Austrailian women struggling to gain top jobs

Aimme Lewis FAPA

Women have made no significant gains in their representation among ASX 200 companies or in key executive positions over the last eight years according to new research by an Australian University.

The Australian Census of Women in Leadership, conducted by Macquarie University, shows that women hold only 8.4 percent of board positions and 8 percent of Executive Key Management positions. Among ASX 200 companies there are only six female CEOs and five female chairs.

The number of women in executive positions is likely to decrease rather than increase in the future, with only 4.1 percent of line roles are occupied by women, with line roles largely considered the pipeline to the Executive and CEO roles.

Australian women in senior positions lag UK, New Zealand, Canada, US and South Africa, suggesting an alarming need for action in Australia to rectify the gender imbalance

Aimee Lewis FAPA

Strike is not the answer

APA supports claims made by CIPD that the key to preventing escalating strike action will be for Government and public sector employers to communicate to employees the benefits of being employed within the public sector as compared to those in the private sector; even after any reform to pensions.

This is as employers brace themselves for the impact of widespread strike action this Thursday by teachers and civil servants. CIPD says:  "The simple fact is that the proposed changes will improve the long-term sustainability of public sector pension schemes. Even after the changes are implemented, public sector pensions will still be better than those typically on offer in the private sector; as will other benefits such as sick pay, access to occupational health services, paid leave and flexible working.

The challenge for Government and public sector employers is to communicate this.

Gareth Osborne of APA said: "Other major challenges will include introducing the changes in such a way that the lowest paid workers do not opt-out of pensions. It is also important for the rest of the public sector workforce to not discount what is still a very generous benefit and is envied by many in the private sector. For this to happen, we need the Government and unions to move away from monologue to dialogue to create a pension scheme that meets both the needs of public sector workers while being affordable to the tax payer."

 APA will be writing to the Secretary of State for Work & Pensions and the TUC to make its point.

APA

APA has this week announced its autumn round of training and qualification dates and places are filling fast.

For PAs planning to start formal qualifications this year they should plan early and book soon.

Gareth Osborne, Director General of APA, said: “Our qualifications are now established as the professional standard and the Diploma (DipPA) is becoming seen as the ‘must-have’ professional qualification for advancement as a PA. This week I will be presenting diplomas to a number of outstanding PAs including Lisa Fawcett who has become only the fifth PA to qualify with her diploma at ‘Distinction’ grade.”

“It is important that people remember that APA is not just another training company; it is the professional body for PAs in the UK and as such it is responsible for championing professionalism – this includes PA qualifications as an important element,” he concluded.

APA

Uninsured Risk

More restrictive car insurance rules have come into effect as the government seeks to clamp down on uninsured drivers. From today, drivers will need to declare their car as being off the road if they want to avoid buying insurance.

Registered drivers who are found to be uninsured will be sent a warning letter, followed by a £100 penalty. If a car still remains uninsured, it can be clamped, or seized and destroyed, or the owner could be taken to court and given a fine of up to £1,000. Enforcement action is expected to commence from mid-July.

Some 1.4 million vehicles in the UK do not have insurance, compared with 34 million that do.

The Department for Transport says that 23,000 people are injured and 160 killed each year by incidents involving uninsured drivers.

APA wants even tougher sanctions to be imposed on the uninsured and will be writing to the Secretary of State for Transport supporting this and future measures.

APA

Dot Cotton

The global internet body has voted to allow the creation of new website domain suffixes, the biggest change for the online world in years.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann) plans to dramatically increase the number of domain endings from the current 22. Internet address names will end with almost any word and be in any language. Icann will begin taking applications next year, with global businesses, institutions and cities expected to be among the first.

Rod Beckstrom, president and chief executive officer for Icann said: "Icann has opened the internet's addressing system to the limitless possibilities of the human imagination. No one can predict where this historic decision will take us."

The new domains could create addresses such as dot google, dot coke or even dot apa. But it will cost around £125,000 to apply for the suffixes and companies would need to show they have a legitimate claim to the name they are buying.

APA

APA Focus Group

When one of the major online hotel booking businesses wants to speak to its user group where better to go than to APA.

As a leading provider of hotel accommodation worldwide, Hotels.com offers booking services through its own network of localised websites and telephone call centres. It gives travellers one of the widest selections of accommodation on the net, including both independent and major chain hotels as well as self-catering in over 130,000 properties worldwide. The company offers a one-stop shopping source for hotel pricing, amenities and availability and also specialises in providing travellers with accommodation during sold-out periods.

