4 Ways Employers Can Help Keep Women in the Workforce

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Around 3 million women left their jobs between early 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic started, and early 2021. As CBS News noted in February of this year, “many women, particularly mothers of young children, have been furloughed or laid off. Many others have had to choose between showing up at frontline jobs or caring for their children who, with daycare centers closed and school underway remotely, would otherwise be left without supervision.”

As the COVID-19 pandemic wears on, how can companies keep women in the workforce or sway them back in after having to leave for reasons like these? Consider these four strategies that companies can leverage to try to hang onto their talented women employees.

4 Ways to Keep Women in the Workforce

Keep Offering Flexible Work Options

From a workplace perspective, one silver lining that came out of the pandemic was the expansion of organizations that greenlit remote work and other flexible work arrangements. With the future of COVID-19 and emerging variants of the virus still largely unknown, some companies are already starting to rescind work-from-home opportunities, calling workers back to offices.

But this decision disproportionately affects women (and all parents) who may need to decide between taking care of their child and doing their job outside the home. Allowing a variety of options for flexibility, from remote and hybrid work and flexible hours to flexible paid time off, can help women/parents manage their competing work-family priorities without needing to relinquish one of them. Expand and continue policies and benefits that offer flexible arrangements rather than curtailing or cutting them.

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Talk to Women Employees Individually About Their Needs

Often, when women decide to leave an organization, it’s because they feel or assume that there is no way to get their personal and/or family needs met alongside their job. By proactively talking to women in your organization about their unique situations, you may be able to preempt a decision to leave the job by one or more of your valued team members.

The key is to engage women in meaningful conversations about what they are experiencing not only at work but at home. Listen for what’s not being said, as well as what they’re telling you. Offer solutions that can help bridge the gap between stress points that women in the workplace may be experiencing, whether by providing extra leave at home or offering additional support structures and resources through the company.

Examine the Pay Gap

If your pay scale isn’t equitable for women in your company, you risk losing top female talent to competitors. This can be particularly true if you don’t offer flexibility and your competitors do—it’s easier now than ever before for women employees to opt to work only with companies that enable remote work and do so at a salary that’s commensurate with their male peers.

The Center for American Progress confirms that “gender pay disparities are still the norm,” noting the gap is widest for women of color. To help keep women in the workforce, it’s important for leadership to address these discrepancies across the board.

Make It Everyone’s Issue

Companies need to make it clearer that when the workforce loses women, the entire team and organization suffer. By educating men in the organization about the additional challenges that their female coworkers face and bringing men into the conversation as allies, male colleagues can play an important role. This role could be through mentorship and sponsorship, or simply by understanding the pressures that their women colleagues may be under and stepping up to address workplace challenges.

The Workforce Needs Women

The bottom line is that losing women from the workforce hurts individuals, teams, and organizations. Make sure your company takes the necessary steps to offer women employees flexibility and fairness to help plug the talent drain.

 

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