ISG Digital Dish

There has been much debate in the media about the challenges women encounter on re-entering the workplace after a career break – often after caring for older family members or having children. Over the past year, these challenges have been further highlighted for women. It’s been shown that women more than men have borne the brunt of childcare responsibilities during lockdowns and school closures – and many have partially or completely left the workforce. The good news for women who are returning to the workforce is that the global pandemic has paved the way for greater flexibility at work, which means the job market is becoming more accommodating to all kinds of people who want more flexible work lives.

Our guest on this episode of the Digital Dish podcast is social entrepreneur, Lynn Houmdi, who is leading a program in the UK called “Making Work Work,” which supports women returning to the workplace after a career break.  The program provides a combination of leadership training, mentoring and post-program support to build the two things that Houmdi claims women feel they lack when re-entering the world of work after a career break: confidence and networks. Her own struggle to find a way of working that suited her after becoming a mother inspired her to develop the program. She explains that, after having left a high-flying career in the British civil service to pursue her social enterprise passions, she realized there was very little support for women who chose a nonlinear career path.

Listen in to learn how women returners can capitalize on the changes to the world of work, ushered in by the global pandemic, to find more fulfilling and flexible employment. Houmdi’s own career story also provides an inspirational reference point for young women starting their professional journeys.

U.S. statistics show that around 50 percent of computer science graduates are women. Yet, when you look at the middle management layer in most IT organizations, women fill less than 20 percent of these positions. Leadership coach Mary Patry believes several factors are at play here. Aside from the unequal impact the global pandemic has had on women’s careers – they more often than men are the ones to put family first and sacrifice their own careers – Patry believes that women frequently struggle to find their “voice”, a fact that can hold them back from entering the executive layer of a business. This is despite many women being well equipped with the “soft” skills required for executive leadership – those that focus on people and process – as well as the “hard” technical skills of IT operations and middle management.

It’s clear that leadership teams require diversity and a range of talents to succeed. Having women in executive leadership positions promises many demonstrable benefits that organizations can no longer afford to ignore. Patry’s mission is to help women navigate a route toward leadership. She focuses on helping them build the confidence they need to take a seat at the leadership table and guiding organizations on how to put in place structures specifically designed to support and grow female talent. Get comfy on the couch and listen in to this discussion about leadership development for women in technology.

The global pandemic transformed the world of work almost overnight. Face-to-face interaction has become a thing of the past in many industries – particularly service industries – for now at least. Recruitment has been especially turned upside down. Recruiters have had to find new ways to remotely assess candidates and make sure new hires are onboarded, settled and supported without the age-old reliance on in-person interaction. And as economies around the world pick up and companies begin to hire again, getting remote recruitment right will be more important than ever.

In this episode of the Digital Dish, host Jeanne Cuff talks to recruitment expert, Julia Mititelu, Associate VP at Frank Recruitment Group. Together they discuss the ins and outs of a digital onboarding process in which you never physically meet your new hire. Key to this is frequent online catch-ups to ensure the recruit understands what they need to do to be successful in their new role. Isolation is a real challenge for remote workers, and this episode highlights how women can ensure they stay connected and feel included when taking up a new position.

ISG Partner Julie Fernandez joins the discussion to offer her views on how employers can ensure a successful remote onboarding process. Watch her short video HR Market Pulse: Four Tips for Remote Onboarding for further insights.

Listen in from one of the links below to hear this informative discussion about remote recruitment and onboarding in a post-pandemic world.

When Kayla Harrington, then student now Legal Research Assistant at Thomson Reuters, wrote a blog about inherent gender bias in society, she was clearly hoping to raise the profile of the issue. But she didn’t anticipate that her blog would gain the attention of her father Jeff Harrington, whose eyes were opened to the issues she raised, or that it would eventually lead to a discussion on the ISG Women in Digital podcast.

At college, Kayla took a very academic approach to the issue of sexism and developed the belief that the world was changing and gender equality was improving. Upon graduating and entering the world of work, she realized there was still a long way to go to overcome what she terms “ambivalent sexism.” This is the subtle and generally accepted sexism that permeates both the language we use to talk about women and the way we interact with women across all walks of life.

Join host Jeanne Cuff as she talks to the father-daughter duo about gender inclusivity and how companies today must go further than just ensuring equal representation of women in the workplace. They discuss how the global pandemic of 2020 has highlighted the struggle for many women managing both family and work.

Statistics indicate that one million people have left the workforce this year and that 80 percent of them were women who felt unable to juggle both work and family commitments under the unprecedented circumstances. According to Jeff, this creates a great opportunity for change. Because the pandemic has brought work and family life closer to each other for both men and women, many men can appreciate in a new way the challenges working women have faced for generations. He believes this appreciation will bring understanding, greater inclusivity – and hopefully less inherent gender bias in the workplace.

Listen in to hear the discussion.

