kcl women’s network meeting strengthening approaches to work-life balance 17 th may 2011

KCL Women’s Network Meeting

Strengthening approaches to work-life balance

17th May 2011

EMEIA Diversity & Inclusiveness

EMEIAEurope, Middle East, India, Africa

Our top five Pharmaceutical accounts – headquartered in Europe – produce over 70% of our priority sector revenues.

Islamic Finance is one of the fastest growing sectors within the global financial services arena.

Half of the top 20 Sovereign Wealth Funds globally are based in EMEIA countries and they manage approximately 68% of total assets, with a particular concentration in the Middle East.

EY South Africa is the fastest growing of the Big 4 in the region; the Nigerian Stock Exchange ranks amongst the largest three in Africa; we’re the largest professional services firm in Zimbabwe and we are the market leader in Ethiopia, bigger than PwC and KPMG combined.

We were the first professional services firm to establish operations in the CIS with an office in Moscow.

EY India is the largest professional services firm in its home market and fastest growing practice in EMEIA.

► 16 time zones/13 sub areas► 90 countries/3,300 partners► 60,000 people


Working Families – who we are

► A leading UK charity dedicated to building a future where everyone has the opportunity to strike a balance in their work and home lives – the right to live flexibly should not be a luxury, it should be the norm

1. We give immediate help to parents and carers who are most in need - e.g., through a free legal helpline taking calls from 3,500 parents every year and by connecting parents of children with disabilities to each other

2. We gather evidence for new ways of working and give practical support to employers around this – e.g. through annual benchmarking and conducting/publishing research

3. And we work for political change which supports families and enables employers – e.g. About to chair a DWP working group which will include the CBI and the federation of small businesses


The Employers Business Case

► Higher retention leads to a reduction in costs

► Increased ability to recruit from a wider talent pool

► Greater employee engagement amongst staff

► Greater loyalty to the organisation

► Increased productivity

► Tailoring hours to suit business demand


Potential Blockers to success

1. Culture and attitude

2. Career fear

3. Client concerns

4. Team resentment

5. Lack of trust

6. Small business issues

7. Nimbyism

8. Manager resistance

9. Long hours environment

10. Lack of data


Getting Started

► Understand your business – what is right for your department – what do your employees need?

► Communicate effectively – what are the options – do your people know about them?

► Define roles and responsibilities – the role of line manager, HR, individual

► Try it out – evaluate the experience and make adjustments

► Make flexible working acceptable – managers have to walk the talk

► Measure and evaluate – if you cant measure it, you cant manage it


Examples of good practice

► KPMG – has identified and trained 22 flexible working champions to provide support to managers and flexible workers

► Centrica - Project Martini – piloted flexible working in one part of the business, then reviewed learning and rolled it out more broadly

► Serco – some jobs mean you have to be on-site, eg a prison officer or train driver – so they tried to be flexible in terms of hours

► Scottish Legal Aid Board – made sure they were measuring business impact – overtime costs, sickness absence and turnover

► CISCO – telepresence

► Credit Suisse – European Head of D&I is a job share

► Centrica – encourages new fathers to add a career break or sabbatical to their statutory paternity leave

► PWC - provide employees with child care vouchers at a percentage of their salary for 12 months following their return to work.


Life Balance

► The business case for achieving life balance is accepted

► A variety of options are available – both formal and informal

► Accurate attribution of hours (including for partners on non-client related activities)

► Recognition of the health benefits – resilience for our people and quality for our clients

► Flexibility is not career limiting► A new way of working – ownership to

the individual and away from ‘command & control’

Where are we today?

► Outputs are rewarded-rather than presenteeism

► Requests for flexible working are reason neutral

► Local well being programmes are offered to all

► A variety of examples of flexible working at senior levels

At local industry average

Baseline

Below average Above average

Leading People Culture


Top Tips

► Shared goals & expectations – objectives set, outputs agreed and all regularly reviewed

► Establish good communication channels – eg core hours when individual is contactable, meetings that should be attended, technology to track project progress

► Regular performance feedback – productivity, metrics, quality of work, customer satisfaction – measure results not processes

Don’t let flexibility make you the most inflexible team member......


1943 Guide to Hiring Women

Give each girl an adequate number of rest periods during the day. You have to make some allowances for feminine psychology. A girl has more confidence and is more efficient if she can keep her hair tidied, apply fresh lipstick and wash her hands several times a day......

kcl women’s network meeting strengthening approaches to work-life balance 17 th may 2011

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