Employment Relations in Globalised Economies: Improving Gender Equity at One Steel - Assignment Example

Improving Gender Equity at One Steel: A Report on Practical and Policy Recommendations Introduction One Steel company is made up of three core divisions: manufacturing, distribution and recycling. The company employs over 7,000 employees with strong diversity in terms of gender and culture. This strong diversity in the manufacturing plants, recycling plants and distribution centres calls for the need to enhance gender diversity in the workplace. This report examines how the state of employee relations at One Steel Company can be improved. The report offers three specific recommendations on policies and actions that should be undertaken in order to improve gender equity in the workplace at One Steel Company. In essence, the efficacy of the recommendations presented in this report is based on the fact that they are developed with regard to how the current initiatives in the industry, in general, and in the company as well, can be improved. Issues of cost pressures currently affecting the company as well as how the recommendations shall be implemented and the progress of the process evaluated are presented. It is observed that implementing the recommendations will be of great benefit to the company. This will be evident in terms of improvements in employee relations. Recommendation 1 The first recommendation on how One Steel can improve gender equity among its employees is that the company should seek to increase the proportion of women in management and leadership positions from the current level of 12% to 40%. This is a long-term policy recommendation that covers all the three divisions of the company and whose achievement will ensure equal representation of women in all leadership and managerial levels within the company. To do this, One Steel should seek to rapidly increase the number of female employees holding managerial positions in the coming years so as to reach the desired level of representation. This is a long-term goal that can be spread over a considerable period of time, with frequent evaluation of the progress of the process being done on an annual basis. By increasing the percentage of female employees in leadership, the company would have made great progress in enhancing gender equity for its employees, as is the practice in international labour trends (Gregory-Mina, 2012, p. 6). Further, this policy recommendation is based on the need to eliminate gender discrimination in terms of responsibilities and pay within the management of the company. This will be done by ensuring that both genders are equally represented at all levels of management in the company. Gender equity in the management of One Steel Company still remains a complex issue. This is illustrated in the annual reports on gender diversity which provide an indicator on the percentage of female workers who hold leadership and management positions in all the three divisions of the company. For instance, there has been an upsurge of initiatives which are aimed at improving the level of gender representation in the workplace in all the three arms of the company. This has been necessitated by a number of factors. To begin with, the advent of legal and regulatory frameworks has made it necessary for the entire company to implement initiatives that increase the participation of women in their actual management affairs at all levels. In order to meet the provisions of the Workplace Gender Equality Act of 2012 together with the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Amendment Act of 2012, the company is obliged to report the status of its initiatives aimed at promoting gender equality for its entire workforce. Progress is assessed on the basis of several indicators which include the following: the need to attain equality in terms of numbers, level of responsibility and remuneration. There is still a wide gap between men and women in terms of representation in board positions, senior executives, senior managers and general managers. For instance, according to the company’s overall report on gender equality, the percentage of women in these positions is less than 13% in all the positions. Theoretically, gender equality in corporate management has received great attention. For instance, Trzcinski and Holst (2010, p. 3), observe that the percentage of women in management and leadership positions indicates the level of gender parity not only within a corporation but in the entire labour market as well. In general, it has been a global trend to increase the number of ladies taking up leadership and management positions in the corporate scene. Many corporations have sought to attain complete gender equity in corporate management by removing all barriers that prevent female employees from accessing leadership positions in corporate management. It is observed that the practical impact of these barriers has a theoretical basis on different theories of gender stereotyping which include role congruity theory and expectations states theory (Bellmann & Gerner, 2011, p. 196; Gregory-Mina, 2012, p. 15). Increasing the percentage of women in management and leadership positions within One Steel Corporation will be a long process that will take into account several factors, processes and strategies. This objective can be achieved by taking advantage of succession management processes and development planning initiatives which are currently running in