With any corporate investment, there is always a careful balance between the cost to the organization and the benefit it brings. Right now, budgets are under huge pressure because of the unprecedented challenges of the global COVID pandemic, forcing companies to make difficult decisions about where to make cuts. At the same time, we’ve seen a huge jump in the volume and frequency of cyber attacks due to the increased numbers of employees working from home and accessing corporate systems over external networks. This is not the time to cut corners on information security. 

Barbara Guerin, Chief Information Security Officer at Renown Health, joins host Jeanne Cuff in this month’s podcast episode to share her insight into how organizations can avoid information security breaches. According to Guerin, an effective cyber security and risk mitigation approach must start by gaining board engagement and include focusing on third-party governance and recognizing that humans are usually the weakest link in a corporate system.

The importance of information security will only grow with increasing digitization of businesses. Women entering the IT job market can anticipate a wealth of job opportunities opening in this area. Those with analytical mindsets and a head for psychology and forensics will do well to consider this field!

The concept of agile in the technology product development field is not new. It originates back in the 1990s and, by the mid-2000s, had started to replace the more linear waterfall methodology of software development, particularly in newer tech firms where large software development practices simply weren’t available or affordable. This has, of course, impacted quality assurance (QA) and testing functions, which are integral to the product development lifecycle.

In this episode, ISG’s Jeanne Cuff talks to Francine Jackson, QA expert at JPMorgan Chase & Co., about her experience in software development. They discuss how QA and testing leaders have had to adapt to more agile forms of software development and – to find success – foster a cultural change that aligns business and product development teams. Today, the QA and testing role continues to evolve with the application of automation technologies such as machine learning and artificial intelligence. Listen in as they talk about how automation can drive enhanced results in this field and how agile skillsets and structures are helping women step up and find a voice in this environment.

Over the coming years, the gig economy is predicted to grow at an unprecedented rate. This year, due to the global COVID pandemic and the subsequent economic disruption, we’ve seen a dramatic shift in the numbers of people seeking new, more flexible working models. In particular, 21 to 38-year-olds are turning to the gig economy as a way to take back control of their working lives, with flexibility being their new watchword. For many people, the traditional model of permanent employment with its relative security and associated benefits and bonuses is less important than the possibility of choosing how, when and where they work. And, if predictions prove correct, the tide is unlikely to turn back again; the gig economy will become part of our new working future.

Against this backdrop, ISG’s Digital Dish host Jeanne Cufftalks to Felicia Jones, Director of HR Transformation at CapGemini, about how organizations must evolve the way they attract and retain talent, striking a new balance between the benefits they offer employees and the commitment they require. Co-hosts Lois Coatneyand Julie Fernandez join the discussion on how COVID has forced a sea-change in the employment landscape. Listen in as they debate the challenges and opportunities this new era of remote and flexible work will present the workforce.

Data is big and getting bigger, yet in some business areas it’s less well understood and used than in others. This seems to be the case for HR, where data is often viewed simply as a by-product of business activity rather than a valuable resource in its own right. Data can help us make sense of the world and drive business decisions, especially in times like now when our ability to understand the changing landscape of a pandemic is critical to survival.

Getting a handle on data and what it’s telling us is often harder than people imagine, not least in the HR space where the data can be exceptionally complex. Human capital data holds a great deal of untapped potential, but it is rarely mined for its full value. The vision is to use data to change the way we work rather than just thinking about it as a tool to help us sell more products and services. 

In this episode of the ISG Digital Dish podcast, host Jeanne Cuff talks to Caitlin Bigsby, Product Marketing Director at workforce analytics firm Visier Inc., about the need for a cultural shift when it comes to HR data analytics. According to Bigsby, HR leaders need to reframe the questions they are asking. Instead of asking “What are we collecting?” they should ask “What would it be valuable to know?”. Bigsby believes the gains will be great if HR organizations can focus on business outcomes rather than data inputs. Listen in to this much-needed conversation about all things “data”, from culture to skills to data’s role in helping drive strategic business decisions.

Despite what many people think, personality type is a more accurate indicator of how we handle change than age. Understanding our character and how we instinctively react to change, including the way it affects our confidence, our stress levels and our tolerance is especially important right now. The need for self-awareness has never been greater as we each grapple with a “new normal” and what it means for us. Being self-aware – and leading with that awareness of self – increases our ability to handle new situations, adapt to change and seek or even create new opportunities for ourselves. Tammie Pinkston, Director of Organizational Change Management at ISG, joins host Jeanne Cuff to explore the personal and professional change-related challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and how to handle the ongoing uncertainty. Listen in as they discuss what leading with self means and how doing so can help develop key leadership qualities.

Should you follow your heart or your head when it comes to career decisions?  That’s one of the themes of the latest episode of the ISG Digital Dish podcast. Co-hosts Jeanne Cuff, Julie Fernandez and Lois Coatney discuss valuable guidance they’ve gathered along the way that can be applied in both professional and personal ways. Their guest this week, Maria Pardee, Vice President and General Manager at DXC Technology, shares her ideas about where women should focus at the start of their careers and about what developments in the digital workplace mean for all of us. Listen in as this dynamic group of women explores the importance of making and meeting commitments, building a personal “brand” and becoming the best version of yourself.