Financial Times Stock Exchange (FTSE) companies in the UK were recently handed new targets to increase gender diversity on executive boards. By 2025, women must make up at least 40% of FTSE350 company boards, and at least one board member must be an ethnic minority.
As the job market becomes more competitive, companies face new challenges—how can they attract and retain talented employees? Industry experts agree – inclusion is the key.
At Stay In The Game, we believe in creating an atmosphere where people of all backgrounds feel empowered to take ownership of their work. By investing in a rewarding workplace and removing obstacles to career growth, organizations will not only be able to draw top talent but also provide reasons for them to stay.
Unsure where to start? Here are a few ideas to inspire you.
What Does Your Succession Pipeline Look Like?
Take the time to investigate your company’s career ladder and succession planning strategy. Are men and women equally represented? Has everyone who deserves a promotion been given an opportunity for growth within the organization, or are people leaving before they reach senior management positions?
Look into potential barriers blocking equal progression of both genders. Are director roles traditionally offered to men creating a glass ceiling effect on female employees seeking higher promotions?
Issues of gender bias and microaggression affect women at every level of management and frequently prevent many talented individuals from reaching their career goals. A recent McKinsey report calls it the “broken rung,” referring to the first step up into a management position. If women cannot progress beyond this point, they have little chance of making it to the C-suite.
Identifying and offering professional development opportunities enables junior employees to plan their journey through the ranks. To make this work, implement the necessary changes to ensure all staff has fair access to advancement prospects at any level of their career path.
Examine Your Work Culture
Balancing home and work life is essential to a thriving career—and that’s true for both men and women. Women, however, have additional concerns. Flexibility is a priority, as is a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Women are leaving jobs in unprecedented numbers, jobs they once loved, because they don’t feel their company is aligned with their values or attuned to their needs. Recent years have underscored the discrepancies between ideals and reality when it comes to employment. High burnout, feeling undervalued, not receiving acknowledgment for work done, or being passed over for promotions in favor of male colleagues doesn’t help.
A Harvard Business Review study suggested that women were promoted less than men because of how they were viewed within the organization—not their performance or behavior. It all comes down to bias, and despite solid progress in the realm of DEI, it is still pervasive in the corporate world.
While nurturing leadership and mentoring programs for women, offering flexible work schedules, parental leave, and prioritizing diversity in management are all positive steps forward. But it’s equally critical to follow through. HR should always be on the lookout for potential successors to fill the pipeline and provide women with equal consideration when opportunities arise.
Change happens from the top down. When leadership commits to reducing bias and improving gender diversity and inclusion, it becomes part of the company’s DNA.
Introduce Mentorship Programs
Senior staff can significantly impact the development of their junior counterparts. Mentoring, when done correctly, is an incredible tool for building confidence and nurturing leadership potential, even for those who may feel intimidated about pursuing their desired career path.
Advice, understanding, and professionalism can be pivotal forces in helping employees evolve into future business leaders—particularly women, who often hesitate to discuss work-related issues among peers or teams. Having a trusted mentor could make all the difference in overcoming what’s holding them back.
According to the Women in Leadership Foundation, mentorship resulted in 90% of participants gaining confidence and taking on more responsibility at work. 82% agree that mentorship is an essential component of career advancement.
Mentorship can bridge the gender gap in leadership—something sorely needed, both for women and the companies they serve. In the past, there were few women executives. Those who landed there took it upon themselves to advocate for other women and help them realize their full potential.
Women tend to gravitate naturally to mentorship roles, but the task shouldn’t fall solely to them. By establishing mentorship programs that emphasize leadership opportunities for women, companies achieve resilience and financial strength, enable innovation, boost employee morale, and improve retention—all characteristics of the world’s most successful organizations.
Recognize and Develop Talent
Failing to recognize talent will undoubtedly result in lost opportunities. Providing professional development for women at every stage of their career path allows them to imagine their future and step forward into it with your help.
Professional development is about the employee, but it’s also about company growth, and it differs from skills training in one very significant way. Where training fills a gap in the immediate sense, professional development establishes foundations for the future, both for the individual and the organization.
Consider the employee’s readiness and work with them to develop a plan that aligns with your business goals. Opportunities should be offered to all equally, irrespective of gender, seniority, or any other reason. When presenting development offers, leadership should always be mindful of the potential for bias and strive to recognize performance or unrealized talent ready to be nurtured. Participating employees will progress at their own pace, but women, especially, may need extra encouragement.
Development should be targeted to all skill levels. Once enrolled, give them paid time off to participate; do not force them to learn during business hours. When their courses are complete, follow up. Ask them how they felt about the process and provide them with opportunities to leverage their new skills in a practical sense, either by taking on new projects or working with more senior staff members that can help them take their learning to the next level.
Align Leadership to Achieve Buy-In
For any initiative to prosper, leadership must own it. Employees look to company leaders for direction, so alignment is critical to ensure uptake. When it’s clear that company leaders and management actively support and promote these ideas, success is a given.
Creating a career progression for women is not a single act, nor is it a simple, one-and-done decision. It must be done mindfully, considering all sides of the equation, and reiterating the strategy as new needs or concerns emerge.
If the goal is to provide an environment where all development needs are met, the workplace culture must embrace DEI and prioritize opportunities for women, especially women of color. When women feel supported by their companies, recognized for what they bring to the table, and inspired by the possibilities, they are less likely to leave.
In the end, it’s about helping women to thrive. Though their representation in the C-suite has increased steadily since 2016, there is still much work to do. Women today still experience inordinate barriers to achieving leadership roles, not the least of which are the challenges they face as caregivers and mothers. By providing career progression through professional development, mentorship, and cultural transformation, everybody wins.