The Role of Gender in the Workplace

According to the National Science Foundation (2009), women at this day and age, are still underrepresented in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math). This is seen not only on STEM industry positions both also in college degree applications. There have been numerous studies as to the benefits of gender diversity in the workplace. The question is whether gender diversity really do increase productivity in the workplace? If so, what are the recommendations to increase gender diversity? Lastly, how effective are these recommendations?

In 2011, Julia Bear and Anita Woolley conducted a review of the existing literature regarding the effects of gender diversity on team processes and performance. Titled “The Role of Gender in Team Collaboration and Performance,” the two researchers concluded that team collaboration is improved by the presence of women in a team. They claimed that having women in teams encourages participation and collaboration between team members. They added that this contributes to the “collective intelligence” of the team. As opposed individual intelligence, collective intelligence is highly dependent on the quality of social interactions in the group.  However, the authors were quick to point out that the presence of women in a team does not necessarily promote better team collaboration. There are has to be a balance between men and women as well as parity of influence among team members. Having a few “token” women will not be sufficient in improving collaboration and might even be detrimental in the initial team dynamics. In addition, there may be cases that increased team collaboration may not happen due to pre-existing stereotypes on women. The authors concluded that, to be able to reap the benefits of gender diversity, there should be enabling factors which would bridge the gender gap in the sciences not only in numbers but also in roles. There should be a recognition for roles that women play in science teams.  

Two years after Bear and Woolley released their article, researchers from the University of Pennsylvania found out that women are indeed geared towards creating solutions that work in a group by comparing neural connections between male and female brains (Ingalhalikar et al., 2013). This discovery coincides with the claims of Bear and Woolley, it confirms that there is biological basis that women have the innate ability to encourage participation and collaboration between team members. The comparison strength of neural connections, however, were qualitative in nature and that a statistical significance between these neural connections needs to be established (Joel & Tarrasch, 2013). Regardless of the limitations of biological evidence, Bear and Woolley were on the right track that, indeed, women do improve collaboration in a team.

However and though laudable in their analysis as shown by more recent studies, Bear and Woolley (2011) got the wrong call to action, or was misguided at best. Promoting gender diversity in the workplace should not be too focused on the tailoring a career path that is fitted especially for women nor recognition of the collaborative impact of women in STEM teams. That would entail stereotyping women to be predisposed to a certain skill or role over another. Wouldn’t that contradict their own claim that “token” women team members does not improve team performance? A recent study concluded that young people are actually progressive when it comes to gender. When the researchers surveyed the video game character preferences of young gamers, only 39 percent of high-school aged boys preferred playing male characters, and 60 percent of high-school aged girls preferred to play as female characters (Hall, 2015). Thus, it is best to keep the roles gender neutral and let students or employees choose their own path instead of creating tailor fitted career paths for women as a response to the underrepresentation, is to imply that the existing roles are not “feminine” enough to attract women. That would be ludicrous.

The imbalance of men and women in STEM seem to happen when women are about to embark to adulthood, when they develop their first impressions to people who work or study in STEM fields. Take for example the latest controversy of one of Rosetta’s scientist, Matt Taylor, who wore a bowling shirt covered in scantily clad caricatures of sexy women in provocative poses while being interviewed in TV. Taylor has been criticized for his shirt which was deemed sexist and insensitive (France, 2014).  S.E. Smith (2014) wrote in an article on XOJane, “…he (Matt Taylor) had no idea that he was engaging in exactly the kind of casual sexism that drives women away from STEM.” Chris Plante and Arielle Duhaime-Ross (2014) summarized it perfectly in their article on TheVerge, “This is the sort of casual misogyny that stops women from entering certain scientific fields. They see a guy like that on TV and they don't feel welcome... This shirt is representative of all of that, and the ESA has yet to issue a statement or apologize for that.” Indeed, to get women excited about getting into STEM fields, high-profile scientists like Matt Taylor need to be more conscientious about sexism in his the field and be a good role model who is welcoming of diversity.

Speaking of role models, celebrating successful women within STEM is also important. One role model is Emilie Marcus. She recounted her experience in STEM in her article, “Perspectives: Science, Gender, and the Balanced Life (2013).” It was inspiring, straightforward and a must-read for women who aspire to go into the sciences. Her observation is that there are few women in STEM because men are more comfortable trading family life over their own career. She added that the field is so demanding that requires a lot to time and devotion. Women are often faced with a trade-off between family life and career, and that hard decisions need to be made. That being said, Marcus recommended that science could improve by favoring diversity, teamwork and healthy work/life balance.

The recommendation of Marcus made a lot of sense. Scientist and researchers do experience a lot of pressure in the workplace and it would take a devoted individual to be successful in the field. In fact, The Association for Women in Science (AWIS) conducted a worldwide survey on scientists and researchers showing that, indeed, the most common issues of professionals in science and technology fields are the lack of flexibility in the workplace, unimpressive career development opportunities, and low salaries of low salaries of professionals. In addition, the survey showed that women were more likely than men to report that work-life balance difficulties negatively impacted their careers and 40 percent of which delayed childbearing so as not affect their work.

