Best Practices to Keep Women on the Road to Success

Here are some of the "Best Practice" highlights of Dr. Sylvia Ann Hewlett's talk at YourOnRamp's launch event November 5, 2007. Sylvia did a masterful job articulating what many of us have felt for a long time. Women do add unique value (measurable on the bottom line) and are just as motivated and committed to fulfilling work as our male counterparts. The current structure of the workplace makes it very difficult to find one work-life balance or fit that works over an entire career. It is exciting to see that companies are realizing they need to and can do something about it!

Sylvia described why employers are increasingly interested in ways to retain and re-engage women. In terms of demographic shifts, Gen Y is half the size of the Baby Boomer generation. Attrition costs of losing female workers are 93-200% of the departing person's yearly compensation. My favorite is that companies that do well by women, i.e. are able to retain women have ROIs 5% higher than similar companies that do not do a good job. Why is that? One reason is that the education achievement gap is narrowing between white males and everyone else so that only 17% of the new job applicant pool worldwide is white male! And today, 83% of consumer purchases are made by women. "The consumer is queen," as Sylvia said. There are just too many good minds going elsewhere if you don't engage women in your staffing model.

Sylvia also outlined the trigger points of when and why women leave the workplace. Some women are "pulled" by children(45%) or parents (24%), an increasing phenomenon as the population ages, and others are "pushed." According to Sylvia's data 29% of women are pushed out because the job is not satisfying, another 23% feel stalled, and only 6% leave because the job is too demanding. Her point is that if women are really challenged and supported, chances are they will find a way to stay. Women like to work. As many of you know, there is a great deal of one's identity wrapped up in one's work. Self-confidence, standing in the community, self-worth are all positive attributes of a fulfilling and rewarding job.

It was reassuring to hear about how companies are working to keep and re-engage talented women! Sylvia highlighted many major companies that are pursuing "best practice" initiatives on six key fronts. In terms of building flexibility into the workplace, Ernst & Young offers 13 different ways to take a "scenic route!" Lehman Brothers tackled the "arc of career" concept by developing their Encore program and incentivizing business groups to create part-time, flexible work. Another initiative, "re-imaginging work-life" strives to recognize that not all off-ramps are due to the pull of children, many are due to the demands of eldercare. Citigroup, TIme-Warner and Johnson & Johnson have made great strides in this area by changing language and the spirit in which dialog on these issues takes place. J&J created a resource web site. The issue of loss of ambition and steriotyping has been addressed by companies with successful coaching, networking, and mentor initiatives. Lastly, Sylvia shared Cisco's work to "Tap into altruism," another of the key initiatives embraced by her Hidden Brain Drain Task Force. They have instituted a public service sabbatical as a reward for the "A Team" employees, i.e. it is a reward for good work. They find that their employees come back refreshed, energized, with new insight and stronger loyalty after their time away.

Just like women who are coming back to work after time off!

All in all, these corporate role models are very inspiring! Thank you to all of you who attended this event and contributed your energy, enthusiasm, and interesting questions. Please take what you learned with you as you promote change and educate your colleagues. We are all in this together!