What's important to today's female job seekers? Opportunity and diversity
A new report from Handshake examines the factors that compel early talent to apply for certain jobs.
Young women are the face of the emerging workforce, and employers need to address their expectations to remain competitive and diverse.
“Women make up almost 60% of undergraduate students, and by 2030, Generation Z will make up a third of the workforce,” said Christine Cruzvergara, vice president of higher education and student success at Handshake, an early career network. “As our country begins on a path to economic recovery, employers must pay close attention to this generation’s motivations, preferences and concerns as they attract new talent.”
A new report from Handshake examines the factors that compel early talent to apply for certain jobs. Among the key findings:
If you want to hire more women, start by promoting women. Sixty-five percent of Gen Z women look for women in leadership roles before applying for a job.
Diversity matters — and not just to women. More than half of respondents said they wouldn’t apply for a job at a company that lacked diversity. Three-fourths of women and 66% of men say they are more likely to choose a company with a demonstrated commitment to a diverse, inclusive and equitable workforce.
Meaningful work means more to women and non-binary individuals. Non-binary individuals ranked meaningful work as the most important factor when choosing to stay in a role, and women ranked it second. Men ranked meaningful work fourth.
But money still matters for recruiting and keeping talent. Women and men both ranked salary/compensation as the most important factor when choosing a job and employer. Women and men also say salary is the number one motivator for staying in a job.
Pay equity and transparency are important signals. Gen Z overwhelmingly supports pay transparency measures as a means of promoting equal pay for equal work and addressing the gender wage gap.
Culture holds currency in hiring, but not among prospective employees. “Culture fit” is a common hiring metric but is relatively unimportant to Gen Z prospective employees. Only 7% of respondents said culture was the most important reason to stay in a job. Work culture did not rank as one of the top three most important job characteristics for men, women, or non-binary individuals.
The report recommended several steps to encourage women to apply to job opportunities:
- Take extra steps to encourage and recruit women to apply to your job opportunities to overcome any potential confidence gap.
- Demonstrate real commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion by promoting and hiring women into leadership roles.
- Consider adding a salary range to entry-level or early-career roles to help encourage a diverse Gen Z applicant pool.
- Enact policies around pay transparency to demonstrate how you put inclusion and equity into practice at your company.
- Recognize intersectionality in your hiring process.
“To achieve the documented diversity domino effect, an organization needs to hire more women and other diverse staffers,” the report concluded. “The more women and diverse employees it hires and retains, the more diverse candidates it will continue to attract. Gen Z job seekers will go where they see opportunity and where they observe faces and backgrounds that look like theirs.”
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