Women employees hardier than male counterparts

JOHANNESBURG - Women in business are more resilient than men, a report released on Wednesday showed.

"Resilience has been identified by corporate leaders globally as the most critical factor in helping businesses survive in tough economic times --and the good news for the fairer sex is that women are found to be more resilient than men," the report said.

Research for "Women Leaders and Resilience: Perspectives from

the C-Suite" was undertaken globally by consultancy Accenture.

The report showed that 71 percent of more than 500 corporate

leaders surveyed in 20 countries believed that resilience, defined

by Accenture as the ability to overcome challenges and turn them

into opportunities, was a key capability in determining who to

retain.

Within a South African context, 56 percent of respondents said

women were very to extremely resilient and only 44 percent reported

men as very to extremely resilient.

Another encouraging finding for the South African market was

that 80 percent more companies were preparing more women for senior

management roles than in the last five years.

This was a 33 percent increase on 2005 figures, Accenture said.

The report also found that in South Africa, 40 percent more

companies were preparing more women for senior management roles

compared to last year.

It said 100 percent of South African companies surveyed were now

providing career enhancing assignments to prepare women for

leadership roles with 75 percent providing internal mentors to

ensure this took place.

Commenting on the local results, Louise Temkin, senior

executive: research for Accenture SA said the findings, of the

report demonstrated that South African companies were committed to

making a difference for women in the workplace.

The survey also asked respondents what actions their companies

had taken to support women's career development and almost five in

10 said they provided internal mentors or work-life balance

programmes.

South Africa lagged behind the global trend of providing

work-life balance programmes for women, with only 38 percent of the

company's surveyed providing access to these programmes.

Respondents associated resilience and adaptability most

frequently with seniority.

"They said senior managers are most resilient, followed by

middle managers and, last, by employees below manager," the report

found.

"By providing high-performing women with a variety of

experiences, including training, mentoring and 'stretch' roles, to

increase their resilience and confidence to prepare them to succeed

in senior leadership, leading organisations are ensuring a

sustainable and motivated workforce for the future," Temkin added.

- Sapa