (2021) clarifies.
Through my experience as the Founder of a solutions-based platform for gender balance at work, I got to know of initiatives that I think can help companies close the gap caused by the pandemic faster and potentially accelerate gender equality in workplaces as a result.
What can companies do to support women at work? And how can companies take gender equality to the next level beyond the pandemic?
How Human-Centric Leadership Made Chiara Ferragni A Successful Businesswoman
She is recognised by many as The Blonde Salad, a blogger and one of the most powerful influencers of today’s fashion world. In the world of business, Chiara Ferragni stands as the perfect example of a successful female entrepreneur, and as a leader who is unafraid of showing her humanity. In reflection of this year’s Women’s History activism, for which the United Nations’ entity dedicated to gender equality and female empowerment, UN Women (2021) asked for more awareness around female leadership, I thought it could be interesting to highlight Chiara’s qualities as an inspiring leader.
Most women can confirm the facts that UN Women (2021) lays out. Women…
Women, Work, and COVID-19: Why We Need To Rely On Sisterhood More Than Ever
2020 has been a year unlike any other. While the impact of the COVID-19 crisis is horizontal in a certain way (United Nations, 2020), as it affects the worldwide population from an economic, social and political aspect, it’s abundantly clear that it hits each one of us differently.
The impact of Covid-19 turns out to be worse for those who simply belong to certain categories: students of any age, fresh graduates, people living in underprivileged contexts, jobseekers, women (UN Women, 2020a). Being part of some of the above categories myself, I would say that I am quite used to feeling uncertain. We, people in our almost thirties (Hoffower, 2019) are living one of the hardest crises the world ever faced in the last few decades. But we also happen to be familiar with changes, agility, precariousness, not having long-term expectations: it’s just the ordinary for us. And yet, it is still hard to find daily motivation and cope with all of this. In many ways, knowing that we’re all in this together consoles me, and relying on people around me, especially other women, makes me feel better.
A Human-Centric Workplace Reading List
It’s the end of the year, a hectic one to say the least, and The Humans of HR, including myself, couldn’t think of a better time to sit down and relax with a new inspirational and/or educational human-centric workplace book. For that reason, I have built a list of different resources for our readers, where I highlight some of my favourite HR-related books which revolve around the topics of career development, soft skills, diversity & inclusion, and international mobility.
Why Your Company Should Embrace Organizational Change: The Case of Patagonia
If there’s something the COVID-19 pandemic has taught the world, it’s that very small things, as small as a virus, can create big changes and make a huge impact. Change can be difficult, stressful, and overwhelming, but it’s inevitable and both leaders and teams of organizations need to develop specific skills to manage it. Although organizational change is usually seen as a negative thing, it is necessary and can lead to positive results. There’s no better example than the one set by Patagonia, an outdoor clothing company that embraces change and is inspiring other businesses to do the same through big & small impactful actions.
10 Ways HR Professionals Can Help Protect Employee Mental Health
Last year, I presented a Human Resources research project on wellbeing in the future of work and its impact on the HR function. When I reflected on the fact that this topic would gain importance in the future of work, and for the HR function in particular, I never would have imagined that “the future” was only a couple of months ahead. Fast forward time to the first months of 2020, and we are all seeing HR professionals and business leaders gain interest in wellbeing at work due to the side effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The positive consequences of taking care of employee’s mental health have been documented in thousands of research papers and academic books of psychological sciences and other related fields for many years. Despite this, it’s still one of the last remaining taboos of the world of work. Improving wellbeing & mental health at work has always been, and will always be, a very important aspect to keeping an organisation and its workforce healthy and efficient, even in the worst of times.