Employers continue to see high turnover levels and are struggling to attract and retain employees as many workers realize they now have the upper hand in directing their careers.
Or at least, male workers do.
While it’s true that women’s participation rate in the workplace has shown some signs of recovery since hitting a low of 57 percent in January, federal data shows that the share of women working or looking for jobs remains depressed relative to 2019.
Additional data from Stanford’s RAPID Survey showed that, by February 2022, 39 percent of women caregivers had left the workforce or reduced their work hours since the pandemic began—and it was less likely to be due to employer-initiated changes like layoffs and demotions than earlier in the pandemic.
The reason? The brunt of caring for children while working from home or tackling shift work during the pandemic fell almost exclusively on women. Burnout rates climbed as women either shifted to less demanding work or simply dropped out of the workforce. In two-parent families there is often a lack of support for the woman while the man pursues his career. And employers continue to show a hiring bias against those with long gaps in service, while still not providing equal opportunity and pay for women.
Fewer Covid cases, the reopening of schools and child care facilities, and the resurgence of sectors like leisure, hospitality and health services are all factors that can contribute to “getting women back to work,” but it’s up to employers to meet women halfway.
Retention, Recruitment and ‘Returnships’
Employers facing a staffing shortage can do a lot to retain, and even boost, their female employees. Progressive employers will have to own up to providing support and incentives for women to reenter the workforce.
Paramount in achieving this is removing bias from the recruitment process. Map out the recruitment-retention strategy. Job postings should be written to emphasize inclusiveness, and interviewers and hiring managers will need unconscious-bias training, supported by a clear performance management system. Be sure to post salary ranges for positions—this signals that the employer is committed to fair pay and helps showcase your commitment to gender parity.
Employers could consider “returnships”—phased return-to-work programs to re-onboard women returning as new parents or those with gaps in their work histories due to caregiving and family obligations. And to help keep female talent from leaving, organizations should conduct “stay conversations” promoting flexible work arrangements that support and balance family needs with productivity requirements.
Flex Time, or Even a Four-Day Workweek
Paid time-off policies are equally critical. Women are often primary caregivers in their families, and employers need to be more understanding of situations beyond the employee’s control. Parental leave should be broadened: 84 percent of new mothers with six weeks of paid leave return to their employer, while only 56 percent of those with under six weeks of leave do so. Consider expanding parental leave to be a family care leave to give people the time needed to attend to ill family members whether on an intermittent or continuous basis.
Additionally, flex time, remote working, and predictable hours give employers a further avenue to success in keeping women working and combat female “self-extraction” to part-time jobs. Organizations that really push beyond the norm are going to win with women in the future. Studies show that male-female diversity improves organizational outcomes, and those organizations that attract (or re-attract) women to the workforce will win across the board.
An emerging U.S. practice is the flex workweek or four-day workweek. According to a study by workplace equity firm Syndio, 68.5 percent of those with children at home rated having a flexible work schedule as more important now than it was pre-COVID, and 70 percent of those were women. Himalayas, a remote-work job posting site, noted that 109 organizations have adopted the four-day workweek in 2022. For example, Panasonic, Microsoft Japan and Lockheed Martin each have a variety of flex schedules in place, including a four-day week.
Goals and Resources
If the organization hasn’t already developed and established goals around female leadership, do so. This is not necessarily a quota system, but a proactive step that puts promotion to senior positions in the spotlight for women.
Further steps organizations can take to actively bolster the voices of women in the workplace:
- Provide employee resource and support groups at work for all women.
- Create mommy clubs and grief recovery programs.
- Institute mentoring, career mapping, and leadership programs for all career levels to bring women to the table.
- Consider permitting sabbaticals for career growth.
Employers should look at increased cross-training and certification initiatives to improve skill sets and present opportunities to traditionally “male-dominated” hourly jobs that are paid higher (e.g., warehouse and construction jobs).
Better Benefits: What Women Workers Really Want
Beyond PTO and flex working policies, employers can offer benefits that go a long way toward supporting the working realities of women.
Even in the absence of a similar federal commitment, an employer should commit to fair wages (for example, establishing a minimum wage of $15, regardless of federal, state or local mandates), and pay transparency. Prevent interview questions around current pay levels and conduct frequent pay equity audits to stay on top of the market.
Many progressive employers already offer a range of employee benefits that support working mothers, including:
- Child care and elder care benefits
- Support for pregnancy such as financial assistance for fertility, fostering and surrogacy
- Private spaces for milk expressing and/or nursing, and breast milk shipments when on business travel
- On-site day care
- Family support memberships, like Maven
- An employee assistance program that is known and accessible
- Financial planning especially geared to women
- Life planning accounts that provide cash to employees to use as needed.
Clear Communication Is Key
Organizations need to honestly assess their employee value proposition (EVP) from a woman’s perspective. Dig into your data to clearly see the generational makeup of your female workforce, where they are in their careers, and where there are gaps between the needs of women and what your organization offers. Be prepared to realign the EVP to highlight the benefits—beyond but including pay—that will appeal to the talent you need.
Then shout it from the rooftops. Create an open, clear communication strategy that presents the case for recruiting and retaining women, sharing stories about the women in your workplace. Consider creating a handbook with the resources in one place with a lens specific to women, at career and life milestones, for easy access and utilization. Celebrate the contributions of the women in your organization, internally as much as in the outside world.
With the right mix of ideas, thoughtfully and clearly communicated, women will want to come work with you—and stay.
07 September 2022
Category
HR News Article