The firm they created. And peloton gets a rough ride after its exercise bike ad is mocked for being sexist and dystopian. And well be getting the inside track on how happy workers are productive workers much like myself and sally, who are of course always all smiles. Were talking about increasing diversity at the top today. So is positive discrimination in favour of ethnic minorities the answer . What do you think . Let us know just use the hashtag bbcworklife. Hello and welcome to worklife. Britains leading companies are failing to improve Ethnic Diversity at the top. Executive search firm green park found the number of black, asian and minority ethnic or bame Board Directors of major uk firms has stalled at almost every senior level. According to the firm just 3. 3 , senior execs in ftse 100 companies are from an ethnic minority and its barely improved over the last six years. In fact, there are more bosses called steve in the ftse 100 than there are those from ethnic minorities. And that lack of equality is hurting the bottom line as well. An organisation called involve found racial minority discrimination costs the uk economy an estimated 3. 1; billion or £2. 6 billion every year in unused talent. Its a similar picture in the us Research Last year by deloitte found just under a quarter of new directors on boards of fortune 100 companies were from ethnic minorites. With me now is trevor philips, chairman of green park, that has done this research. Trevor, very simply, why have things stalled at 3. 3 . Well, there is a whole series of reasons. We have done this research for five years, and the good news, by the way, is that we have still got a gentle slope for gender. There are more women, although preferentially in the nonexecutive. We wa nt preferentially in the nonexecutive. We want more women in the boardroom, but we before them at the bottom of the boardroom table, i think, at the moment. 0ne ethnicity, i think the problem is this. Company bosses have got used to the idea that women can do thejob. And in their minds now, because they are thinking about the appointment, they can imagine a woman. I still think they cant quite imagine someone who is not white being at the top of the company. And i think that is the fundamental problem. We have got to try to get people to understand that there are people of talent out there who can do the job just as well as anybody else. Trevor, you were just as well as anybody else. Tievoi, you were once just as well as anybody else. Trevor, you were once described as the governments diversities are. Just explain your role and why you havent been successful in this . Diversity tsar. I was chair of something called the equality and human rights commission, which is enforced which is charged with enforcing all human rights and dissemination legislation. I did that for nearly two ten years up to 2012. I think the truth is that we made a difference in getting people to think harder about it, but it will ta ke think harder about it, but it will take quite a long time to get people to do the things that are necessary. I left there six or seven years ago. I think some progress has been made but not enough. But sorry to but in, and time is ticking. Do we need to have legislation to make this change . I dont think so. I think the problem is this. Our work at green park shows that the real problem, the pipeline, that is to say the 100 top executives, at the moment should see an increasing proportion of people from ethnic minorities. That isnt happening. Even amongst women, by the way, the number of ethnic minority women as a proportion of women has fallen. I think the issue here is that nobody is accountable for making sure that the systems are fair, the way of thinking about a wider range of people. So we are proposing that first of all, every company should have what we call cultural risk and its risk register. So the board is looking at this every quarter, and secondly, they should appoint as half of Big American Companies do, a chief diversity officer who is accountable for making things change. I think the real answer to your question is, at the moment, there is nobody who loses theirjob if nothing changes. Can ijustjump in and ask about america . You mention chief diversity officer is. I dont know if you know about the National Football league and what is called the rooney rule. |j National Football league and what is called the rooney rule. I do. I will explain it. If there is a vacancy for a head coach, which in america, there is massive vacancies, there has to be anything minority candidate interviewed. Do you think they should be such a role in the uk for ceos . I do, absolutely, and the National Football league experience is that it made a huge change. There is that it made a huge change. There is an interesting number which says that i think in the first 80 years of the league, they had a handful of minority coaches. When they brought in the rooney rule, they suddenly had about one third of the coaches who are african american. The point is, the talent is there, but you have to do essentially make the companies, make the leaders, look at the minority candidates. And when we look at ethnic minorities, that is a very, very broad church, and within that there is discrimination, isnt there . There is a very, low, low number of black men and women in very senior positions compared to whether ethnic minorities. Very senior positions compared to whether ethnic minoritiesm very senior positions compared to whether