Survey of companies shows gains for women at the top

Author Moonshot.news

Published on: 12/10/2023

Companies where women are well represented at the top earn up to 50% higher profits and share performance, consultancy McKinsey has said.  “Despite this, gender parity in new hires and advancement are still issues across industries and roles. In tech, the disparities are even more pronounced, according to the consultancy.” In a new report, Women in the Workplace, the company has found some hard-fought gains at the top, with women’s representation in the C-suite at the highest it has ever been.

“However, with lagging progress in the middle of the pipeline—and a persistent underrepresentation of women of colour—true parity remains painfully out of reach.”

“Since 2015, the number of women in the C-suite has increased from 17 to 28%, and the representation of women at the vice president and senior vice president levels has also improved significantly”, the company says in a survey covering the US and Canada.

“These hard-earned gains are encouraging yet fragile: slow progress for women at the manager and director levels—representation has grown only three and four percentage points, respectively—creates a weak middle in the pipeline for employees who represent the vast majority of women in corporate America.” 

And the company says there is a continued trend that director-level women are leaving at a higher rate than in past years—and at a notably higher rate than men at the same level. 

“As a result of these two dynamics, there are fewer women in line for top positions.”

As companies work to support and advance women, they should focus on five core areas, the report says:

• Measure employees’ outcomes and experiences—and use the data to fix trouble spots. Outcomes for drivers of women’s advancement include hiring, promotions, and attrition. Visibility into other metrics—such as participation in career development programs, performance ratings, and employee sentiments—that influence career progression is also important, and data should be collected with appropriate data privacy protections in place. 
• Support and reward managers as key drivers of organizational change. As companies more deeply invest in the culture of work, managers play an increasingly critical role in fostering DEI, ensuring employee well-being, and navigating the shift to flexible work. These are all important business priorities, but managers do not always get the direction and support they need to deliver on them. Here are three steps to get started:
• Take steps to put an end to microaggressions. Microaggressions are pervasive, harmful to the employees who experience them, and result in missed ideas and lost talent. Companies need to tackle microaggressions head-on. To get started: Make clear that microaggressions are not acceptable; Teach employees to avoid and challenge microaggressions; Create a culture where it’s normal to surface microaggressions. 
• Finetune flexible working models. The past few years have seen a transformation in how we work. Flexibility is now the norm in most companies; the next step is unlocking its full potential and bringing out the best of the benefits that different work arrangements have to offer. To get started: Establish clear expectations and norms around working flexibly; Measure the impact of new initiatives to support flexibility and adjust them as needed; Put safeguards in place to ensure a level playing field across work arrangements. 
• Fix the broken rung for women, with a focus on women of colour: Track inputs and outcomes;  Work to de-bias performance reviews and promotions; Invest in career advancement for women of colour.