The Recruiter

Working Mother knows best

All our career moms out there will appreciate this release: Just this week, Working Mother put out its annual report on the 100 best places for women to work. Popular policies included wide-ranging flex options, generous paid maternity leave, affordable child care and career development.

Here are some tech and pharma companies that made the list, and a sampling of what they offer:

Cisco Systems San Jose, C.A.

Last year, 70 percent of the work force telecommuted, with nearly everyone using flextime. Plus, everyone gets a laptop and free home broadband service to make cyber-meetings easier.

IBM Armonk, N.Y.

The firm sponsors three on-site day care centers and 68 near-site facilities. It also subsidizes training and funding for other family-friendly programs. During the summer, employees can put their kids in one of IBM's summer programs, such as science or engineering camp.

Merck Whitehouse Station, N.J.

Employees follow flexible schedules on a trial basis, choosing to work from home, job-share or adjust hours, among other options. The best part is, everyone gets health benefits, whether they work 60 hours or six.

Of course, these great benefits exist for the fathers and non-parents at these companies. Who wouldn't want to strike that elusive work-life balance with such terrific perks? So hiring companies, take note: Finding the best talent out there might require some innovative policies, but you're guaranteed some very happy employees.

Is your company in this Top 100? Do you wish it were? Share your experiences as a working parent here.

Posted by Roseanne D.

Women and Tech

The outlook is good for women in the workforce today! The U.S. Census Bureau is reporting that the gap between men and women’s salaries is decreasing. In 2005, women made 81% as much as their male counterparts—which is an 18% increase since 1979. Also, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) found that some traditionally male-dominated occupations are seeing a rise in female workers. For example, the civil engineering occupation has seen a 196 percent increase in females.

Rachel Zupek, of CareerBuilder.com, wrote an interesting article entitled “The Gender Wars at Work.” She discusses the pay gap, and how the traditionally male-dominated industries are seeing more female workers. But the most interesting thing she discusses is that although the gap is closing, and more women are entering these jobs, the jobs that are being filled by women are often lower-paying.

In the article, Rachel includes data from PayScale.com and CBsalary.com, and lists the top 5 paying jobs for both male and female dominated jobs, as well as those not dominated by either sex. For you techies, IT Project Managers are listed as one of the top “not-dominated” jobs—with males making $82,000 and females $78,000. The percentage of females in this position is 32.

However, take a look at the top paying male dominated jobs—they’re all tech! Database Managers have the highest percentage of females—and its only 24%.

I’d be interested to hear your thoughts—why do you think that although women are making more and more advances in the workplace, are we still filling the lower-paying jobs? Why are the highest paying tech jobs dominated by males? What can be done to address this?

Posted by Christy H.

Women Win

Sandy Schwan's interpretation of a recent Gartner's report on the gender gap is dead-on. 

Women with our top-notch communication and listening skills are just better equipped than our male counterparts to deal with many aspects of the new global economy.

The thought of having a workforce without women is not pleasant.  With the impact from the war on talent, company could be alienating half the already limited talent pool by ignoring all that female candidates naturally bring to plate.

Gartner focused on five gender-based traits that CIOs should look for in technology talent:

1. Bilateral brain involvement in listening
Listening with both sides of your brain makes women ideal for roles must be a team leader

2. Spatial visualization, pattern spotting
Complex mental visualization is a trait typically dominated by men in fields like engineering

3. Language
Women are more verbally fluent and could be stronger in analysis of conversation and communication

4. Aggression and risk taking
Men are more open to risks and fall naturally into roles with competitiveness and innovation

5. Social orientation and empathy
Women have higher EQ and can better relate to others

Check out the entire article on SearchCIO.com.

Posted by Christy H.