ethnic minorities. It is an interesting point. The truth is, some minority groups are doing better than others. So, frankly, for example, the minority executives you will see will typically be of south asian background. But having said that, what you will also see in any company, if you want to find the south della senior south asian person, you were looking finance, not sales and marketing. So i think the first thing people need to do is be scared of discussing race in the boardroom. I think that is the big issue. Nobody minds thinking about lg bt issue. Nobody minds thinking about lgbt issues issue. Nobody minds thinking about lg bt issues or issue. Nobody minds thinking about lgbt issues or gender but they get terribly afraid about race. Frankly. It is notjust in the boardroom, trevor, believe me it is a very sensitive subject within corporate world completely. Then they need to get somebody in. I mean, you know, isuppose we they need to get somebody in. I mean, you know, i suppose we are doing this. But lots of people need to do this. They need someone to help them navigate that process. Trevor phillips, chairman of green park, thank you. Do tell us about this. Use our hashtag. Lets take a look at some of the other stories making the news. The co founders of google have announced they are stepping down from running the online giants parent company. Larry page and sergey brin will leave their respective roles as alphabets ceo and president but will remain on the compa nys board. A new study says the growth in global co2 emissions has slowed this year, as coal use in the us, china, india, and europe dropped. The report was issued at the Climate Change conference in madrid, but experts have warned that the drop in coal is offset by the strong growth in natural gas and oil consumption. Uk Prime Minister borisjohnson says he plans to push ahead with a Digital Services tax on mulitnational technology companies. He says its to ensure they pay their fair share. It come as the us is threatening to impose tariffs on a number of french products such as cheese, champagne and handbags after france said it would impose a 3 Digital Services tax on technology companies. Now, lets talk about something that emerged overnight. The us house of representatives has passed a bill which aims to counter chinas treatment of uighur muslims by imposing sanctions on chinese officials. The bill would still need approval from the senate and President Trump to become law. But already, the move has triggered an angry response from beijing. Sharanjit leyljoins us from our Asia Business hub in singapore. There has been so many stories this week that will cause the relationship between china and the us to become more and more fractious, and this is another one. Absolutely. This is another one. Of course, it was signed by President Trump last week, the other law you mention, aimed at supporting pro democracy campaigners in hong kong. This is all complicating the ongoing trade talks between the worlds biggest economies, and that in turn has pressured asian markets lower today. So as you say, really furious reaction from china after the us house of representatives passed that bill. It is really aimed at combating the mass detention of muslims in shin jang. At combating the mass detention of muslims in shinjang. The bill still requires Senate President ial approval, as you said, and will mark the most significant attempt to pressure china over its treatment of uighurs and other muslim minorities in xinjiang. As you say, they could be other potential restrictions on sanctions and other chinese officials found responsible. Thank you very much. So lets show you the numbers. This has really pushed down the markets in asia. Japan and hong kong both losing over a percent today, following on from wall street the night before in the us. Lets have a look at europe trading right now to see how things are going. The european markets have been trading for about a0 minutes. Im hoping those numbers will appear next, if we can have those. The ftse, as you can see, down as well, but once again, germany and france bucking the trend. Really interesting, because we have that nato summit under way just interesting, because we have that nato summit under wayjust north of london at the moment, and you have got borisjohnson, london at the moment, and you have got boris johnson, angela london at the moment, and you have got borisjohnson, angela merkel, and Emmanuel Macron altogether for discussions about all sorts. So that will be an interesting day ahead, and we will keep you across it at the bbc. James, back to you. Do you know all of those 29 nato leaders . I got most of them wrong this morning but i got donald trump right. Now to the us. We can get the latest on an advert from high end exercise bike maker peloton, which is being mocked on social media as being sexist and out of touch. The ad sees a woman receive an exercise bike for christmas from her husband. Not very 2019 Vivienne Nunis has more. Yes, the ad which has been seen over a million times on youtube, shows the woman receiving and exercise bike. She then participates in pelotons live streamed exercise classes. The advert has not gone down well online. Some users have filled their own satirical versions, whereas others have accused it of being sexist and classist, since the bikes are priced at over £2000 each. The ad has attracted so much criticism, the compa nys the ad has attracted so much criticism, the companys share price closed 9 