This week’s letters
Play your part in closing pay gap
The Equal Opportunities Commission’s graduate pay research (News, 12 March)
highlights the impact the gender pay gap has on well-qualified women at the
start of their careers.
The report emphasises the urgent need for HR professionals to review their
pay systems. If employers want to recruit the brightest and the best, they need
to demonstrate that they provide equal pay.
Nearly half of young people (and 71 per cent of women) say their choice of
job would be affected by an employer’s stance on equal pay.
Pay inequalities affect women of all levels and all ages – full-time female
workers earn 18.5 per cent less per hour than men.
The EOC is working to support those responsible for pay structures. Guidance
on pay reviews will be available on our website soon (www.eoc.org.uk). And
later in the year, an Equal Pay Review Model and specification for payroll
systems, currently being piloted, will be introduced.
These have been developed in response to what HR professionals and others
have been telling us – that they need easy-to-use practical tools to help carry
out an effective pay review.
Complacency is no excuse. Most organisations don’t think that they have a
problem until they examine how they pay their staff. We need to see more
employers taking action to help tackle Britain’s appalling record on pay, which
is currently the worst in Europe.
Julie Mellor
Chairwoman, Equal Opportunities Commission
Stress at work is no less of a crime
While in total agreement with solicitor Sarah Lamont, and Gil Hitchon of the
Mental After Care Association (Legal and Letters, 12 March), I would remind
employers that there is more to the law on stress than the common law.
The cases in the Court of Appeal do not alter the Criminal Law Health and
Safety at Work Act requirements with regard to stress. Employers should still
risk assess for stress being caused by the work environment, and to take
appropriate action to remove, reduce or alleviate any stress found.
If employers were to obey the criminal law they would be protected from
action under the common law.
Ron Scott
Director of strategy and planning, The Lancaster Group
More to HR than talent tracking
"If you don’t know where your talent lies, you could cut 10 per cent of
your staff and lose 100 per cent of your value."
This comment by Brenda Wilson of William M Mercer (Features 26 February) is
too simplistic to hold any real meaning.
There are more reasons as to why only one in three companies that offered
voluntary redundancies in the last recession were profitable five years after
the recession ended. These include product life cycles, training and
development, compensation and benefits, advertising and marketing, and sector
trends.
The business model is complicated and good HR professionals are aware of its
complexities and deliver within it.
Colin Rodden MCIPD MIMgt
The Mosaic Initiative
In search of an Oracle lli user
Channel 4 has implemented Oracle HR and is looking to move up to version lli
with self-service functionality.
My colleagues and I are keen to visit an organisation currently using this
system, to discuss the pros and cons of upgrading.
If you have installed Oracle and would like to share your experience with
us, then contact me on 020-7306 6917 or at gneale@channel4.co.uk
Gaynor Neale
HR systems administrator, Channel Four Television
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