the company. This should entail focusing the current programme of developing talent within the employees of the organisation on to appointment of female employees to all levels of management positions in the corporation. Another strategy that can be used to realise this goal is exploiting the current corporate strategy of marketing the company as a choice of young female professionals. Since this will be a gradual process (considering the current level of female representation in management positions in all the three arms of One Steel), one major disadvantage of this recommendation is that it will take a long time to be fully realised. However, this is not a major shortcoming, since the process can be monitored quite easily. Progress of the implementation of this recommendation shall be done through the annual gender equity evaluation in the workplace which will indicate changes in the percentage of female employees in management and leadership positions within the entire company. Another advantage of this recommendation is that its implementation can be done over a long period of time. This takes into account the need to effect cost effective measures in all operations of the company as a result of the pressure of rising costs affecting all the three arms of the company. Recommendation 2 The second recommendation on how gender equity in the workplace can be improved at One Steel entails increasing the use of flexible working arrangements for all workers in the manufacturing arm of the company. The concept of flexibility in the workplace encompasses a number of things including the following: offering support to employees in its manufacturing plants who have family and other responsibilities, facilitating flexibility in terms of working hours for employees and encouraging remote working –whenever this is practical. The issue of increasing the general level of flexibility for workers in the manufacturing sector has received a lot of academic and public attention. According to Chad et al. (2013, p. 3), workplace flexibility arrangements are directly related to increasing productivity of the workers while at the same time reducing the rate of turnover in a company. Also, flexibility in the workplace is directly related to reducing the level of absenteeism and work-family conflicts among employees. This enhances their level of job satisfaction and, by extension, improves the level of gender equity in a workplace (Atkinson & Hall, 2011, p. 93). There is need to increase the level of flexibility in the manufacturing arm of One Steel. Currently, the corporation employs over 3,000 workers who are distributed in the six major steel manufacturing sites across Australia. In general, the company has sought to increase the level of workplace flexibility for its workers by pursuing two broad policies. First, the company is offering paid maternity and paternity leaves to all its employees. This practice has led to an increase in the number of female employees who resume work after getting children. Secondly, the company enhances work flexibility in the workplace for its employees by use of practices such as job sharing arrangements, opportunities for part-time work and arrangements that allow employees to transit to retirement with little disruption. Although these arrangements are effective, their increased use is integral to enhancing gender equity within the manufacturing plants of the corporation. It is recommended that the company increases its adoption and utilisation of flexible workplace arrangements. This will go a long way in enhancing gender equity in its steel manufacturing sites across the country. In order to fully attain this policy, the company can undertake the following action steps in its employee management programmes. First, there should be a general survey on employee dissatisfaction. This may also be accomplished through a needs assessment process by the use of supervisors. Secondly, after having ascertained the actual needs of the workers, the management should systematically address those needs in a practical manner. This should entail adopting specific flexible working arrangements to address specific problems. These include the need to shift their starting and quitting times in the plants, control their time shifts, move from full-time to part-time while maintaining their job positions and share jobs whenever this is practical. Thirdly, after adopting the right flexible workplace arrangements, the company should seek to utilise its human resource management programme to oversee their implementation progress. This is so because successful implementation of these arrangements always depends on how managers manage negotiations with their employees and exercise discretion in making decisions concerning how best these arrangements can work in the plants. Increasing the use of flexible working arrangements in terms of policies and actions within the steel manufacturing plants of One Steel will go a long way in enhancing gender equity in the company’s manufacturing plants. It has already been pointed out that several policies and practices that enhance workplace flexibility contribute to gender equity in many ways. However, increasing the use of flexible working arrangements both in terms of policies and in actual practice in the plants has its disadvantages. To begin with, the process of finding the actual concerns of the workers may face difficulties. This is because the company is using a decentralised human