lower on tuesday. But it is worth pointing out that although the ad may be cringeworthy, it has done itsjob the ad may be cringeworthy, it has done its job creating the ad may be cringeworthy, it has done itsjob creating publicity the ad may be cringeworthy, it has done its job creating publicity for peloton. So there you have it. A bit of a pr disaster for peloton, i so there you have it. A bit of a pr disasterfor peloton, i have so there you have it. A bit of a pr disaster for peloton, i have to say. Now, we have got with this, a Jemima Gibbons this morning. A look at the papers. We have picked out the financial times. A change of the top at google . Yes, it really is the end of an era. Larry page and serge brin started off at stanford with this amazing product that they couldnt imagine how far it would go, and in 1998. It was in a garage at the time . Well, was it in a garage . Wherever they were, it was. Halls of residence at stanford it was a tiny thing, now they are handing over. They stepped back a ceo is awhile ago, but it is interesting to see how their new boss will do now. He has kept a low profile so we do not know much about him. We know quite a bit about him, because he is the chief executive of google, has been for some time. Thats true. He will now be chief executive of alphabet and google. That is one of the biggestjobs in the world. When we think about how pervasive googlies, one day we asked on this programme, can you live without google . Because when you think about google maps, gmail, the cloud, google search, so many people were just using it all the time and dont even realise. Yes, it is going to be a toughjob, clearly, because now, google, there is so much controversy around their main products, and obviously, when they set out, they would have had no idea that these sort of privacy issues, hate issues, there is a lot of stuff that the new guy has got to deal with, obviously. He of stuff that the new guy has got to dealwith, obviously. He is not of stuff that the new guy has got to deal with, obviously. He is not new, asi deal with, obviously. He is not new, as i have mentioned. He is not new, no, that is true. But he is now going to take the limelight. You have got your cube in there, your google cars. A lot more added to his portfolio. Absolutely. Next one, have you picked out something about social media . Yes, something about social media . Yes, so causing a bit of a stir this morning as the uk press gazette. They got their politicaljournalist nominated for the award this year, and it is an all male shortlist. No women . It is causing a bit of a stir. There is Laura Kuenssberg here at the bbc, pippa crerar at the mira. It seems strange that there is no women. There are more men on the list called john than any women. Like the men called steve in charge of companies, yes. And it is causing a huge stir in social media, going viral, where people are saying, come on, how out of touch are you at the press gazette . Will they have to redo that list, as the grammys have in recent years . I will be very surprised, but i think next year we will certainly see a lot of women in the list. They will make sure that happens. These sort of thing is always cause a stir on twitter, but it is very much people talking in their own bubble. There is a lot of fury, a lot of angen there is a lot of fury, a lot of anger. There are a lot of journalists on twitter yes, journalists, politicians. It is a perfect story for them, but as to whether the public really care that much about it, its hard to tell. M is hard to tell, youre absolutely right. Thanks for being with us. Still to come. Working towards being all smiles we get the inside track on the connection between happiness and productivity. Yes, it is really interesting, actually. You are with worklife from bbc news. The average price of fuel in the uk fell for the forth in the uk fell for the fourth consecutive month in november, according to the rac. Will there be more good news for drivers ahead . Lets find out. Joining us now is Simon Williams from the rac. Simon, all i hearfrom people who drive is that it is costing them too much. So what is going on . Morning, sally. The price of fuel should be coming down more than it is, but u nfortu nately, retailers down more than it is, but unfortunately, retailers are not passing on the price. Instead, what you see is a lot of in store offers from the supermarkets, big for retailers. They only have 20 of forecourts, that sell nearly half of all feel, so they are really important is in the overall mix of fuel retailing and helping decide what the average prices across the uk are. At the moment, they are all encouraging people into store to spend money and then actually get some money off at the pumps, and whenever we see that, that means that the price of fuel on the forecourt is too expensive and should be cut. So we are calling on the supermarkets to actually lead a round of price cuts this week in time for christmas to make the cost of getting around that bit cheaper. James here. In the longer term, what you think will happen to prices next year, past christmas . We are certainly due a cut now. It is hard to predict what is going on. 0pec, the organisation of the producing countries, is due to meet on thursday and friday in vienna, and they are to carry on restricting the supply. They have been cutting 1. 2 Million Barrels a day out of circulation for a while. 