March 26, 2018
Gender pay gap could in part be due to women’s lack of confidence in seeking job progression
A new survey that confirms the ongoing gender pay gap with stats that show men are paid 42 percent more than women after ten years in workforce, goes on to suggest that the reason is not just to do with a lack of diversity but the attitude of women moving up the corporate ladder. The report from Adzuna claims that British men are significantly more confident than women in furthering their career. The career progression confidence gap between the genders widens greatest with those who have more than ten years’ experience in the workplace, with men twice more likely than women to hold a top job. The research analysed 500,000 CVs submitted through Adzuna’s ValueMyCV tool, comparing the gender and estimated pay grade with number of years’ experience in each respective industry. The research also highlights a disparity in the average salary commanded by men and women for the same position with the same number of years in experience.
The mental health of employees, especially those working within high pressured working environments are the number one concerns for UK CEOs. Nearly three quarters (73 percent) of respondents to the annual wellbeing report ‘
Cities in emerging markets, though challenged by economic and political turmoil, are catching up with top ranking cities following decades of investing in infrastructure, recreational facilities and housing in order to attract talent and multinational businesses, finds Mercer’s 20th annual 
Artificial intelligence systems need to be accountable for human bias at AI becomes more prevalent in recruitment and selection, attendees at the Employers Network for Equality & Inclusion’s annual conference have been warned. Hosted by NatWest, the conference, Diversity & Inclusion: The Changing Landscape heard from experts in ethics, psychology and computing. They explained that AIs learnt from existing data, and highlighted how information such as performance review scores and employee grading was being fed in to machines after being subjected to human unconscious bias. Dr David Snelling, the programme director for artificial intelligence at technology giant Fujitsu, illustrated how artificial intelligence is taught through human feedback. Describing how huge data sets were fed into the program, David explained that humans corrected the AI when it used that data to come to an incorrect conclusion, using this feedback to teach the AI to work correctly. However, as this feedback is subject to human error and bias, this can become embedded in the machine.
Work is no longer a place but a set of activities which lead to a set of outcomes that could be delivered anywhere. Or as John Blackwell, Quora Consulting’s Managing Director succinctly described it at the first of the 2018 Quora Smartworking Summit’s held last week, organisations need to create a ‘smart everywhere’ environment. New digital platforms make far it easier for people to work in exactly the way they want. Research by Quora has revealed that there are 5 million people currently working in the UK gig economy or around 15.6 percent of the total workforce. More people are working post retirement age and want to work in a way that they can control, while there are increasing numbers who simply want more autonomy in their lives in the way that self-employment can offer. 
March 26, 2018
A growing number of employers are driving demand for independent professionals
by Adam Gates • Comment, Workplace
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