This week APA staged and Hotels.com hosted an opportunity for PA to share their views on booking facilities and their tips on best practice. As always, it presented a great opportunity for PAs to network and share knowledge with their peers.

Hotels.com LP is an affiliate of Expedia Inc. a NASDAQ listed business, and has its headquarters in Dallas, Texas.

APA

APA has today announced the content of its autumn round of ‘PA Master Classes’; a series of six one-day training courses aimed to up-skill PAs in specialist areas commonly encountered and handled but where they have never before received customised training.

Course titles are:

       ·         Presentation Skills for PAs

·         Powerful PowerPoint for PAs
·         PR for PAs (and their Bosses)
·         Facilities Management for PAs
·         Finance for PAs
·         Staffing Skills for PAs

Courses will initially be staged in London but will quickly roll-out to other APA training areas (Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle and Edinburgh) as demand grows.
It is recommended that all those interested in the Master Classes register with training@paprofessional.com

For more details go to: http://www.paprofessional.com/index.php?id=932  or call APA on 0800 107 1030.

APA

Health premiums up

Small businesses are facing higher premiums for providing their staff with private medical insurance (PMI) in 2011, research finds.  According to data released by HR consultant Mercer of 136 companies, premiums for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have increased by 10 per cent since 2010. By contrast, large companies in the UK and Ireland are experiencing PMI increases of 4.9 per cent.

SMEs are now paying average annual PMI premiums per member of £1,532, up from £1,499 in 2010. Per employee annual premiums have increased by an average of £78.

The increase in PMI premiums for SMEs is driven partly by insurers looking to regain margins that were eroded in the recession, when premiums were dropped in order to retain business, say Mercer. However, the firm adds that SMEs can mitigate these increases by putting pressure on their adviser to get them the best deal.

Gareth Osborne of APA said: ‘Companies should look at their broker and challenge them to see if they are capturing the best deals on the market. APA members should consult our own partners WPA (see the Members area of the website for details) if they want the best deals around for small businesses.’

APA

China 31: UK 23

Women are making little progress in the boardrooms of UK businesses, occupying just 23 per cent of board positions.

The UK ranks fifth out of 13 European Union countries surveyed on proportion of female boardroom members, according to accounting firm Grant Thornton’s International Business Report (IBR).

Poland has the highest number of women senior managers in the EU at 31 per cent, followed by Sweden at 30 per cent.

The UK also lags behind emerging economies China and Brazil, where women occupy 31 per cent and 29 per cent of boardroom seats respectively. The survey of 500 UK businesses finds that only 3 per cent of companies are being led by a female CEO, well below the average of 10 per cent across the EU.

Sacha Romanovitvh, head of people and skills at Grant Thornton says, “Private companies make up the backbone of UK plc and it is a poor reflection on the whole economy that the improvement on this issue is so minimal. The UK risks falling behind other economies if gender equality in the boardroom is not addressed.”

Gareth Osborne of APA says: “Life choices such as having children should not be a barrier for women to excel and progress in the workplace and sufficient provisions need to be made by employers to enable all talent to progress, whatever their personal circumstances.”

 
APA

Bureaucracy Kills

More than three quarters of business executives think bureaucracy within organisations is the biggest barrier to innovation, finds research. According to a survey by London Business School of 650 business executives, 77 per cent say that improving incentives, reducing red tape and promoting greater flexibility in the business environment is key to stimulating entrepreneurship.

Speaking at their ninth annual Global Leadership Summit, London Business School Dean Andrew Likerman said, ‘Entrepreneurship and innovation are the key drivers of growth for both business and the economy in normal times. They are crucial right now in creating jobs to help economies emerge from the financial crisis.’

According to the poll, relying on employee promotions or other incentives is not enough to spur new ideas. When asked how you reward or incentivise innovative behaviour, two thirds (66 per cent) say it should be done by creating a culture of innovation, inviting individuals to contribute and share ideas.

Some 80 per cent of respondents believe CEOs are key to driving innovation within organisations, but mainly by providing top-level support rather than being the source. Almost three quarters (73 per cent) feel businesses can innovate if they empower teams to develop innovation outside existing organisational structures.