0il Million Barrels a day out of circulation for a while. Oil has been trading at around 60 a barrel. That generally means pretty reasonable prices. If you recall backin reasonable prices. If you recall back in 201a, oil was 115 a barrel, and then 0pec kind of oversupplied market and it dropped to 26 a barrel in 2017. Thats when we had a pound a litre, if you remember. The average price is now £1. 26 for petrol, £1. 30 for diesel, but that is 5p petrol, £1. 30 for diesel, but that is spa petrol, £1. 30 for diesel, but that is 5p a litre cheaper in supermarkets at the moment, which is why they are offering those in store discounts. There is normally only about 3 difference to the uk average, meaning other retailers, may be the ones that are not near supermarkets, arent doing enough to pass on savings at the pump. Simon williams, thank you so much. Let me remind you that all the breaking stories from this morning that we have not got time to cover on in this 30 Minute Programme are online. You can see the conservatives there pledging £a. 2 billion for local transport. And of course, other election pledges are there in detail as well. Youre watching worklife. A reminder of our top story a new report warns britains Top Companies like black, asian and minority ethnic bosses, with only 3 of the ftse100 heads from an ethnic minority. Pretty shocking, really, and we were discussing how to make that change. Lets tell you about one element in the workplace that i think all of us would agree with. Im sure that you can tell from our sunny dispositions that we both love ourjobs here presenting worklife. And apparently, if you love your job, you are more productive. But not everyone is so overjoyed to be at work and the long hours, dull repetitive tasks, and demoralising Office Politics can take a hit on a companys productivity. But a new study says a happy worker can boost that productivity by 13 . Academics monitored the sales output of 1,800 Call Centre Workers in the uk and found perhaps unsurprisingly that they brought in more business over the course of what they said was a happy week than in a sad week. Shall we have a chat . with us now is professor jan emmanuel de neve, associate professor of strategy at Said Business School at the university of oxford. He was one of the three academics involved in the study. Isnt it obvious that happy workers are better workers . It may feel intuitive to most people, and hopefully also to general managers, but the fact was, it was never actually proven causally with robust evidence from the field. So it took us over evidence from the field. So it took us over four evidence from the field. So it took us over four years, evidence from the field. So it took us over four years, collaborating with bt to get to the bottom of this. Tell is a bit more about what you actually found. We have highlighted a few elements, but what did you find . The headline result, as you observe, is that in weeks where workers report being happy, and we posted every single week and thursday afternoons. Is that the best that my current no, it is just to be consistent the choice was that every week would pass, all these Bt Call Centre employees, and for pm on thursday. We did this and matched it with the granular performance of these employees, and the result was that the results when people reported being happy rather than unhappy, we had a 13 increase in sales. We discussed this before. What is interesting and striking is that it what is interesting and striking is thatitis what is interesting and striking is that it is not that they work longer hours or that they take shorter breaks. It really runs through being more efficient while on the job. That translates into doing more calls per hour and converting more of these into sales, without reducing customer satisfaction. We all go through good and bad days. I wondered, some days people are just not going to be happy in theirjob. They will just come not going to be happy in theirjob. They willjust come in and try to get through the day, but they wont say that that was a happy day. Is happiness unrealistic goal . M say that that was a happy day. Is happiness unrealistic goal . It would be completely unrealistic to think that we can be ten out of ten all of our lives, but there is a lot of room for improvement, especially in the workspace, to try and get the numbers up. The latest data suggest that less than 20 of people are observed being actively engaged in theirjob and being happy with it. In fact, if you go through a list of all the stuff one dozen a day, there isa all the stuff one dozen a day, there is a list of about 30 possible categories of things you do in the day, work figures right near the bottom, and in this particular study, there was only one thing worse than being at work, which was being sick in bed. Depends what your box set is, doesnt it into a bank but if we were just to say that for general managers, we point out that this is actual scientific proof now that a happy workers are more productive worker. So from their point of view, the general manager needs to think, 0k, what can i do to improve happiness levels, well being and work . That is the new sort of buzzword in management, isnt it . And well being is the right thing to do, and and well being is the right thing to do, and i think the study for the right first time shows that there is a Business Case for it. Now that we have an empirical foundation, the question is what do we do to try to increase well being . You question is what do we do to try to increase well being . You are surprised we had a big study of over 20,000 people. 