What Women Need To Be Successful At Work

As we emerge from the Great Reshuffle, it’s critical that employers take a closer look at the policies and practices in place that make it harder for women to weather the storms of uncertain economic conditions. While women have made steady gains in overall representation, once they start out on a career path, they continue to face obstacles that may keep them from reaching equal footing.?

As talent leaders, we have an important role to play to make the world of work work better for women. This starts with prioritizing pay equity and equal pay for equal work. A pay gap continues to exist for working women and especially underrepresented women of color in the workforce. This is a fundamental piece of creating global opportunity and the conversation can start with transparency. Women want to ensure they are being compensated fairly, and holding hiring managers accountable to be transparent and present fair and equal compensation ranges is a way to build that trust at the very beginning of the employee relationship. Leaders can commit to a culture where women are welcome to have discussions about pay with their managers for better understanding of how they are positioned in the context of their own job, level, and performance.

Here are a few specific actions we as talent leaders can take now to make the workplace better for women, based on our latest LinkedIn Economic Graph data:

Help women become managers: One of the biggest hurdles women face in progressing to leadership within the executive ranks is making it to the people manager stage. We know this level is an important juncture that can serve as a stepping stone into senior management and the path for women starts to close after 10 years. If we can remove the roadblocks and get more candidates into management roles, more women managers will lead to more women executive leaders. It requires organizations to institutionalize programming and work flexibility that supports the career progression of women talent.?

We need to look internally at our own organizations and ensure we have the right policies, systems and culture in place to ensure we are creating an even playing field, across the entire employee experience, where all talent can thrive. This includes not only specific programs aimed to engage and develop women into leadership but also being curious about how we design work for the new world we’re in. The days of “hustle” culture being glamorized are long behind us as employees are now looking to embrace flexibility and work-life balance. Flexibility has become a key factor of employee satisfaction and a key driver to their success.

We’ve seen great strides from mentoring programs designed to support our women employees from underrepresented groups in expanding their network and gaining journey-specific career guidance. We’ve also seen the impact of engaging external partnerships with women-specific organizations to support and empower women in business with an eye towards specific demographics like race and ethnicity, parents, the LGBTQ+ community and disabilities. Often these partner programs can help companies fill internal development gaps to hone executive leadership capabilities and drive transformative personal and professional growth.

Offer benefits women want: We saw throughout the pandemic that many women had to take a step back from their careers as they had to step up at home. For women to thrive, we need to ensure that they have access to benefits that can support them throughout each stage of their careers. Here are a few examples of benefits employers can offer to ease the “professional tax” women currently pay in their careers.

• Support with child and dependent or eldercare
• Fertility and reproductive benefits?
• Part-time and flex return to work options after parental leave
• Working parent coaching to support parents throughout their career and parental journey
• Back-up child care benefits
• Generous paid leave for new parents or caregivers with critically-ill loved ones.

Create flexible workplaces: Companies need to play a leading role in changing how we operate our workplace to ensure women and caregivers have the flexibility they need to continue their careers in the new world of work. Women overwhelmingly want flexibility and are 24% more likely to apply to remote roles on LinkedIn. Companies are starting to take note of this shift and we’ve seen an 83% increase in job posts mentioning flexibility since 2019. Creating flexible work environments benefits all workers, but it can especially be a boon for women who we know are more eager to work from home and are more likely to be juggling caretaking responsibilities. Flexibility is not just part of a competitive talent acquisition strategy to attract top talent, but it can lead to a more equitable workplace for existing workers who need it most.?

For example, organizations can start by normalizing career breaks and moving away from the traditional 9-to-5 work week. LinkedIn data shows that 64% of women globally have taken a career break, and in 2020, the length of career breaks for women increased by almost 40% year over year. That number is almost twice the length of time for men. In addition, 53% of women said they either left or would consider leaving a job due to a lack of flexibility. Finally, remote and hybrid work is here to stay and embracing it can open the door to greater recruitment and retention of women professionals. While some roles will require employees to be on-site, flexibility in work hours can be the difference between many women in frontline work thriving in their careers versus merely surviving.

As talent leaders, we play a critical role in creating a flexible and supportive environment for women and designing roles that are attractive to the way they want to work. You can learn more on how women are faring in the world of work, where we are making progress and where we still have work to do here.?