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: Diversity & Inclusion
3 Science-Backed Ways To Improve Productivity In Workplaces
Workplace productivity plays an integral role in determining the overall success rate of a company, hence the reason why companies have recently begun to devise new innovative strategies to improve employee performance. According to Gallup’s (2022) state of the global workplace report, only 21% of workers are engaged at work and only 33% of overall employees are thriving when it comes to their well-being. More than ever before, companies are saddled with the responsibility of finding innovative ways to increase productivity (Guillaume et al., 2017).
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…
Q&A With Antoinet Van Dalen On How HR Departments Can Support Women’s Day
As everyone into the topic of Gender Equality knows, March 8th is Women’s Day. This annual event is dedicated to spreading awareness about gender equality and women’s rights around the globe, and as every Human of HR knows, it’s a great day to reflect on the issues women have faced throughout history in the world of work.
We had recently spoken to Antoinet Van Dalen, Founder of Fireside, on how we are supporting women’s employment and about the importance of Digital Entrepreneurship in times of Covid-19. Knowing she is an advocate for Gender Equality in European workplaces, we thought we would catch up with her again and ask her how Human Resources Departments around the world should support women at work on March 8th (and beyond) after a turbulent year for gender equality. Read the following Q&A to find out how you can take action.
Gender Diverse Hiring Practices: closing the gap between companies & candidates
Through my experience as a founder of a solutions-based platform for workplace gender balance in the tech sector, I regularly speak with companies about their challenge to hire more women. I work to solve the challenges that arise when hiring women in positions where they are underrepresented at one hand, and more specifically, with female job seekers who would like to get hired in those positions (for instance at top management level) on the other hand.
Even though there are less women in certain fields (where upskilling or reskilling of women is required*) or at top management level, we cannot say that there are no women available at all or say that companies do not want to hire more gender diverse teams.
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.