APA Director General, Gareth Osborne, supports the claim and said: “APA features innovation strongly in its Diploma (DipPA) programme in an attempt to enable PAs to recognise creativity and participate in the development of new ideas. All too often great ideas fail to reach the Boss and the PA is the perfect conduit to ensure it does. Unchecked creativity leads to innovative anarchy but far worse, excessive process and bureaucracy stifles imagination leading to innovative drought and loss of new income streams.”

APA

Sponsored Health

Drinks retailer Diageo is to pay for 10,000 midwives in England and Wales to be trained to offer advice on the dangers of alcohol during pregnancy.

The Department of Health hopes the training initiative will in turn help more than one million expectant mothers over three years. It is part of government moves to bring the private sector into public health. The British Medical Association has expressed concern about the drinks industry funding such a scheme.

Government guidance is for pregnant women to avoid drinking alcohol, but if they do to drink only one to two units, once or twice a week.

The Department of Health said the UK Infant Feeding Survey 2005 suggested that 34% of women gave up drinking while they were pregnant, 61% drank less and 4% did not change their drinking pattern.

Public Health Minister Anne Milton said: "Midwives are one of the most trusted sources of information and advice for pregnant women. This pledge is a great example of how business can work with NHS staff to provide women with valuable information. This will help over a million women over the next three years to make an informed decision about drinking during their pregnancy. It will potentially improve their health and also give their baby the best start in life."

APA strongly supports commercial sector support for essential and ethical health messages. Gareth Osborne said: “The tobacco industry has for years been funding the ‘smoking kills’ message by including it on cigarette packets. It is a responsible approach to marketing and should be encouraged.”

APA

Hulme advocates action

Consumers should vote with their feet and switch to a different supplier if their power company raises its charges, Energy Secretary Chris Huhne has said.  In an interview with the Observer, Mr Huhne said people did not have to take price increases "lying down". He urged people to hit firms "where it hurts" by finding a cheaper supplier.

Scottish Power has this week announced big rises in gas and electricity prices and there are fears the other five major suppliers will follow suit.

Mr Huhne said: "Consumers don't have to take price increases lying down. If an energy company hits you with a price increase, you can hit them back where it hurts - by shopping around and voting with your feet." He is expected to announce new measures this week to make it easier for smaller companies to compete in the energy market.

He said: "Right now, only one in five people switch suppliers. I want to see more switching, more competition and more companies in the market. The big six only have a few minnows snapping at them, who are kept artificially small. By scrapping red tape for small players they can become serious challengers and help keep bills down."

APA supports the Energy Secretary’s competitive strategy and has asked that it be equally applied to petrol ;where margins for suppliers are too low and the tax element paid to government is far too high. Members can see APA’s ‘Facts on Fuel’ in the Members area, Knowledge Zone.

APA

APA at office* again

Visitor registration for office* has now opened and APA is hoping for a strong turnout by members at the show in September.  Over 5000 office professionals from all sizes and types of organisations will meet their peers, as well as key buyers and decision makers from some of the UK’s biggest organisations.

Visitors wishing to organise their schedules well in advance can now register for free show entry and benefit from first-pick of the show’s 32-session conference programme.  They will also be able take full advantage of any advance discounts and savings on their travel and accommodation arrangements. 

Standing alongside the comprehensive conference programme is office*’s central exhibition, which will feature over 175 leading business suppliers and service providers.  Confirmed exhibitors to date include: British Airways; John Lewis Solutions for Business; Brunel Conferences; fresh fruit suppliers FruitDrop; YouYou Recruitment; Filing Relocation; Brother UK, Fujitsu, Finnair, House of Fraser, Fortnum & Mason, Hays Specialist Recruitment, London Translations, eCourier.co.uk, T3L and the green ‘global-friendly’ Global Office Supplies.

New features for 2011 include the Destination & Venue Village, supported by the Meetings Industry Association, and the Office Managers Village, in association with the Facilities Management Association. 

office* is free to attend for pre-registered visitors and includes entry to the Keynote stage.  Keynote speakers include a number of high-profile and award-winning PAs, including top UK business women Jacqueline Gold and Michelle Mone OBE.  Seminars and master classes are £89 for three 1-hour sessions or £39 per 1-hour session.  For further information, please visit www.officeshow.co.uk.

 
APA will again be present and you can visit Gareth and the team on Stand 6001.

