Women in the workplace: What leaders need to do to retain their working mothers
"We are at risk of backtracking on instrumental progress that has been made in terms of gender equality in the last 30 years."
Over the past year, the COVID pandemic has wrought havoc on employment rates. For women in particular, the gains made in recent years have been wiped out. They have been leaving the workforce in greater numbers to care for children and relatives, leaving a massive talent gap.
Related: COVID-related stress causing women to leave workplace
To what degree this trend continues is in large part up to employers. Those that are willing to acknowledge the problem and take proactive steps to help their working mothers and other caregivers will be best positioned to retain key talent.
Recently, Nani Vishwanath, people team manager at Limeade, shared some thoughts with BenefitsPRO on how business leaders cna better support this key demographic.
What can business leaders do to retain their working mothers?
Organizations and business leaders must think proactively about retaining their working mothers rather than putting the onus on these employees to advocate for themselves. Leaders should actively communicate with their teams, and name the problem explicitly. Leaders can show up authentically and empathetically in these conversations by publicly recognizing the stress that’s being put on working parents currently. Say it clearly, name it as an urgent issue, and treat it as such.
The organization should then communicate their approach in supporting working parents during this time, including measures like flexible and variable schedules (part-time, leaves of absence), childcare support and more. Leaders should specifically address managers to make sure that employees are not penalized for caregiving, and equip managers with tools to adjust their team’s workload and schedule accordingly. With all communications, leaders should be as clear and committed as possible.
What dangers do companies face if they continue to ignore the workplace experience gender gap?
Research has indicated that four times as many women as men have left the workforce in recent months. Black and Latina women have been especially impacted, with unemployment rates at significantly higher numbers. With women shouldering the majority of childcare and homeschooling labor on top of their jobs, a systemic issue has come to the surface. This problem is widespread, nuanced, and cannot be resolved on its own.
We are at risk of backtracking on instrumental progress that has been made in terms of gender equality in the last 30 years. We know that when diverse perspectives are not included in business decisions and strategy that innovation and value are negatively impacted. With companies already skewing towards higher percentages of men in executive leadership roles, the problem is exacerbated. Additionally, economists predict a massive loss in wages because of the pandemic, which could potentially widen the wage gap between men and women.
How can organizations address the different workplace expectations of men and women?
To start, I think it’s important for company leadership to explicitly recognize the challenges that women in today’s workforce are facing. Without this public recognition and ownership, mothers may feel like they are inadequate or should put on a façade that they’re managing, when truly they are suffering. Though research about these impacts has widely been on heterosexual couples, its important for leaders to also acknowledge that family structures vary and that inevitably, this pandemic has put new stresses on families regardless of gender identity as well.
Leaders can bring these inequities to life by sharing research about how the pandemic has disproportionately impacted women, and may even share relevant anecdotes about ways in which we might be subconsciously continuing bias in our own actions. Organizations should also be considering their efforts in continuously mitigating unconscious bias throughout the employee life cycle, so that employees are already keenly aware of the way in which identity (gender or otherwise) might impact the employee experience, and what to do about it to level the playing field.
What processes can they change to ensure all employees have the flexibility they need?
The key word here is proactivity. Organizations should also prepare to be proactive in process-design around these changing times. For example, a company can create templates and toolkits for managers to talk through work schedules and personal well-being with their teams. They can also set the HR team up to share details on the company-wide flexible schedule policies, easily accessible documentation on leave policies and important benefits, and more. Perhaps most importantly, employers should be prepared to listen to employees and learn firsthand about their experiences. Setting up pulse surveys, informal focus groups, or using Employee Resource Groups to dig into what challenges the workplace is presenting can allow companies to think creatively about solutions.
Organizations should also ask themselves tough questions: Do employees here feel safe to share that their current workload is not sustainable? Do employees feel truly empowered to dictate their schedule and availability? Are decisions made when some employees are available, yet others are not? Are employees empowered to speak up when they feel like their experience is different based on their gender? If the answer is no, what are the cultural norms and values that need to be interrogated?
What can women do to proactively work towards creating the working arrangement that will enable them to care for their families and commit to their work?
If an employee feels like they need to create a work arrangement that allows them to manage both their home life and their work, they should be truly honest with themselves about what that might look like and draw boundaries accordingly. The requests might be schedule-based (i.e. don’t schedule urgent meetings around a certain timeframe, or please avoid certain times of day for calls due to childcare responsibilities), or perhaps workload based (i.e. knowing that with school starting back up at a certain point that it will be impossible to take on new projects).
Either way, it’s important to be clear about what you need and for how long you’ll need this arrangement. Of course, it’s important to note that the onus cannot fall entirely on the individual. Organizations must be prepared to receive these requests and support their people accordingly. This kind of interaction between an employee and an employer underlines the importance of a workplace that really shows care for the whole person.
What is one thing you hope the readers of the article focus on or take action on after reading the article?
The impacts of COVID on working mothers are huge. We cannot simply wait for this to blow over and hope that we’ll continue to make the strides that we have been working towards in terms of gender equity – instead, what we’re seeing is a direct impact of gender inequity, and even more so for communities of color. My hope is that readers take this as a push to demonstrate proactivity and urgency in their efforts to support their teams and people, especially their working mothers.
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