The failure of many FTSE 100 businesses to capture and disclose key workforce data is providing an incomplete picture of key business indicators, according to research just out from the CIPD, the professional body for HR and people development. It has looked at how workforce reporting has changed over the last five years and explores how transparent organisations are being about risks and opportunities relating to the workforce.
It is clearer than ever that for change to take place on gender equality, we need to have women in leadership positions. Nicky Morgan, the Conservative MP for Loughborough and the first female chair of the Commons Treasury select committee, made her astonishment at the gender pay gap in financial services public in an opinion piece in The Guardian, when she outlined next steps for the Women in Finance inquiry. Now we have its report, which finds ‘alpha male culture’ to be the main reason women don’t want to work in senior management in this industry.
The accuracy of the numbers in company reports lies at the heart of the corporate governance of any business. Institutional investors and shareholders burnt by unexpected company revelations will have welcomed the news that the UK government has just launched an independent review of the accountancy watchdog the Financial Reporting Council (FRC), to be completed by the end of the year.
Boardrooms all over the world are having to come to grips quickly with the wave of female anger that has been unleashed as women unite to tell their stories of sexual harassment and abuse in the workplace. The #MeToo on Twitter - representing a ‘hands up’ by those who relayed their experience of sexual predators – was fast followed by #TimesUp after Hollywood came together in a bid to exorcise the sexual workplace ethos now associated with Harvey Weinstein.
