Why Women Leave
Araceli Higueras
Author | Product Owner | <How to be the CEO of your Career> Coach | UX Designer | Copywriter | Business Analyst
o???Research
·+·?It's not me, it's you.
o???A goldfish in murky water
·+·?(Universal) Factors that impact our decision to stay or leave
·+·?Why did people leave?
o???#?Organisational culture
o???#?Prospects for career progression
o???#?Support from line manager
o???#?Amount of work
o???#?The day-to-day work itself
·+·?People in the room and conversation snippets
o???How can we upskill line managers?
o???Intersectionality
o???Jobshare
o???Like Yoda: do or don't do, there's no try
o???Constant Communication
o???Inclusion Targets
·???????Access to the report
Why do people leave? And Why do we care?
Joy Burnford (Founder and CEO, Encompass Equality Ltd) hosted yesterday's event on Why Women Leave and shared her passion for the retention of female talent on the workforce.
Yesterday there was the presentation of a research that Encompass Equality has conducted with 3,916 women across ages, races, sectors. Then a panel discussion and last some Q&A.
Research
There were some positives:
·???????67% of the women speak positively of the culture they're in
·???????68% of the women speak positively of their day-to-day work
·???????74% of the women speak positively of the support they receive from their manager
·???????75% of the women speak positively of the flexibility (location) they enjoy
·???????82% of the women speak positively of the team they work with
However there is on average?38% of women who are likely to leave?their job within the next 2 years. And Encompass consider this a conservative figure because they had two types of respondents:
>> Segmenting the data by those who answered directly (presumably less concerned of their answer going back to their employees), the answer went up to 52%
There was only one segmentation that showed a difference in the % of women that are planning to leave, it was by?ethnicity.
It's not me, it's you.
<Stop Fixing Women> by Catherine Fox is hardly hot off the press. This school of thought and research to prove it has been around at least since the first edition was published in 2017.
If you have been around the DEI space, you may have heard about it already.
There are?systemic?circumstances that hamper women's progress. They key to retention is to fix organisations.
Organisations need to have a greater focus on flexibility (how employees work: compressed hours, job-sharing, 9 day fortnights etc).
Offering?support for specific challenges?is important but they advised it can be treated as an indicator of a bigger cultural problem. Offering specific support is often done at the expense of not addressing the 5 key factors highlighted below.
A goldfish in murky water
Edward Haigh presented the research most eloquently and described the situation, the attempts to "fix women" with the following simile: < take a goldfish out of the water (out of its tank), clean it up.. and then put it back in the dirty murky water".
(Universal) Factors that impact our decision to stay or leave
In no particular order:
·???????Support from your line manager
·???????Prospect for career progress
·???????Ability to work in a flexible way (Location)
·???????Ability to work in a flexible way (Time)
·???????Salary and benefits
·???????Menopause symptoms
·???????Childcare considerations
·???????Eldercare considerations
·???????The work itself
·???????The organisation's culture
·???????The amount of work
·???????Special leave
·???????Physical or mental health
·???????Training and development
·???????The team?
They presented the results of the research in a Retention Matrix (TM) .?
(TM)
The two axis are:
·???????X: what impact do these factors have? more positive or more negative. The positive impact factors need to be dealt with first, otherwise addressing the negative impact factors is not going to make a difference.
·???????Y: how much impact do these factors have? smaller or bigger
We saw the retention matrix for those respondents who had recently left and there was a substantial shift into the "high risk zone" quadrant: more negative impact and bigger impact.
Why did people leave?
5 main factors shifted significantly for the leavers
#?Organisational culture
65% of women who left their employer said culture had a 'huge' or 'significant' bearing on their decision to leave.
Women who view the culture of their organisation negatively are?1.8 times more likely than average to leave?their employer (68% compared with the 38% average mentioned above).
#?Prospects for career progression
70% of women who left their employer said prospects had a 'huge' or 'significant' bearing on their decision to leave.
Only 38% of women in their 40s feel positive about career progression prospects, compared to 65% of women in their 20s.
#?Support from line manager
82% of women who left their employer said their line manager had a 'huge' or 'significant' bearing on their decision to leave.
Women who view the support of their line manager negatively are?1.7 times more likely than average to leave?their employer (64% chance of leaving compared with the 38% average mentioned above).
#?Amount of work
31% of women in the survey claimed to be overworking by at least 10 hours per week.
Women who are overworking 80 or more hours per week, or 40 hours of overtime, are?1.5 times more likely than average to leave?their employer (57% chance of leaving compared with the 38% average).
#?The day-to-day work itself
85% of women who left their employer said day-to-day work had a 'huge' or 'significant' bearing on their decision to leave.
People in the room and conversation snippets
The willingness to have conversations - even when we don't have answers to the topics at hand - is key. The willingness to listen.
That's why reverse mentoring programmes have made such a difference for leaders.
A culture of allyship is a strong foundation.
How can we upskill line managers?
Soft skills and pastoral care become training topics. Are soft skills valued in your organisation?
·???????building relationships
·???????establishing trust
·???????influencing
Overwork is a limiting factor to line managers fulfilling their duty.
Intersectionality
Line managers affiliate themselves easily with those similar to them. Give good feedback, have good and bad conversations.
They don't understand, know about or can solve issues for those different from them.
Women and minorities are not recipients of good feedback. Line managers can't relinquish this responsibility.
Suggestion: a?happy failure?approach. "I don't know if I am going to get it right, but I am willing to try. Let's try to figure this out together."
Welcome debate and dissent. It takes practice.
Make sure you include colleagues working remotely.
Are minorities given less interesting work to do?
Jobshare
Alix shared her experience. She's been in a work partnership for over a decade.
It has allowed both of them to progress together, they have been each other's champion.
They have needed to be bold, brave and very diligent networking and creating opportunities for themselves.
They have developed an understanding of the environment where they work at they're best and have had to make decisions to leave or join companies as necessary.
Like Yoda: do or don't do, there's no try
The panellists argued that there weren't any excuses for women not to be in leadership roles.
Hiring managers need to control their unconscious bias against candidates and women need to be more demanding in their negotiation, know their worth. "the value of talented women at the moment is high".
One piece of advice caught my attention "Inspire leaders to 'feel it', when they make decisions". there was a conversion about the fact that you can't be prescriptive in DEI topics, can't tell people exactly what to do all the time, so they need to have some inner guidance to follow when they navigate their day-to-day.
Constant Communication
David Dunckley highlighted the importance of keeping the DEI agenda on the front view, so it is always take into account in the strategising and running of a business.
Important for leaders and the creation of a succession pipeline.
Inclusion Targets
Nina Goswami argued in favour of targets, calling them an organisation's 'north star'. She claimed they allow choosing the best person for the job.
She said they should be a stretch target and incremental, as they are achieved we should put the bar higher.
Access to the report
Please read the Full report :?https://www.encompassequality.com/2023-why-women-leave
I advise companies and coach leaders on developing their capabilities to build inclusive workplaces and so optimise and unlock the potential of all of their talent.
1 年I totally agree Araceli - it was a super event and so good to meet you there in person!