What women (employees) want: Flexibility and work life balance
This post on how women candidates and employees want flexibility and work life balance is an excerpt from our downloadable guide, Storytelling for Gender Equality in the Workplace. We developed this ebook in partnership with Fairygodboss.
Use employee stories in recruitment marketing and employer branding to highlight the women in your workplace. As a result, you will attract and retain more women team members and create a more productive and diverse workforce.
Flexibility
According to research, women differ slightly from men in what they value most when considering a new opportunity.
In general, men consider job title and company amenities more highly than women. In comparison, women tended to care more about the quality of their manager, flexibility and work/life balance.
Mentorship and ERGs
One offering that continues to rank in importance to women in corporate environments is access to mentors or employee resource groups within their company. According to that same research, women under 30 rank access to mentorship as one of the top four factors when searching for a new opportunity.
Address women’s needs
Women want to work for companies that address their needs and acknowledge the biases that still pervade workplaces — and are doing something about it. Developing mentorship programs, leadership training, returnships (for women re-entering the workforce after taking a break, oftentimes to care for family), and embracing flexible work-life practices are a part of the solution.
Next, companies need to emphasize to women that they are prioritizing hiring them — especially in roles where they have been traditionally underrepresented — and then support, advocate for, and ultimately help them advance in their careers once they get there.
The best way to provide heft behind an initiative is to show real women benefiting from their employer’s commitment to their advancement.