APA

The phoenix of British business will be different

The economic downturn has provided a catalyst for business growth in the UK, according to 'The Future of Business 2011’, a report from HSBC Commercial Banking which investigates how the changes of the last two years have impacted on how British business will be known in the future.

The report predicts a renaissance of Britain’s manufacturing hey-day, particularly in the Midlands and the North East, but harnessing technological updates, making the UK known for prototyping, plastronics and advanced composites. It pinpoints a rising trend for so-called ‘tradicals’, businesses that are reshaping the crafts industry by taking traditional skills and radically remodelling them for new and emerging markets.

The report also identifies the ‘super-cities’ of the coming decade, with Bristol and Glasgow added to the existing rising-stars; Newcastle, Leeds, Brighton and Liverpool, with each super-city predicted to become a key driver for business in the area, specialising in distinctive growth industries and innovations.

Jacques Emmanuel Blanchet, Head of HSBC commercial banking UK, says: “Out of recessions come new trends and this report crystallises how adaptable entrepreneurs and small businesses are shaping a new business landscape that British business is set to follow. The emergence of two new super-cities and business specialisms developing across every region of the UK demonstrate the breadth of business ambition and advances being made,’ adds Blanchet.

Gareth Osborne of APA said: “This remains a challenging time for British businesses and change is definitely on the cards. With 62 per cent of business leaders believing that the ‘new’ Britain will increasingly stand for innovation and entrepreneurship it is evident that in a decade’s time we will have seen a redrawing of the industrial map of the UK.”

APA

Watch the 'PA of the Year' Video on You Tube

To see the award ceremony and comments; including those by Gareth Osborne, APA, and other award judges, go to:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vRiDbcYYt0&feature=email

APA

Top 5 are APA Members

The Finalists (L:R): Jennifer Batty, Zara Dyer, Louisa James (Winner), Christopher Juliff and Sharon Walsh

All five finalists in the Hays and The Times 'PA of the Year' Award 2011 are APA Members.

Gareth Osborne said: "We are thrilled to have such outstanding PAs in Membership and many more could equally well have been shortlisted if they had applied. I have sat on many different award judging panels in the past and organisers always suggest it was a tough decision between the final group but this really was! Frankly, any one of the top five (and most of the top 16 - the shortlist) could equally well have taken the title. Louisa pipped others to the post based entirely on her project management skills. She is a worthy champion but amongst a group of exceptional finalists."

APA

New 'PA of the Year'

It’s Official. At a luncheon held in Mayfair recently, Louisa James, PA to Tara Donovan, MD of Jamie Oliver Limited, was announced as the 2011 Hays and The Times ‘PA of the Year’ and successor to Laura Richardson as this year’s Champion for the PA profession.

Gareth Osborne of APA, one of the Award Judges, said: “Louisa is a deserving winner and demonstrated to the judges throughout a rigorous process that she possessed all the talents of a great PA and is a trusted, loyal and essential part of the executive team at Jamie Oliver Ltd. Louisa has extended her role to include significant project management, an ever increasing part of the job of a PA, and has been responsible for the creation of the Jamie Oliver Ap.”

Presenting the award to Louisa, Michelle Mone OBE of MJM International and creator of Ultimo, the UK’s leading designer lingerie brand praised Louisa, the ‘PA of the Year’ award and her own PA, Laura, without whom she admitted life would be far less organised.

The runners up, both outstanding PAs, are: Christopher Juliff of the NHS, and Zara Dyer of Liverpool Football Club.

APA members can expect to here a lot more about Louisa in the coming year.

Pictured (L:R) are: Michelle Mone MBE, Louisa James and Tara Donovan
 
APA

New Northern Training Venues

APA has been delivering its qualification courses in Leeds for sometime now and its training venue in City Square is proving to be an easily accessible location for PAs from across the North and North Midlands; regularly attracting attendees from Newcastle, Manchester, Liverpool, Sheffield, Nottingham and even Scotland.

But a recent course attracted even more attendees from the North East than usual and has prompted APA to launch training courses in Newcastle from July to better serve the local PA community and provide a more accessible venue for those in Edinburgh.

PAs considering taking professional qualifications in late summer and autumn 2011 are encouraged to speak to APA’s training department soon as places are filing quickly.

 
Pictured (L:R) are: Gaynor Butterwick, Emily Gray, Emma Henry and Karen Wright.

APA