resource management policy which depends on the effectiveness of line managers and supervisors for effective communication between the management and the entire workforce. Addressing the needs of the work force in such an environment is likely to be a costly process. Also, since it has been observed that effective use of flexible workplace arrangements competes with the needs of workers to join labour unions (Chad et al., 2013, p. 8), the management will have to balance the interests of the Australian Workers Union (to which many of the workers of One Steel company have membership) when increasing the use of flexible workplace arrangements in the company’s steel manufacturing plants across the country. Recommendation 3 The third way in which One Steel can enhance gender equity in the workplace is by increasing the proportion of female workers in non-traditional roles. This policy recommendation should be applied specifically to the company’s manufacturing plants and steel recycling centres across the country. Although related to the first recommendation that seeks to increase the number of female employees in management positions within the company, this recommendation is different in that it seeks to increase the proportion of female employees in roles which initially were not associated with ladies. Also, whereas the first recommendation targets the whole company, this recommendation targets female employees in distribution and manufacturing businesses of One Steel. Currently, the company is running a number of initiatives aimed at increasing gender diversity by encouraging female employees to get into non-traditional roles. In general, roles that have been regarded as non-traditional for women in steel manufacturing and recycling plants include the following: mine geology, mechanical engineering, electrical installations, technical fittings, operations, scheduling and process estimation. Since these tasks have traditionally been dominated by male employees, increasing the number of female employees handling them will directly enhance the level of gender equity in the company’s steel manufacturing and recycling plants. Reports from the company indicate that the proportion of female employees holding these positions is 12%. It is recommended that the company seeks to increase this percentage by using different policy initiatives that can not only increase the overall percentage of female intake in the recruitment process but also that of new female employees who get into these positions. Just like the first recommendation, increasing the percentage of females in non-traditional roles from the current 12% to 40% is a long-term objective that can be attained by a number of strategies (Seltzer, 2003, p. 121). For instance, the company should seek to increase its focus on fresh female graduates. By increasing the number of female graduates entering the company, the chances of these employees getting into non-traditional roles is increased. Equity in pay and other benefits to these roles will also act as an incentive for female employees to get into these roles which are traditionally associated with men (Kottis, 2007, p. 28). This will enhance gender equity in the steel manufacturing and recycling plants spread across the country. Conclusion This report has presented three key recommendations on how One Steel Company can enhance gender diversity in the workplace. It was based on the need for building on the initiatives of improving gender equity already in progress within the company. In essence, the company can improve its level of gender equity by adopting and implementing three key recommendations as follows. First, there is need for the company to increase the proportion of female employees in leadership positions from the current percentage of 12% to 40%. This is a long-term policy objective whose implementation will incorporate different aspects such as increasing the general proportion of female workers within the company. Secondly, by increasing its use of flexible working arrangements; specifically in its manufacturing plants across the country; the company can attain a higher level of gender equity. Lastly, the company should seek to increase the proportion of female workers in non-traditional roles. This recommendation targets increasing gender equity within the steel manufacturing and distribution businesses of the company. References Atkinson, C. & Hall, L. (2011). Flexible working and happiness in the NHS. Employee Relations, 33 (2): 81 – 105. Bellmann, L. & Gerner, H. (2011). Reversed roles? Wage and employment effects of the current crisis. Research in Labour Economics, 32, 181 – 206. Chad, D. Cotti, M. Haley, R. & Miller, L. A. (2013). Workplace flexibilities, job satisfaction and union management in the US workforce. British Journal of Industrial Relations, 15 (2), 1 – 18. Gregory-Mina, H., J. (2012). Gender barriers of women striving for a corporate officer position – a literature review. Advancing Women in Leadership, 32 (1), 1 – 28. Kottis, A. P. (2007). Earnings differentials in manufacturing in Greece: a statistical exploration. International Journal of Manpower, 8 (4), 26 – 33. Seltzer, A., J. (2003). Can Income policies reduce real wages? Micro-evidence from the 1931 Australian wage cut. Research in Economic History, 21, 105 – 133. Trzcinski, E. & Holst, E. (2010). Gender differences in subjective well-being in and out of management positions. DIW – Berlin Discussion Papers, April 2010. Read More