Are Women Leaving the Workforce at an Accelerated Rate?
Gender diversity is key to business success. Post pandemic, gender equity seems to be in danger of becoming less of a priority for many businesses as they establish “what matters most when everything matters”. In 2019, 18% of senior vice president roles and 19% of vice president roles were filled by women. 4 years later, this has dropped to 14% and 16% respectively. Senior women are leaving high positions at an accelerating rate.
To put this in perspective, a report from McKinsey found that “for every woman at the director level who gets promoted to the next level, two women directors are choosing to leave their company”. Coupled with the fact that “fewer than half (45%) of organisations [IBM] surveyed report they have made advancing more women into leadership roles a top, formal business priority”, this could lead to an even wider gap between women and men in the workplace.
Facilities Management is a male-dominated sector, with estimates suggesting there are 2 men for every woman in the workplace. This underscores the need to bring women into FM at every level, and to continue to have gender equity and diversity as a business priority. Many FM businesses are already focusing on how they can bring talent in from outside of the sector to expand the range of skills available to fill gaps in the market, and these approaches can be tailored to target women. The educational and early careers provisions can also be targeted at women in order to create a more diverse pipeline from the start.
Mitie’s “Unlocking Potential” programme works with various charities to encourage more diversity into FM. “The Ready2Work – Beyond Bars” scheme brings ex-offenders paid roles and has had particular success with women on the programme. As part of its diversity commitments, Engie has a goal of managerial parity by 2030 which will see a 50/50 split of men and women in managerial positions.
Companies that adopt these types of programmes - targeted at gender equity - increase the likelihood of women considering roles in the organisation. They are also likely to be considering suitable retention strategies, aiming to support the women in their workforce. One of the best ways of supporting women in the workplace is to provide flexibility.
Flexible working arrangements allow all employees the space to better balance their work with life responsibilities. Between children and an ageing population, many people have caring responsibilities for relatives, and on average, women take on more of this work outside of their career. Providing flexible working for all employees allows both men and women more time to take on these caring roles.
This extends to parenting as well. Many companies do not cater enough to support both parents in looking after their children. Men could be offered more support including flexible working, home working, and paternity leave in order to look after their children. Research shows that direct line manager support of fathers and taking their requests for flexibility seriously “reinforce employees’ sense of trust and security at work”. It is also important that employers do not make gendered assumptions about parents that could hinder their progression or development, such as ‘mothers do not want to progress and take on additional work responsibility’, or ‘fathers will be the high wage earner in a relationship’.
Many of these issues can be addressed with communication. Creating a workplace where women feel able to address any problems they are having or ask for flexibility when they need it is vital to achieving gender parity in the labour market. Often, companies address this issue by creating internal employee run diversity groups that promote a space place for employees to go to talk. These groups are often then used to give a voice to common problems and brought to senior leadership by a group who are listened to and respected.
Currently, there is a worrying trend of senior women leaving the workplace and employers must take this seriously. A diversity of voices at the top of an organisation are crucial for business success and creating pathways for any person to reach the top is invaluable. There are many ways to achieve gender equity in the workplace and foster an inclusive culture for all employees, and only a few have been mentioned here, but they all come back to communication. The most important thing executives can do is open a dialogue with their workforce to understand what the barriers to work are for employees and address those. A culture of inclusivity, higher productivity, improved retention, innovation and positive wellbeing should follow.
