Women are good for your business and it’s in your interest to retain them.
Companies that have more women in the workplace benefit in a wide variety of ways, especially where the bottom line is concerned. Other important business attributes that are positively impacted include: more job satisfaction, more organizational dedication, more meaningful work and less burnout. Companies that haven’t yet realized the importance of women in the workplace are thus overlooking significant benefits that can improve their performance on a variety of levels.
Ways women positively impact the bottom line
Studies have shown that Fortune 500 companies that have a higher representation of women on the board, financially outperform companies that have a lower representation. Sales and profits have also been shown to be higher in gender diverse teams when compared to male-dominated teams and a recent Gallup study found that business units that have more gender diversity have a higher average revenue.
The following reasons could provide some insight into why this is:
- Initiative and adaptation. Managing client needs and expectations along with the sheer amount of responsibility in running a business is no doubt stressful. A survey published revealed that women scored higher than men in 12 out of 16 core leadership competencies, including collaboration, driving results and self-development. Women also showed a higher inclination toward resiliency and creative problem solving which are ideal qualities to recover from setbacks more easily.
- Lower turnover rates. Promoting employee retention is in any business’s best interest as the process of hiring an employee can be costly, especially when considering advertising and recruiter fees. It has been shown that companies with higher gender diversity, have a 22% lower turnover rate than those that do not thus allowing companies to save costs in the long run.
- Tapping into consumer markets. It has been suggested that female employees, managers and executives can ultimately serve untapped female consumer markets and build a company’s brand. For example, businesses that understand how to target women consumers through well thought-out marketing campaigns can lead to an increase in sales.
Ways Women positively impact workplace wellbeing
Women also do more than boost the bottom line. A large survey study which involved questioning of hundreds of respondents showed that companies with a higher percentage of women in the workplace had more job satisfaction, organizational dedication, and meaningful work. They also tended to experience a decrease in burnout.
It was also revealed that people with female bosses reported their bosses were more supportive of their career development compared to people with male bosses. These findings persist regardless of participants’ age, industry, organization size, leadership level, ethnicity and gender.
How to retain women in your company
As discussed, having women in the workplace can be beneficial to both a company’s bottom line and the wellbeing of its employees. It would therefore be in a company’s best interest to attract and retain women and these several factors were identified to accomplish this:
- Women want a calling. Women are looking for something that is beyond just a 9 – 5 job but rather the job needs to fit well in other areas of their lives, support their values, be enjoyable and give them an opportunity to make a difference.
- Women want flexibility. The top-rated perk of a job according to women was flexibility, working from home and paid time off, especially for those women looking to raise families. Unfortunately, studies have shown that women are less likely to get this much needed flexibility when compared to men (6) thus this provides an opportunity for companies to stand out and promote equitable flexibility.
- Genuine leadership opportunities. Women are just as interested in promotions and leadership opportunities as men are, however, the data suggests that organizations expect women to be more qualified and that men in general, receive more resources upon attaining a leadership role (i.e., funding, supervisor support, team size) (1). It is therefore no surprise that according to women, the single most important thing a company can do to attract more women is to abolish sexism which entails offering equal pay, experience and opportunities for success.
Efforts to achieve equality will benefit us all and as numerous studies have shown, companies will yield better results by having more women are good for your business. It is therefore time women are given what they want from work and steps are taking in bridging the inequality gap. Not only will it serve to empower women but companies will benefit too.
