Do Women Make Better Recruiters and HR Managers?

I watch little TV beyond the DIY channel. However, I have become a fan of the new show Lie To Me. It is all about body language, which has been an interest of mine since I studied monkeys in a previous life. Monkeys major form of communication is body language. I picked up The Definitive Book of Body Language by Allan and Barbara Pease last night and have already started reading it. It is an interesting read and I am looking forward to finishing it.

Early on in the book I came across this statement. "Most women have the brain organization to outcommunicate any man on the planet. Magnetic Resonance Imaging brain scans (MRI) cleary show wy women have a far greater capacity for communicating with and evaluating people than men do. Women have between foruteen and sixteen areas of the brain to evalutate others' behavior versus a man's four to six areas."

My first question upon reading this was "Does this mean that women make better recruiters?" Are they are more "tuned in" in the interview? For that matter, does that explain why there are so many women in HR, the field where people "reading" skills are supposed to be at a premium?

Perhaps so, and I would like you views on this matter. The good news is, for us males in HR and recruiting, reading body language can be learned. So even though we have a brain handicap at the outset we males can catch up some, though supposedly will never be as good.

As a last note, one thing else mentioned so far in the book, is that women lie better than men do! Anyone shocked by that?

Women Bosses: Still A Way To Go

This past year women have made major strides moving into positions of power in business, politics and the military. The Army has its first female four-star general, we had several female presidential candidates, we are getting another female Secretary of State and women show up in many power positions in the entertainment business both on the screen and off. And for the first time we have women from three different generations all in the workplace at the same time.

Things couldn't be better for women. Or could they? According to an article in the online version of Marie Claire it turns out that many younger women hate working for older women. In an article, entitled The Pink Ceiling, author Meredith Bryan discusses the difficulties many younger women have working for older women bosses. These include:

• Older women bosses who are hopelessly fixated on sexism in the office


• Women bosses who are tyrants and who see their female charges as competition (called the Queen Bee Syndrome)


• They feel judged by "set in their ways" bosses who insist "This is how I had to work to get here"


• Unprofessionalism from bosses who blur the personal and professional lines by "making friends" and being too personal. Women bosses give less feedback and constructive criticism than to male bosses.

Many of the younger women interviewed preferred to work for male bosses.

Bryan does hold out hope that this will get better as time goes by and more women make it into the upper company ranks. She states that currently records show that only 15% of executive postions are held by women.

I have often seen that women managers can be tougher in general than many male managers and I have seen them less tolerant of womens issues, sort of the "I have done it and made it" line of thought. But I think some of the things Bryan talks about are also generational issues as much as they are female boss issues. And like the one commenter to the article said, I don't think the glass ceiling or sexism has gone away entirely in the workplace, but it has reduced and many younger women have not had to deal with the issue yet. Hopefully many won't have to.

Human Resources is certainly a good test case for younger women dealing with older women bosses since the vast majority of the profession is female. So how about some comments from some of you and tell us about your experiences, either as a younger woman working for an older female boss, or as the boss dealing with younger women subordinates?

BTW, I want to thank a reader and student who pointed me to this article. I don't normally read Marie Claire , unless I have to sit while waiting for a haircut or doctor's appointment. Unfortunately I missed this one. And yes I do read womens magazines, as should all men occassionally, it is a good way to stay up on what might be important to the women in our lives.

Bad News and Good News for Women in Human Resources

An article in the Wall Street Journal on Oct. 23rd talked about wage disparities. (Link requires subscription.) This is not unusual. The wage disparity between men and women is well documented and much discussed. The potential reasons are many: discrimination, career interruption, and predominately "female" careers among them. What makes this article noteable, however, is that Cari Tuna is writing about the field of Human Resources, where you would expect wages to be more equitable. And here is the bad news.

First an important fact. The majority of human resources professional are women. "About 70% of the country's 238,000 HR managers and 731,000 HR specialists are women, according to 2007 data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics." So, you would expect in a field that is predominately female that wages for women would be ahead of men or at least on par. But, "...37 of the 50 highest-paid HR executives at Russell 3000 companies were men, according to a survey of 2007 proxy statements by Equilar, Inc., a California-based executive compensation research firm." And "The median weekly pay for male HR managers in 2007 was $1,581 – about 47% more than female managers took home. Among rank-and-file employees, men earned $1,037 per week, about 28% more than their female counterparts."

This is puzzling and there could be any number of reasons. A couple of new ones were suggested in the article, including who is tapped to fill HR exective positions, and the fact that many top HR positions are "combination" positions. A combination position is one such as VPHR and General Counsel. These apparently are staffed more often by men and who are thus paid more.

But so much for the bad news. Now the good news. Next year this is going turn around! If you are in human resources and you are female you have reason to CELEBRATE! With a Democrat controlled congress women in HR are going to benefit from the passage of three compensation acts designed to eliminate "historic discrimination". With the Paycheck Fairness Act, The Lily Ledbetter Act, and the Equal Pay Act women in human resources (and other professions) will get increases to put them on par with all the men in the profession. Pay disparites, for whatever reason, will be outlawed. Isn't that great news??? Plan the changes in your budgets now! This means that regardless of location, education, years in the job, and performance everyone in a single job title will be paid the same. It will certainly make compensation systems easier. Of course it might eliminate any incentive to try to get ahead. And the value of a degree and certification will potentially disappear. But who cares? Equality is a good thing.

So celebrate the good news! More money for everyone! Assuming the jobs still exist that is. Guess we will see.

OOPS in the Outback: Why Managerial Training is Important

Here in the U.S. we often talk about the importance of training for managers and supervisors. Most of us in HR realize that most companies get in "trouble" due to the things said and done by managers and supervisors. Well here is a great example of that. From Australia we have the Mayor of Mount Isa, John Molony, making the public statement to the newspaper that read "May I suggest if there are five blokes to every girl, we should find out where there are beauty-disadvantaged women and ask them to proceed to Mount Isa." He proceeded to compound his error by further stating "Quite often you will see walking down the street a lass who is not so attractive with a wide smile on her face,.....Whether it is recollection of something previous or anticipation for the next evening, there is a degree of happiness."

Needless to say his comment, thus interpreted as RECRUIT UGLY WOMEN has not been received well by the women in the area. One even countered "We've got a saying up here that the odds are good, but the goods are odd."

I am not too sure if there is an HR person in Mount Isa, probably not, but if there was I am sure they had the same reaction any US based HR person would have. Basically "OMG what has he done." By the way, the mayor has not taken kindly to the fire-storm of controversy that has erupted and has essentially said he was misquoted.

How would you like to be the recruiter handling that assignment and running the ad stating "Only Ugly Women Need Apply."

This is just a lesson to all HR people... DO YOUR TRAINING AHEAD OF TIME! Not after a manager or supervisor has stuck his/her foot in the organization's mouth.

If you wish to read the article link here.

Less Glass Ceiling?

Fortune Magazine just published its list of the 25 HIGHEST PAID WOMEN . Are we seeing less glass ceiling today? These women work or did work for big companies in a variety of industries. So is this progress?