The 2022 Women in the Workplace report was released in mid-October and many of us have seen the big findings from the report hitting the headlines:
‘It’s a disastrous situation’
We Are in the Midst of a "Great Breakup"
Women in leadership are leaning out (and into a better job)
So what is really going on? What this year’s study uncovered is a trend that is somewhat unsurprising if you’ve been paying attention to the experiences of women in the workplace in recent years.
While the talent pipeline has been suffering from a “broken rung” for a while, and the representation of women took a hit during the pandemic as women left the workforce, we’re now seeing more senior-level women leave their current organizations for companies that are more supportive.
Source: https://womenintheworkplace.com/
When they leave, they take not only their talent but also much of the drive and effort behind creating those supportive work environments which are also increasingly more important to younger talent.
Source: https://womenintheworkplace.com/
And I think it is worth stressing—they aren’t leaving all companies, they are leaving your company.
Women are leaving your company if…
…they are on the receiving end of microaggressions
…they are being passed over for promotions due to biased performance practices
…their efforts that drive employee satisfaction are going unrecognized
…their managers don’t support their career progression
…the organization doesn’t give them flexibility in when and where they work
If you need more convincing on the need to take action, or the “why” of it all, I encourage you to dig into all of the specifics on the talent pipeline, why women are making the switch, the unique experiences of women with compounded marginalized identities, and why flexible work is so important—especially to women.
But if you’re already with me and itching to get to the “okay, so what do we do about it?”, let’s discuss. My short answer is, let’s structure our organizations in a way that empowers managers to make a difference. Let’s set our managers up for success so they can set their direct reports up for success.
“Managers play an essential role in shaping women’s—and all employees’—work experiences. When managers invest in people management and DEI, women are happier and less burned out. They’re also less likely to think about leaving their jobs and more likely to recommend their company as a good place to work—which translates to higher retention and better recruiting.”
This makes a good case for why managers need to play more of a role in our talent challenges, but in order to do this, managers need the proper training, incentives and space to play this essential role.
Source: https://womenintheworkplace.com/
This highlights some of the critical training topics that managers are often missing, but once they have the tools and training, including things like managing employee career development, team morale, progress on DEI and team retention on manager performance evaluations helps to take these concepts from “nice to have,” to a measurable aspect of the organizational culture. Without this, the imbalance in who is supporting diverse talent falls to senior women leaders and… we begin the cycle again.
In future posts, we’ll dig deeper into these different areas of managerial training topics and how they can be more effectively tracked and measured—let us know in the comments which are the biggest hurdles for your organization.
Gild Collective’s Changing Bias Behaviors program delivers targeted content for mid-level managers. This three-phase, impact-driven program is focused on understanding what bias is, what it feels like, and how to identify and interrupt it in the workplace so all talent can advance and thrive.