Insurance Australia Group (IAG), one of Australia’s largest companies, announced that it will double employees’ pay during their first six weeks back from maternity leave. That is on top of 14 weeks of paid maternity leave.
The “welcome back payment” is meant to incentivize these women to stay with the company.
“We found that women who were going on maternity leave were saying ’It’s difficult for me to come back or if I do come back it’s quite difficult to be there,’” said Mike Wilkins, CEO of IAG, “we want to make sure that we attract and retain the best people.”
Photo: Bloomberg
照片:彭博社
Wilkins said that the bonus is cost-effective because it is cheaper than recruiting and training new staffers, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. IAG aims to have one-third of its senior managers be women by 2015.
(Liberty Times)
澳洲最大公司之一的澳洲保險集團宣布,員工休完產假回來上班的頭六週薪水將加倍。這不包括在十四週的帶薪產假中。
Photo: AFP
照片:法新社
這項「歡迎歸隊獎勵金」,意在激勵這些女性繼續留在該公司工作。
「我們發現,休產假的婦女說︰『我回來上班有困難,或者我就算回來了,也很難全心投入』」,澳洲保險集團執行長麥克.威金斯說,「我們想確定我們吸引並留住最好的人才。」
根據澳洲廣播公司報導,威金斯說,這項紅利具成本效益,因為這樣比招募、訓練新人還便宜。澳洲保險集團力求二○一五年前達到高階經理中有三分之一是由女性出任。
(自由時報/翻譯:管淑平)
South Korea’s famous kimchi is falling victim to climate change, with scientists, farmers and manufacturers saying the quality and quantity of the napa cabbage that is pickled to make the ubiquitous dish is suffering due to rising temperatures. Napa cabbage thrives in cooler climates, and is usually planted in mountainous regions where temperatures during the key growing summer season once rarely rose above 25 degrees Celsius. Studies show that warmer weather brought about by climate change is now threatening these crops, so much so that South Korea might not be able to grow napa cabbage one day due to the intensifying heat. “We
It’s widely recognized that there are far more right-handed people than left-handed people in the world. Being right-handed simply means preferring to use one’s right hand for tasks that involve only one hand, such as writing and eating. But have you ever wondered about the possible reasons behind the global dominance of the right hand over the left? As with many complex biological questions, multiple factors appear to be at play. First, one reason seems to be genetics. __1__ Therefore, the global dominance of right-handedness is something that has been passed down through many generations of humans. Next,
On blazing hot summer days, fresh ingredients and cool refreshments straight from a refrigerator feel like nothing short of a miracle. However, chilled foods didn’t begin with modern refrigerators. In fact, the origin of refrigeration precedes the invention of this now-indispensable appliance by centuries. Initially, the quest for refrigeration was motivated more by the desire to cool beverages than to preserve food. The ancient Greeks and Romans, for instance, used snow stored in insulated pits to chill wine. Around the fourth century BC, the Persians made a significant stride in refrigeration techniques when they devised the yakhchal. Fashioned from
Continued from yesterday(延續自昨日) https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/lang Finally, cultural influence also plays a role in which hand people prefer. Historically, items that require physical manipulation have been designed for right-handed use. For example, tools like scissors and musical instruments are often constructed with right-handers in mind, making it difficult for left-handers to use them. __4__ While these factors offer some explanation, they remain speculative. The precise reasons for the global prevalence of right-handed people continue to be debated. Nevertheless, left-handedness will remain a phenomenon of great curiosity among scientists and researchers for many years to come. 最後,文化影響也在人們偏好哪一隻手上扮演一角。歷史上,需要用到肢體操作的物品都被設計來供右手使用。舉例來說,像是剪刀、樂器等工具常常就是考慮到右撇子而打造的,造成左撇子難以使用這些工具。因此,許多天生就是左撇子的人可能就必須透過學習使用右手來適應。 雖然這些因素都提供了一些解釋,但它們仍是推測而已。全球右撇子如此普及,確切的原因仍持續被爭論著。不過,在未來的許多年裡,左撇子依然會是科學家和研究人員相當好奇的一個現象。 What Did You Learn? (A) Specifically, different areas of