Can employers bring women workers back?

It’s no surprise that the pandemic has adversely affected workplace participation for women more than men. Unfortunately, we’re almost two years in and recovery is still very slow — sometimes even completely paused. For example, women experienced no net-new job gains in September of this year, according to the National Women’s Law Center. Since February 2020, women are still short nearly 2.9 million jobs — equalling almost 60% of total job losses.

This change is a big deal. Heading into 2020, women held the majority of jobs, reaching more than 50% for the first time in almost a decade. The reversal in job participation from women has a broad economic impact. Economists estimate that for every 10% increase in women in the workforce there’s a 5% increase in wages for all workers, due to increases in overall labor force productivity.

Fortunately, almost 2 out of 3 women (63%) who have left the workforce during this period say they are ready to return. Increased demand from employers looking for female talent indicates companies want women back too. Search data from Hiretual’s recruitment platform bears this out, showing an almost three-fold (296%) increase in searches for women talent as compared to 2020 search volume.

What’s standing in the way of meeting that demand? Leaders have to understand what’s changed for women, the challenges they face to get back to their careers, and how to optimize the hiring experience to help bring them back.

New obstacles have led to new expectations

Even with a clear demand for more women to rejoin the workforce, and a clear desire from women to return to work, the NWLC estimates that it would take 30 months for the economy to gain back the nearly 2 million jobs lost. But how would that change if employers really stepped up to the plate? And how can they?

We can infer that many of the obstacles for women in returning to work stem from the reasons they left. Factors such as a lack of available child care, slower rollouts of vaccines for children, and stresses from shouldering caregiver responsibilities throughout the pandemic make up some of the unique burdens women have faced — and challenges keeping them from hitting unpause on their careers.

From the MetLife survey, Bill Pappas, head of Global Technology and Operations comments, “We’ve reached a critical inflection point in the workplace where women are evaluating their careers in a new light.”

Of the 2,000 women surveyed, a majority are looking for employers to provide better benefits and policies, such as more flexibility in work arrangements, career progression opportunities, and more DE&I in the leadership pipeline. Now, to bring on female talent — and retain female employees — employers must be willing to support them in new ways.

Before companies can better support women with more flexible and inclusive working options, leaders have to ensure those priorities extend into their hiring practices.

Step up hiring approaches

The way companies approach the hiring process must change. Qualified candidates want employers that align with their values, and who can back up their commitments for better support. The good news is the way employers leverage technology can have a critical impact on those initial impressions by:

Avoiding gendered language

For example, early communications with candidates through job postings and emails or SMS should avoid gendered language and instead opt for descriptions that reflect company values. Zillow Group was able to attract 10% more applicants that identify as female by increasing the use of language patterns like “collaborative” and “growing team.”

Increasing visibility for women candidates

Combating gender bias can also help employers prevent resumes from qualified female candidates from being overlooked. Research shows women are on average 30% less likely to be called for a job interview than men. AI-powered talent sourcing can help recruiters mitigate bias from the start of the hiring process by increasing talent visibility, filling their pipeline with more women and underrepresented talent.

Scaling the talent pool

Hiring managers must also broaden the scope of their talent searches to increase the opportunity to attract female candidates. Recruiting teams that only access a few job boards reduce both the total number of potential applicants and the diversity of their talent pipeline. AI sourcing technologies that can source across all major platforms give employers more opportunity to find qualified female talent faster.

Growth for employers, society, and the economy is dependent on replenishing women’s presence in the workforce. But the unique challenges women face today require companies to expand support and commit to building inclusive workplaces. With the capabilities of recruitment software to intelligently source and engage highly targeted candidates. Making change is only a matter of utilizing tools already available. By leveraging the right technologies, business leaders can optimize hiring practices to increase visibility and reduce gender bias for female talent — to better meet demand for women now and in the future.

Shannon Pritchett is head of community at both Hiretual and Evry1 (which she co-founded in 2021). Prior to joining Hiretual, she served in a variety of recruiting roles and later leveraged her industry experience and expertise to hold leadership positions at Moxy, SourceCon, CareerXroads and beyond. As a talent acquisition leader, she remains passionate about connecting companies with their most valuable asset — people.