5 actions to enable women to flourish in your organisation
For our latest Breakfast Club, it was a delight to host a selection of female leaders from our People Made community to discuss the barriers that women face to progression and leadership, and what businesses can really do about it.
This is part of a broader study we’re undertaking to identify the actions businesses can take to build cultures and employee experiences that enable women to flourish within their organisations.
Key learnings
Over the course of the conversation we acknowledged that it’s a complex and systemic problem, where often symptoms not causes are treated, which is why change is so slow. It begins at a young age, where gendered behaviours are ingrained with long lasting impact - leading women into certain industries over others; projecting narrow images of leaders that reduce considerations for career paths; and creating almost impossible expectations for women to live up to.
As societal expectations evolve, so too must businesses. Due to its complexity, commitment from leadership that is driven right from the top is absolutely crucial, in order to drive and sustain change.
5 actions leaders can take
- —Listen to your people to understand what they actually need - there is no one size-fits-all when it comes to policies and best practice
- —Take a blended approach to flexibility and employee benefits, ensuring it works for women, men, those with caring responsibilities and those without.
- —Encourage and empower men to parent and care out loud, taking advantage of shared parental leave and flexible working in order to redistribute the mental load of home and work life.
- —Accommodate the different lifecycle of women’s careers, providing additional support at key moments like re-entering the workforce after time off and during menopause.
- —Keep it specific and practical, tackling tangible issues that may feel small but add up to bigger systemic change.
And on an individual level, we talked about the importance of women supporting women, finding people who will help you - through networking, mentoring and relationship building - and passing that help on to others.
Like to find out more?
Our study is ongoing and we’ll be sharing the full learnings later this year. In the meantime if you’d like to learn more, drop us a note at [email protected]
Written by Elle Davidson, Strategy Director