The observation of Marcus was right on the mark but what she failed to admit or say is that societal pressures for women may play a role in it. Yes, a highly competitive and demanding science career takes away a woman’s time to build and take care of her family. But, is it societal pressures that make her obliged to do so? This is what both the Marcus, and Bear and Woolley failed to ask themselves. Gender roles when it comes to child-rearing is not discussed nor analyzed. It would be interesting to note that in a Families and Work Institute (FWI) study of young workers, claimed that there is no difference between young women with and without children in their desire to move to jobs with more responsibilities (Galinsky, Aumann & Bond, 2011). The contradicting findings of AWS and FWI does not actually cancel each other. In fact, it shows the importance of perceived gender roles and how it can skew data if it is not considered as a factor. Thus, it would be important to ask and study as to how perception of gender roles in child-rearing play when it comes to initiating a career or advancing in STEM – an important issue neither Marcus nor Bear and Woolley considered.

In summary, gender diversity really do improve team productivity when there is parity in influence. Recognition and creation of certain roles tailor fitted for women may be counterproductive. Instead, the better approach is to tackle the issues of sexism head-on to promote better role models in STEM who are sensitive to the need for gender diversity. It is also important to celebrate female role models. Lastly and more importantly, the sexism and perceived gender roles should be studied and addressed in the societal level. By not doing so, initiatives will reap the benefits of gender diversity would prove difficult to execute.

Bibliography

Association for Women in Science (n.d.) The Work Life Integration Overload: Thousands of Scientist Weigh in on Outmoded Work Environments, Unfriendly Family Policies. Available:http://c.ymcdn.com/sites/www.awis.org/resource/resmgr/imported/AWIS_Work_Life_Balance_Executive_Summary.pdf. Last accessed 9^th of Mar 2015.

Bear, J. & Woolley, A. (2011) The Role of Gender in Team Collaboration and Performance.  Interdisciplinary Science Reviews, 36 (2), p.146–153.

France, L. (2014) Philae researcher criticized for shirt covered in scantily clad women. CNN 14^th of Nov, Available:http://www.cnn.com/2014/11/13/living/matt-taylor-shirt-philae-rosetta-project/. Last accessed 9^th of Mar 2015.

Galinsky, E., Aumann, K. & Bond, J. (2011) Times are Changing: Gender Generation at Work and at Home. Available:http://familiesandwork.org/site/research/reports/Times_Are_Changing.pdf. Last accessed 9^th of March 2015.

Hall, C. (2015) The games industry is wrong about kids, gaming and gender (update). Polygon 5^th of Mar, Available: http://www.polygon.com/2015/3/5/8153213/the-games-industry-is-wrong-about-kids-gaming-and-gender. Last accessed 9th of Mar 2015.

Ingalhalikar, M. et. al. (2013) Sex differences in the structural connectome of the human brain. Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences USA, 111(2), p.823–828. Available: http://www.pnas.org/content/111/2/823.full. Last accessed 9^th of Mar 2015.

Joel, D. & Tarrasch R. (2013) On the mis-presentation and misinterpretation of gender-related data: The case of Ingalhalikar’s human connectome study. Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences USA, 111(6), p.E637

Marcus, E. (2013) Perspectives: Science, Gender, and the Balanced Life. Issues in Science and Technology 27^th of Dec, Available: http://issues.org/29-3/perspectives-2/. Last accessed 9^th of Mar 2015.

National Science Foundation. (2009) Women, minorities, and persons with disabilities in science and engineering. Available: http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/wmpd. Last accessed 9^th of Mar 2015.

Plante, C. & Ross, A. (2014) I don't care if you landed a spacecraft on a comet, your shirt is sexist and ostracizing. TheVerge 13^th of Nov, Available:http://www.theverge.com/2014/11/13/7213819/your-bowling-shirt-is-holding-back-progress. Last accessed 9th of Mar 2015.

Smith, S. (2014) A Philae Researcher Wore An Unbelievably Sexist Shirt On A Livefeed and Women in STEM Are Pissed. XOJane 13^th of Nov, Available:http://www.xojane.com/issues/sexist-shirt-philae-matt-taylor. Last accessed 9^th of Mar 2015.

5 things to consider before getting a Staffing Firm in the Philippines

Staffing Firms can be a small hole in the wall business operation or a large multinational corporation with different branch offices. In the Philippines, there a plenty staffing companies who offer different value propositions.

