A booming, prosperous economy depends on a large and committed workforce, with women playing a vital role.
While women had already been encountering many barriers to advancement into corporate leadership positions, this has only aggravated after Covid-19. A staggering number of women have left the workforce due to the pandemic and are being disproportionately affected by job loss.
Here’s what you can do to bring women back into the workforce post-COVID:
1. Offer Flexibility
The impacts of crises are never gender-neutral, and the COVID-19 pandemic is no exception. Throughout, women—and mothers in particular— have carried a heavier load than men in the provision of childcare. In fact, McKinsey’s Women in the Workplace 2020 study indicates that:
- Mothers are more than three times as likely as fathers to be responsible for most of the housework and caregiving.
- Single mothers report financial insecurity as one of their top concerns.
To alleviate the stress that women have been experiencing while in quarantine, it is important that organizations set the tone of flexibility with their employee-centric policies. For example, you can allow your employees to work during the hours when they are most productive based on the responsibilities they are juggling. Focus on their results and performance instead of their presence.
As a leader, when you adjust to the needs of women, especially caregivers, you help to ensure they stay in the workforce without having them to choose between their personal and professional lives.
2. Eradicate Unconscious Bias
Unconscious bias remains a formidable barrier when it comes to career advancement of women. With unconscious bias training, however, companies can ensure that women are not left unnoticed in the hiring and promotion process.
And there’s compelling evidence for that. In companies with smaller gender disparities in representation, half of employees received unconscious bias training in the past year, compared to only a quarter of employees in companies that aren’t making progress closing these gaps.
From the CEO to new hires, everyone should be engaged in the training so the organization as a whole can address both conscious and unconscious biases that hinder women from succeeding. Women of color in particular grapple with the twin obstacles of racism and sexism, so that should also be taken into account.
3. Reskill Women
Women who are pushed to put aside their careers can lose the competitive advantage in the talent marketplace. In the post-pandemic world, the responsibility befalls on employers to make sure that women are not being left behind and they have the key skills needed to succeed today and in the future.
Identify the core skills that can uplevel your workforce. Also, make sure employees understand what they’ll get out of learning programs so they remain self-motivated.
Supporting women employees during the pandemic and once it ends will not only benefit your company but will also help mitigate the backwards spiral of women’s workforce progress.
Learn how you can take your leadership teams through a growth model which will help them mature on a personal and professional level by following me on LinkedIn and subscribing to the Keijzer Community.
Paul Keijzer is the CEO and Founder of Engage Consulting and the co-Founder of The Talent Games, which aims to transform HR by digitising talent processes and creating more engaging and productive workplaces through gamification and mobile technology. As a global HR and Leadership Management expert, Paul knows how to combine business insights with people insights to transform organisations and put them on the path to growth.