Since joining WaterAid as Global Talent Manager in 2018, I have personally benefitted from flexible working. I work part-time — 3 days a week — and worked mostly from home long before Covid-19 came into our lives. This kind of arrangement has generally been considered the exception rather than the rule. But Covid-19 is a game changer and in the new normal, employees will have far greater expectations of their organisations to accommodate their flexible working needs to enable them to achieve an effective work-life balance.
What will flexible working look like for organisations after Covid-19?
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The backbone of many organisations and a key resource for many leaders and managers are the office professionals. But are your PAs/EAs “forgotten workers” when it comes to tapping into their abilities and providing opportunities for development and progression? What can you do in your organisation to help motivate and develop this vital resource?
The economic gap between men and women is forecast to disappear by 2186. So financial gender inequality will be with us for an awfully long time yet! As part of our blog series for 
How to set up a Mentoring Programme
In the last two decades, many employers have shown enthusiastic commitment to gender diversity. Women have made enormous strides in being able to compete on the same playing field as men at work. This is where initiatives such as mentoring and sponsor programmes have been really successful in helping erode this gender imbalance and create more gender equity. Gender equity means fairness of treatment for women and men, according to their respective needs. All the research strongly confirms this as being an important factor in developing more women leaders. So let us consider:
As long ago as 2005, Brewster et al defined talent management as occurring on a global basis. It is a far broader concept than a series of international assignments for young potential. They describe a picture of being able to retain and attract the best talent anywhere in the world. Global brands like Diageo, Shell and Rolls Royce attach great importance to developing a positive brand for potential recruits.
The more self-aware a mentor can be about their behaviour and the degree to which they listen to their mentees around what the mentee is looking for from them, the better the relationship can be.
The key players are the senior executive and the coach. However, executive coaching does not occur in a vacuum. There are a number of stakeholders involved in the executive coaching process — the executive’s leader, peers, reports, Human Resources — but the real focus is on the relationship between the coach and the individual executive.