It’s a really sensitive issue – not only for women but also for their employers. First, let’s look at women. If a colleague of a female employee gets preferential treatment at work, whether it’s a pay rise or a promotion, and there are obvious signs the female employee missed out solely because she’s knocked up, then pregnancy discrimination has occurred…
Read on…

A very interesting article from “theAge.com.au” and the comments that follow are must read.

What do you say?

Professional Networking is the creation and cultivation of business friendships and acquaintances. Most professionals neglect this important aspect of career development and scrambling to create new professional relationships is something goes wrong with their career or job.

Not only of great help to a job hunter, one must integrate regular professional networking must in the overall career development process.

 Over the years, entrepreneur Anuradha Acharya has found invaluable contacts and potential business development opportunities through professional networking. We present a short interview with her on her thoughts on how networking has helped her towards running a successful business.

Question:

There are quite a few online networking tools online now for example LinkedIn and Ryze. How have these helped and benefited you in local or global networking through your entrepreneurial career?

 Anuradha:

It has been very helpful both for coordinating and keeping in touch with people that I already know and those that you would want to know. These tools allow you to search for right people within an organization and also find out who can help you reach them.

Question:

In your opinion how does networking help entrepreneurs and business owners? Is professional networking in the business world different from the corporate world?

Anuradha:

Networking is extremely useful for entrepreneurs as it gives them access to a range of people like

• - Potential business development opportunities
• - Potential recruits
• - Potential investors
• - Free publicity of your company

Question:

Professional networking is not only about initiating new contacts but nurturing better relations with existing ones. You had mentioned that you have been in continuous touch with your former clients/customers; do you think keeping them apprised of the new solutions and offerings by Ocimum has helped in your company’s success?

Anuradha:

Absolutely.. It is used to create a platform for keeping them informed about activities at Ocimum and new launches. It also helps me organize and visit customers in cities that I am in to be able to nurture those relationships.

Question:

What other tips on professional networking you can share with us which can be of use not only to an entrepreneur but also to any professional to be integrated as a routine towards personal career development? In your opinion what are the best ways to build and develop a strong career network?

Anuradha:

Any professional can gain from being exposed to a large network. It allows better access into opportunities and being able to connect with the right people allows them to scout for opportunities, talk to peers in different companies to learn and become part of other circles.

 Tips-

- Find time to network.. its about who you know, not always about what you know

- Don’t network with anyone. Find relevant contacts that you can develop over the years.

- Work on your existing contacts, since every relationship especially the oldest one that counts

 About Anuradha

Prior to founding Ocimum Biosolutions with two other partners, Subash Lingareddy and Dr. Sujata Pammi, Ms.Acharya has had rich experience in the Telecom, IT and entrepreneurship arenas. She worked for a startup in the telecommunications space called Mantiss Information and a consulting firm called SEI Information where she helped create a social networking site for entrepreneurs. Both Mantiss and SEI were based in Chicago, IL. Her experience is backed by education at premier institutions like the Indian Institute of Technology at Kharagpur, India (IIT) and University of Illinois where she has two Post Graduate degrees in Physics and MIS.

• Could all your most important tasks be done in fewer hours?
• Could less important tasks be discontinued or done by someone else?
• Could your job be shared with another part-time employee?

Get information about your salary and benefits.

• Assess changes to salary, leave earning, health insurance cost, and retirement and life insurance benefits.
• Could you afford to earn less pay and pay more for insurance?
• Could you do with less leave and potentially less retirement?

Research policies and practices

• Study Government wide policies in this guide.
• Consult your supervisor about your agency’s policies and programs.
• Talk to part-time employees about their experiences.

Devise a strategy.

• Propose restructuring your full-time job into a part-time job.
• Find a partner and propose a job sharing arrangement.
• Apply for any part-time/job sharing vacancies.

Make a written proposal.

• Propose a schedule and explain how your duties would be handled.
• Focus on employer’s needs, not your own.
• Suggest a pilot test where managers, clients, and co-workers could assess the arrangement.

*This information was adapted from Flexibility at Work … 5 Steps To Get You Started, a brochure produced by the Association of Part-time Professionals.