an attorney, was seven months pregnant with her first child and planned to return to work four days a week after her eight-week maternity leave ended. She said, “There’s a big stigma against off-ramping in the legal industry. It’s impossible to get back in if you leave.”
The others agreed. “I’ve had friends who off-ramped and then went back to work, but they never come back in the same industry or the same position,” said Erin.
“Or pay level,” Amanda added.
Tina concluded, “It’s so hard to get back in, especially in this economy.”
It is possible for forward-thinking companies to keep women—and men—happy, ambitious, and on track professionally. Even better news for companies is that, in most cases, it doesn’t take much. Women don’t have to work from home four days a week or take a three-year sabbatical to feel that they’re taking care of their families. However, they do want flexibility in the here and now as well as over the arc of the career—the ability to “ramp down” when necessary and then “ramp up” without the frustration of an extended and often fruitless job search.
The Importance of Flex
Many of the women we spoke to said that they might not have left the workforce had a less-permanent and drastic solution been available. Figure 6.1 displays some of the most popular variants of scenic routes, such as reduced-hour schedules, job shares, short unpaid sabbaticals, and flextime. Forty-two percent of women would have stayed if their companies had offered a reduced-hour schedule; more than a third would have stayed for flextime. Job sharing and an unpaid short sabbatical were two other popular options. All told, a full 69% of women wouldn’t have left their companies if one or more flex options were available.
Unfortunately, even in today’s tech-savvy world, the majority of companies still operate under the framework of face-time pressure and rigid office schedules. In fact, face-time pressure has increased in the recession, as even the most talented workers feel the need to prove that they’re committed and indispensable. Fewer than a quarter of companies offer job sharing opportunities and less than half offer sabbaticals—an almost negligible change from 2004.
At many companies, flextime is an informal arrangement negotiated between employees and their managers on a case-by-case basis. Even when companies have these work-life balance options on the books they often fail to adequately publicize them to their employees. This is painfully obvious in Figure 6.2, which shows that in 2009, a full one-quarter of women were “not sure” if their current companies offered part-time tracks.
In contrast to Erin and her colleagues, most women who are struggling don’t go to their managers to see if they can work out an alternative arrangement. Over half (54%) of the women who off-ramp do so without first discussing their options with their supervisors—a number that has changed little in the past five years.
Making employees aware of which work-life balance options are on the books and encouraging open communication with managers are two relatively simple means of keeping women on track.
The importance of flexible work arrangements (FWAs) for women underscores an extremely significant set of findings in our off-ramps and on-ramps research: highly qualified women are motivated by factors that go way beyond compensation. Consider the following chart, Figure 6.3.
In 2010, these findings are actually great news for companies. The fact is, companies can hold on to their talented women with a variety of nonmonetary rewards, such as harnessing women’s altruism by creating community service opportunities and giving them a strong review for good job performance.
As we shall see in the next chapter, creating a rich menu of flex, harnessing altruism, and fostering recognition really do work as retention tools for women. They also happen to be inexpensive or cost-free options: good news for companies facing tough times.
Takeaways
It doesn’t take much for organizations to keep their top female talent on track. Women want flexibility in the here and now as well as over the arc of the career.
Sixty-nine percent say they wouldn’t have left if their companies had offered one or more specific work-life balance options, such as reduced-hour schedules, job sharing, part-time tracks, short unpaid sabbaticals, and flextime.
Lack of open communication is a significant barrier. Even when companies offer work-life balance options, they often fail to adequately publicize them to their employees: 54% of women left without discussing their options with their supervisor.
Highly qualified women are motivated by far more than money: more than half of the women surveyed rate high-quality colleagues, job security, the ability to “be myself,” flexible work arrangements, the chance to collaborate with others, an opportunity to give back to the community, and recognition higher than compensation.
Chapter 7
Action Agenda
If a $2,000 fully loaded laptop computer disappears from an employee’s desk, there’s guaranteed to be an investigation. But if a $200,000 executive with a rich network of client relationships is poached by a competitor—or quits to stay home with her children—the reaction is rarely more than a sigh and a shrug.
The loss to companies of their highly qualified women can’t be overestimated. The Hay Group, a global management consulting firm, estimates that replacing a professional worker costs an organization 150% of that person’s annual salary.14 In the U.S., economists estimate that attrition costs American companies $437 billion annually.15 On top of the quantifiable costs, when an experienced knowledge worker quits, she often takes an unrecoverable wealth of connections and intellectual capital with her. These factors apply to all knowledge-based economies.
In short, no organization can afford to ignore, underutilize, or lose the talents of the cream of the educated workforce. Conversely, those organizations that enable their talented women to rise into leadership positions become talent magnets, attracting and retaining the best and brightest over the long haul and creating lasting competitive advantage.
The ultimate goal of this study, as in our previous one, is to give employers the insights and the tools to effectively compete in—and win—the war for female talent. What more can they do?
What Should Companies Do?
The full realization of female talent over the long haul involves implementing an agenda comprising six essential action steps. We first proposed these steps in 2004, and they remain relevant today. They are:
1. Providing scenic routes
Flexible work arrangements dominate women’s wish lists: reduced-hour options, flexible stop and start times, telecommuting, job sharing, and seasonable flexibility—time off in the summer balanced by long hours in the winter—are among the policies and practices women yearn for. As extreme jobs have become more widespread and as the economic slump has dumped more of the workload on fewer shoulders, flexible work arrangements have become a lifesaver, eliminating the need to quit a hard-won, much-valued job.
One caveat: In far too many organizations, flexible
