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Last month, with the release of the 2020 Women in the Workplace study, we examined the challenges that are leading 1 in 4 women to consider downshifting their careers or leaving the workforce—a statistic we are seeing come to life in recent jobs report data.
Since then, research from Deloitte has highlighted an additional symptom of the pandemic—a stalling of advancement and career progression for women. The study found that ”nearly 70% of women who said they’ve experienced adverse changes to their daily routines during the pandemic believe these shifts have prevented—or will prevent—them from progressing.”
As we continue to wrap our heads around the concerning data points, we also ask ourselves what can be done to retain women in our organizations to avoid a reversal of the representation progress that has been made in recent years.
We’ve explored recommendations from a variety of sources and are guiding our clients to focus on 7 things to benefit all employees, but with a specific emphasis on the challenges and biases women in your organizations may be facing.
Approach performance reviews differently. As many organizations are nearing an end-of-year review cycle, performance criteria must be reset to adjust expectations given the challenges created by the pandemic. This adjustment should be applied in a uniform way across all employees to ensure continued objectivity during the review process—a key area where bias can creep in and negatively impact diverse talent. When it comes to promotions and pay raises, ensure that these positive outcomes are tracked to ensure fair treatment. Even small gains in recognition can contribute to retention with 55% of Deloitte survey respondents identifying promotion or pay raise as a beneficial action their employer could take to support them.
Implement and model flexible work practices and boundary setting. As employees are juggling responsibilities in both their work and personal lives—often in the same hours of the day—providing opportunities for flexibility and boundary setting is critical. Different teams in different job functions may approach this in different ways—for example, does it benefit the team to have set meeting hours during the day that allow for “deep work” to take place based on each individual’s schedule? Does a daily standup meeting help to get everyone on the same page before tackling work in various ways throughout the day? What are the clear expectations around respecting time blocks on calendars, email response times, and the possibility of interruption from a child during meetings? Once organizations and teams set these practices, they must be carried out and modeled consistently to ensure that all employees can benefit from them.
Adjust work expectations. At the start of the pandemic, many took a short-term “we’ll fight through this” approach. Attempting to deliver the same amount of work, in the same amount of time, with less resources and higher stress, anxiety and distraction. While many have attempted to slog through it, the result has been burnout. Given that there is no end in sight, it’s time for organizations to take a more realistic approach to output. This means some combination of shifting goals, shifting deadlines, shifting scope, or adding resources in order to deliver work.
Improve and tailor benefits for the unique needs created by the pandemic. Evaluate the benefits currently available to employees and ensure that they are aware of how they can help. Policies related to sick leave, mental health resources, and childcare programs may be the best places to explore expansion, but each organization should tailor their approach to meet employees where they are.
Continue development opportunities. In addition to policies that support, continuing to develop talent is critical to retention and ensuring that employees feel like they are still on a path to advancement. These development opportunities may fall into leadership programs, mentoring, networking, learning opportunities and skill development. During a time when it’s “all hands on deck,” it may also be a great time to offer stretch assignments that can benefit them in their career development in the long term. It is also important to “ensure that such opportunities are offered in a variety of ways and times to ensure more women in your workforce can leverage them” (Deloitte).
Guide managers to support reports with empathy and transparency. Managers play a central role in their direct reports’ experience at work. Companies will benefit from ensuring that managers have the tools they need to feel comfortable reaching out to check on mental health, work/life balance, career development and expectations. By opening the door for this type of empathy-driven conversation, managers can better set their teams on a path for success and retention in the long-term. This outreach is especially important for Black women who “are less likely than women overall to report that their manager has inquired about their workload or taken steps to ensure that their work-life needs are being met” (Women in the Workplace).
Resume inclusion efforts. Many organizations put diversity and inclusion on the back burner at the start of the pandemic, but the presence and effects of bias are even more prominent now. Focusing these efforts on education and elimination of microaggressions can have a significant impact on the level of belonging women—especially Black women—feel in their organizations. Consider new ways to create an inclusive environment, even virtually, for all employees. As the lines between personal and professional lives are blurred, it becomes even more taxing to avoid bringing your full self to work due to discomfort or bias. By embracing each person’s unique talents and challenges, everyone has a greater ability to be productive and valuable to the team and organization overall.
Each of these recommendations can be approached in a variety of ways to best fit the needs of your organization. If you are struggling with where to begin, we always recommend asking your employees—where are they feeling the most challenged, and what looks like help to them?
If you need support (because we all do!) during this time, reach out and we can help you to focus your efforts for your company. For a bonus deep dive on each of these recommendations, check out our 7 day Retaining Women Challenge and subscribe to the Gild newsletter for future challenges.
Day 1: Approach performance reviews differently.
Day 2: Implement and model flexible work practices.
Day 3: Adjust work expectations.
Day 4: Improve and tailor benefits.
Day 5: Continue development opportunities.
Day 6: Guide managers to support reports.
Day 7: Resume inclusion efforts.