Why this veteran recruiter started an online career platform for women in Asia
At that place's an old Chinese proverb that goes, "Women concord up half the sky". These words were famously uttered by Chinese leader Mao Zedong in 1968. The poetic phrase was in reference to women'southward rights and gender equality. Over four decades accept since passed – but are we there yet? Do women savor equal handling as men, specially in the workplace?
Unfortunately, women in Singapore are still being paid 20 per cent less than men, according to a study conducted by Australia-based finance site Finder. And these results were from as recent as February this year. The study ranked 16 countries based on 10 metrics, including the per centum of retirement savings women have compared to men besides as paid holiday go out, to make up one's mind which nation is the best country for working women. Singapore came in terminal.
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In fact, nosotros fared the worst for these three metrics: Total holiday go out, the gender pay gap and boilerplate working hours. While this may sound daunting and insipid to many, all is not lost because in that location's i woman in Singapore who still has promise – and she's trying to starting time a move. Enter Sabrina Ho.
The go-getter is the manager of KS Global Grouping, an executive search business, and has been in the recruitment industry for more than 10 years. It's safe to say that she has seen her off-white share of unique challenges faced by women. And this spurred her on to do more than for gender diversity in the workplace, leading to her starting a career platform for women in Singapore.
Speaking to Singapore Tatler, the founder and master executive of Half The Sky recounted one striking example of a female candidate who was shut to beingness offered a job by one of her clients, an international company based hither. Nevertheless, the candidate then told Ho that she was pregnant.
"She was terrified when she bankrupt the news. She asked me if she was going to lose the opportunity only I told her 'No, don't worry, it's bang-up news' and that I'd speak to the employers.
"Estimate what happened? The next mean solar day I spoke to the visitor's Hour managing director, who then said they could no longer offer the position."
The company had also requested non to reveal the existent reason behind their unwillingness to utilise the female person candidate – which was the fact that she was pregnant. And this was just one of many cases that Sabrina had come beyond.
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THE PUSH TO First A CAREER PLATFORM WITH WOMEN IN Heed
"When I experience these existent-life cases, as a woman myself, I feel ill to my stomach. Why practice women have to go through this? Later on years of frustration, I decided to exercise something about this and I want to make a change and an affect.
"So I started Half The Heaven to connect companies who take the policies and initiatives needed for employees to succeed – especially females. Two years ago, I started asking myself what my passion and what my purpose in life is. I slowly plant that I was questioning myself why I felt angry or frustrated when I met women who were held back due to diverse circumstances or were discriminated. How could I incorporate what I'chiliad passionate about with my expertise and combine it with a problem I saw?"
To date, there are at least 14 companies listed on Half The Sky, including big-proper noun corporations such equally PayPal, DuPont, UPS, Google and more. Each company that gets on board will exist thoroughly vetted. This is to ensure that they have policies for working women in place, like flexible working arrangements, return-to-piece of work policies, paid parental leave, breastfeeding rooms, and leadership opportunities. And if companies don't meet the criteria, the Half The Heaven team volition piece of work with them to implement said policies.
SOFT LAUNCH
"Female person candidates can see everything on our platform," Ho added. "They don't fifty-fifty need to ask certain questions during the interview procedure, because everything they demand to know is up there on the platform already... This transparency gives candidates a sense of ease."
The website had its soft launch in Oct at Marker, The Work Project at Upper-case letter Tower. The by-invite-only event featured a panel discussion on How Diversity And Inclusion Can Attract And Retain Corking Talent.
The speakers included Alexandra McKenzie, deputy loftier commissioner at the British Loftier Commission, Singapore; Sara Cheng, CEO of Fuji Xerox Singapore; Chris Mead, caput of APAC talent conquering for DuPont; and Duncan Hewett, senior vice president and general manager for VMware'south business in Asia Pacific and Nippon.
"We wanted this word to take place at our outset launch event because nosotros desire [these trailblazers] to movement the needle forward with u.s.a. – both the female CEOs and also male leaders," Ho enthused.
WHAT'S Next FOR One-half THE Heaven?
On top of adding value to the careers of other people, Sabrina's ultimate goal is to modify industry standards every bit she believes it'south also a "business imperative" to piece of work towards gender equality in the workplace.
One-half The Heaven will accept its official launch in early 2020, just already, Ho has grand plans to become further with the platform. She hopes to kickoff a Stalk academy just for women, and besides incorporate AI and AR engineering science on the website so that a career adviser is constantly available for female person professionals who may need aid in areas such as practising their interview skills.
But these are her long-term strategies. In the upcoming months, Ho and her team intend to whorl out a more comprehensive list of jobs focused on categories such every bit Professionals, Managers, Executives and Technicians (PMET), full-time to role-time, and back to work returnees. At that place's a demand to level the playing field for women at work and help companies build a diverse and robust workforce – and peradventure One-half The Sky could be the platform that women with career aspirations demand.
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Source: https://cnalifestyle.channelnewsasia.com/access/sabrina-ho-half-the-sky-231996
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