20,000 people mapping out the drivers of employee well being. Out the drivers of employee wellbeing. What are they . I am fascinated out of 12 possible things you can imagine, from pay to Career Opportunities to work life balance, three things that really stood out, and i will give you the top three, one is paid, needless to say. Number three. Only number three . Pay matters. Very much indeed. Moving to the top two, one is actually social capital on the job. What does that mean . That sounds like business speech. Friends, do you have a friend at work . Do you appreciate your line manager . Do they appreciate you . So the quality of interpersonal relations on thejob. The quality of interpersonal relations on the job. And what is number two . Do you find the job intrinsically and there were interesting and purposeful . So what aboutjobs interesting and purposeful . So what about jobs that are interesting and purposeful . So what aboutjobs that are not interesting, when you are next to a Conveyor Belt . Precisely. So that is why, talking to people all the time, we can encourage more people to be actively engaged, because some jobs are obviously more difficult and tedious, but the future of work may change, hopefully for the better. Tedious, but the future of work may change, hopefully for the battenm has been fascinating. I really appreciate you coming in and sharing your thoughts. Thank you very much thank you for having me. My top three are slightly different. Mind to at the top of the show, we asked you about increasing diversity today. Is positive discolouration the answer . Lets look at what you have been saying. Jay says must avoid appearance of tokenism. Is there an underlying cause, eg access to education . So it wasnt about gender specifically, but of course, gender is another similar issue. Kevin hartman says no, it should a lwa ys Kevin Hartman says no, it should always be the best person for the job, so kevin clearly not for positive discrimination. So come on, james, what is the top of your list and the Work Environment . I thought you are going to say working with me well, the First Programme ever, so you are the best presenter i have ever worked with. 0h, bless you iam the 0h, bless you i am the only presenter he has ever worked with, actually, but 0k what is for me . I think it is time out. I think it is the work life mix, balance, all that kind of stuff. I sound like a right hippie, dont i . that is worklife for another day. I will see you again soon. Thank you very much, by. We have had a rather cold and frosty start to the day across southern areas of england, with patchy fog this morning in the south east as well, but further north and east, where the front which you can see quite clearly here on the satellite imagery. This band of club moving its way into Northern Ireland and the west of scotland. That is bringing us some more outbreaks of rain. That will ease off as it pushes south and east woods. It will be replaced by a mixture of sunny spells, showers and blustery winds. The fog in the south east lift up into low cloud, and maximum temperatures today about 7 10d. Through tonight, we will continue with some blustery showers across scotland, and elsewhere, some clear spells, perhaps in pockets of frost again down towards the south east of england. Down towards there, temperatures possibly sing above freezing, about 3 6d. 0n temperatures possibly sing above freezing, about 3 6d. On thursday, it will turn quite windy for all of us, but especially towards Northern Areas. With that, this weather system areas. With that, this weather syste m m oves areas. With that, this weather system moves on, and it will bring some particularly heavy rain across Northern Ireland and scotland. Some of that also edging its way into Northern Areas of england, notice the greens across the west of scotland. During thursday and into friday, we can see a lot of room for falling, maybe 70 80 millimetres. 0ver higher ground, persistent and heavy rain. Areas which have not received too much rainfall so far during the autumn. Further south and east, dry with more sunny spells in the south east. Temperatures 8 10d, but remarkably, throughout thursday night, temperatures will rise through the uk. Temperatures in double figures in most areas, 11 12. We start friday morning with a lot of cloud, outbreaks of rain, rain at times for much of the day, the more persistent rain into North Western parts, gradually spreading south eastwards. Something a bit chillier therefore coming in in North Western areas. Temperatures coming down here, but towards the south east. Temperatures will stay up at around 13 celsius. Into the weekend, a ridge of High Pressure before another weather system pushes its way in, more so on sunday. It will turn chillier again before the end of sunday. Temperatures will drop down, rain at times over the weekend. Also some dry weather with sunny spells. That is all from me. Goodbye. Youre watching bbc news at nine with me, ben brown, in hertfordshire, where World Leaders are arriving for todays nato summit. As he arrived, the Prime Minister said nato couldnt be complacent, and called for unity amongst the leaders of the 70 year old alliance. All for one, one for all, that is the core of the article five nato security guarantee, and it works. It provides peace and prosperity for hundreds of millions of people. Caught on camera at the summit canadas president trudeau and other
vimarsana.com © 2020. All Rights Reserved.