Strategic briefings

How to tackle inequalities in the workplace, especially with respect to people from ethnic minorities, is the focus of much research and UK Government consultation. Claire McCartney looks at some of the workplace factors that must be addressed to achieve fairness, in particular implementing ethnicity pay reporting, and finds that, despite some progress, there is still a long way to go.

While recent headlines suggest that there is still a long way to go before gender equality is achieved and maintained in senior roles in many sectors, Dianah Worman highlights the contribution of International Women’s Day and its latest campaign BalanceforBetter to making progress towards a gender balanced world.

In today’s complex workplace environments, helping leaders in particular to cope with ambiguity may be key to leadership effectiveness and organisational success. In this strategic briefing, Vee Halliwell makes the case for offering leaders mindfulness training as a positive way forward.

Preparing leaders to lead in today’s ambiguous times is a major challenge. Illustrating their argument with case studies, Andrew Smith and colleagues outline an approach to learning — self-managed — that enables leaders to better navigate complexity and develop the reflexive ability so vital when leading organisations going through ongoing change.

Based on his vast experience of contributing to international board level conferences, award-winning author Professor Colin Coulson-Thomas highlights the fast-changing strategic agendas facing CEOs, many of whom experience difficulties responding to these agendas because their management skills, thinking and practice have been forged in an earlier era. He challenges HR to rise to the opportunity of providing real strategic support to boards against this volatile backdrop and to play a key role in changing thinking and practice internally to equip organisations to successfully respond to new and unfamiliar external developments.

Many organisations are experiencing the challenge of managing a multigenerational workforce for the first time. Here Claire McCartney and Dianah Worman, who are experts in diversity, challenge the myths around generational stereotypes and provide practical pointers for employers seeking to attract and retain the best workforce — of any age.

The reported high prevalence of stress in today’s workplace and growing awareness of mental health issues make this article, the first of two by Dr Ann Mahon, timely. In particular Dr Mahon examines the stressors affecting managers and leaders in the public sector, where incidences of stress appear higher than in other sectors.

In recent times, given the unpredictable nature of the business environment, it has become increasingly clear that people need to be resilient if they are to survive and thrive in today’s fast-changing organisations. Here, Doug Strycharczyk explores the notion of mental toughness, a key element of resilience, together with its links with performance and how it can be developed.

For many HR directors, going digital is one of the biggest challenges they face and the way ahead is often shrouded in mystery. Viki Holton demystifies this complex topic by outlining some of the practices of HR teams at the leading edge of digital. She also provides a handy benchmark tool that can help the reader identify and avoid some of the main stumbling blocks on the journey towards becoming digitally effective.

This briefing examines how HR makes impact, based on the views and practices of leading practitioners. Viki Holton outlines the key qualities, attributes, skills and behaviours, which help an HR director make a real difference to business success.