Moving Women with Purpose
Since entering the workforce en masse, women have often been overlooked (if not dismissed outright) for plum international assignments in the corporate world. They’ve been held back by biases made clear as male-dominated corporate cultures assumed a woman’s place was not on a plane. Obviously, this was and is plainly wrong. It’s also reflective of deeper cultural problems in corporations that affect all employees, male and female.
It almost goes without saying, although apparently it needs to be said: If companies are to be lean, effective business enterprises operating at the top of their industries, all of their employees’ skills must be leveraged. By acknowledging this simple truth on International Women’s Day, we started building stronger futures for our companies and our employees.
In PwC’s new survey, “Moving Women with Purpose,” almost 4,000 respondents from all over the world helped us focus on “creating gender-inclusive global mobility.” We found that only 20% of international assignees are women while 71% of female millennials aspire to land an overseas assignment. We also found 41% of female parents would take an international assignment compared to 40% of men.
Communication is the critical component to fix the inequities here. But not in the big megaphone, one-direction, all-hands kind of way. Executives must create a culture of communication, an environment where employees’ desires and needs are heard by those who are making decisions. A curious thing happens to blind spots when executives and their managers actually listen. They go away.
A culture that embraces all of its workers does more than just fix decades of sexism. It builds a stronger and more competitive workforce. It recruits and retains the best.
The PwC CEO Survey found that 72% of CEOs express concern about the availability of key skills which is made even more important because 48% plan an increase in headcount in the coming year. Some 75% of CEOs said that a skilled, educated and adaptable workforce should be a priority for business in the country where they’re based. They see it as a top priority for both business and government.
Think about the new skills that CEOs need to be comfortable with, if current CEO predictions are right. They'll need to be able to operate in a world with multiple stakeholders, different values and diverse attitudes toward laws and rights, all in an increasingly volatile economic context. In addition, they will have to be comfortable with data, analytics and many new technologies. This type of leader will also need to be able to develop new leaders with the right skills and adaptability to deliver the "people edge" required.
It’s that leadership pipeline that the CEOs need to embrace. It’s not enough to encourage the hiring of the best talent and insisting smart people get ahead. In order to drive toward business success, recruiting and retaining employees with strong mobility and repatriation programs is essential. In our mobility study, 69% of leaders in this space agree they move people onto international assignments to ready them for future leadership roles. Yet, corporate culture needs to reflect all of its employees—65% of women said they’d like opportunities to work overseas to be made more transparent in their companies. Only 49% of women tell us their companies have enough international assignee role models for them to follow. For a truly mobile workforce, CEOs and their management structures need to understand and respond to these concerns.
Communication is paramount. Employees who know they’ve been heard are more satisfied and more productive –and more likely to be happy with their roles and understand their future prospects. An executive will not assume a newly married woman doesn’t want an international assignment because they will know whether she does. Just as a manager won’t decide a male employee should be assigned to a post in a developing nation because “of course he wants the adventure” as they will know whether he does. This is because they’ve spent the time learning what their employees want. Imagine that.
Founder Lebanon CACM (NGO)
8 年Mr. Moritz your article is sensible abd sensitive to aspiring dedicated professional women who are not into compromising their profession or ambitions as well as their parenting duties and pleasures. But fighting women and blocking them sometimes starts way ahead of getting to the firm be it PWC or other big powerful type of firm.
PMP? Senior Portfolio & Project Manager, Red Hat Workforce Technology Solutions, IT
8 年It's great to see more research being devoted to these types of changes in the traditional corporate workplace. Most interesting to me: "...41% of female parents would take an international assignment compared to 40% of men." I believe part of the current disproportion in overseas female assignments can be attributed to well-meaning management who assume that mothers have a stronger preference to remain closer with children at home than fathers and therefore may be preemptively taking this into consideration with international work; while it may come from good intentions, it assumes doubly that women do not want to leave their kids and men do not have a problem with doing so. Seeing that parents of either gender are relatively similar in their desire to take an international step in their career is encouraging on both sides of the fence! Separately, it's not surprising that 71% of female millennials are interested in working overseas knowing that this is roughly the female percentage comprising undergraduate study abroad programs -- well above male participation. I agree that further positioning these women to develop international experience will help down the road in their careers to be on the same playing field as their male counterparts in global knowledge when applying for predominantly/historically male C-suite positions. It IS about merit, and allowing for more professionals to have opportunities to gain that experience, be it diversity in gender, race, socioeconomic status, disability, etc.
Metallurgist
8 年The first paragraph is disturbing assertion upon disturbing assertion. Logically, the author cannot make these in reference to any person but himself and any company but his own - I applaud the bold confession. As is usual for this genre, there is little concrete argument, but rather placating sophistry. Consider the first sentences of the second paragraph - who could disagree? But what does it actually say in the context of this article? Then we move on to the ultimate fallacy: opinion polls. It amazes me that anyone exposed to the US political arena attaches any value to these - they change on a whim. The solution is the staple of management consultants: communication. You can always recommend better communication because every company everywhere has examples where breakdowns in communication have resulted in loss. There is nothing profound or even intelligent in making this recommendation. Consider the implication later on the article - that someone may be sent for an oversees assignment without their consent. Can anyone here attest to showing up in the office on a Monday morning and learning they will be relocating to Africa for 24 to 36 months? "It’s not enough to encourage the hiring of the best talent and insisting smart people get ahead." - are we doing away with merit? Lastly, there is this gem: "...65% of women said they’d like opportunities to work overseas to be made more transparent in their companies.". I naturally wondered how the men in the survey felt - turns out PWC did not ask them, or did not bother to publish their answers. So much for a balanced approach.
Wonderful line of thought!!
Chief Administrative Officer
8 年Totally agree! Communication is key.