PR Highlight : Press Release SpotlightAnd the Winner Is…Each quarter, HR Marketer spotlights an outstanding press release from our members. Winning members receive a free Direct2Net Internet "wire" press release via HR Marketer – valued at nearly $300. Our summer "spotlight" release is from Jean Fulton, Manager of Corporate Communication for ISR, an international employee research and consulting firm. The release focuses on the different motivators of performance that separate male and female executives, a perennial subject for HR media. The release does a fine job of summarizing the key research in its engaging headline and lead paragraph, while making sure to position ISR as the producer of the survey. Overall findings and perspectives of the survey are conveyed in the first several paragraphs, and deeper, more detailed information can be found as the reader continues. A sampling is below. Congratulations to Jean and ISR! Motivating Men and Women at Work: Relationships vs. Rewards Survey reveals critical differences in what male and female execs value at work CHICAGO, 2 August 2004 - Female and male executives in the U.S. differ markedly in the factors driving their level of employee commitment, according to a recent study conducted by ISR, a global employee-research and consulting firm. Female senior executives in the U.S. attach the greatest importance to what might be called "communal" aspects of the workplace, such as working relationships, customer quality focus, and communication. By contrast, male senior executives are driven more by personal-reward factors, such as career development and reward. (See Table 1 below.) ISR defines employee commitment as a worker's willingness to stay employed at their workplace and their feelings about the company - i.e., their overall sense of pride in the organization and whether the employee would recommend it as a place to work. Employee commitment, part of the larger construct of employee engagement, affects key business outcomes such as financial performance and levels of turnover. Kim Morris, Project Director at ISR, commented about these findings: "This data suggests one reason why women still lag behind men in the senior management ranks in the U.S. - they tend to focus less than men on their advancement. They assume that focusing primarily on the health of the organization will result in recognition and promotions. Perhaps their relative unwillingness to call attention to their own achievements, while helping the company to move forward, is holding them back to some degree." Watch for another press release spotlight in the next issue of Fish Rap. |