Let me list down few important factors you may need to consider in looking for a Staffing Firm:

1. Mass Hiring vs Specialized Search. Staffing firms can be known for their headhunting style search or by their ability to cast a very wide net in the markets. Both strategies work. If they’re using a headhunting style approach, then you have to check how well they can understand your requisitions. If they’re using the wide net approach, then you have to be ready in giving out quick feedbacks in narrowing down candidates. In addition, casting a wide net is ideal if you want to get a “feel of what’s out there.” Most firms utilize a mix of both strategies wherein one is more favored than the other.
2. Skill Set Specialization. Staffing firms have their own specialization when it comes to skills sets to which they develop and maintain their credentials. The important thing to note is how the skill sets they specialize on fit into your company needs now and in the future.
3. Technology Partnerships. Try looking for staffing firms who share the same technology partnerships with your company. If you have been using a particular brand of technology for quite some time, it makes sense to narrow your search to those who have the same affinity to the technologies that you use. This is especially important when it comes to IT related job requisitions.
4. Organization Structure. Staffing firms divide their teams per industry, per skill or per location. It’s good to have an idea as to how your prospective staffing firm delegate the workload you give to them to their teams to ensure efficiency in delivery.
5. Turnover Rate. Staffing is a service oriented industry and their ability to deliver results depends on the cumulative expertise of their recruiters. High attrition rate will affect how well they maintain their intellectual capital and performance.

HRIS and Company Culture

About 10 years ago, there was a conference promoting a particular brand of HRIS. In the conference, prospect client asked the speaker as to how they can avoid automated HR programs destroying their company culture since they are used to face-to-face collaboration. The speaker was froze dead. She cannot answer the question coherently and instead resorted to emphasizing that automation reduces turn-around-time.

The question became one of those hush-hush small talk during the break. It gave some valid insight as to how important it is for technology to synchronize with company culture. 

Its not that most of the participants in the conference were against their HRIS. Its just that their bosses who were business owners are more concerned with the tangible and measurable advantages of automation (reporting, faster turn-around-time and paperless documentation) instead of engineering technology to fit the existing culture (or perhaps improve it). 

Maybe the business owners were not overt in communicating the company culture they want to have? Maybe the company culture promoted by their own companies is just lip service? Maybe HRIS provider failed in explaining how they can engineer technology to go well with company culture?

A year passed after that conference and I haven't heard of the HRIS provider anymore. I suspect they closed down.

Factors that Affect the Cost of Tech Skills in the Philippines

 The cost of technology skills oscillates a lot. This is the common knowledge among recruiters and headhunters in the Philippines. And it is the demand of skills usually pumps up the price. On top of that, most of the time, 2 or more company looking for the same people end up in a bidding war just to get the talent.

In the field of Outsourcing and Recruitment, having predictive insight is very important specially when we do forecasting and reporting aimed at maximizing profits.To help out fellow professionals, let me list down the common factors that affect the cost of technology skills in the Philippines:

1. New Technology. When companies adopt a new technology, it follows that they are also adopting a new set of skills. These skills sets may be similar to the old technology or it may require a new set of skills. The learning curve is the determinant as to how it will affect the increase in demand.
2. Economy of Trade Partners. The Philippine IT and BPO industry is highly dependent on economy of trade partners. These trade partners include USA, Australia, UK and Japan. Based from my experience in the recruitment sector, the interaction is more complex, however, when it comes to its effect on the demand of IT and IT-enabled skills. Growing economy of trade partners will almost certainly increase demand. However, will yield skewed results when their economy is on a downturn which I will explain in #3.
3. Laws and Attitudes towards Outsourcing. There are positive and negative views of outsourcing. On one hand, it significantly reduces the cost of manpower by tapping to new job markets that offer lower wages thus saving cost and gaining competitive advantage over those who do not outsource. On the other hand, it is viewed as “stealing jobs” and importing it to developing economies. These attitudes change overtime and become friendlier towards outsourcing. However, when economies experience recession legislature and elected leaders tend to put outsourcing in the spotlight and use it as a platform of “bringing home the jobs.” The effect of which are policies that are not friendly towards outsourcing IT and IT enabled skills.
4. Currency Exchange Rate. Like any imported or exported commodities, IT and IT enabled skills are affected by sudden changes of exchange rates. The success of outsourcing in the Philippines is partly the job of Central Bank which maintains a steady rise and drop of exchange rates. So far, they are doing a good job based from the latest customer rating survey. Companies maintain an “ideal exchange rate range.” If the Philippines Peso jumps to high, the cost of companies increases and the demand for IT skills drops. High fluctuations of exchange rates also decreases the demand because it shows uncertainty to new comers.

Welcome to my Blog

Dear Reader!

Although this blog lists just one author, in reality the ideas and insights it contains were inspired by many friends and colleagues who suggested that I make a repository of knowledge and best practices I gathered for years of experience in the areas of staffing and outsourcing.

There are many Philippine blogs about recruitment and staffing but most of the time, the objective of these blogs is to indirectly promote a particular company or product.

In this blog, I intend to write about anything related to the Philippine Talent Market with any bias for or against a particular company who offers professional staffing services. Nor am I going to market a particular product in this blog. I do however reserve the right to give my honest and personal opinion on these services should I decide to write about them.

My goal is to reach out and provide my personal insights for professionals in the areas of staffing and outsourcing and provide various tips, guides and best practices that outsourcing professionals, recruiters and business owners encounter in dealing with the Philippine Job Market.

Should you have any questions or suggested topics that you want me to blog about, feel free to leave a comment.

Best Regards,

Chris