Without manager training, female remote workers may be overlooked, report says

Dive Brief:

During the coronavirus pandemic, women have been impacted significantly from job security and increased caregiving responsibilities, according to Perceptyx. The employee listening and people analytics platform released a report March 8, analyzing three "critical" factors employers must address to assist women in the workplace.
To reach gender equity and inclusion goals, organizations must work toward the retention of talented women; offer women more opportunities for remote roles; and mitigate promotion and compensation bias, the report found. Almost half (48%) of the women surveyed by Perceptyx have become either much less or somewhat less likely to want to return to the physical workplace fulltime, compared to six months ago, the report found. Both women and men (24%) prefer to split time between working in the physical workplace and remotely.
Women who work from home at least part-time are 27% less likely to have received a promotion in the past year compared to their male peers — "in any working situation," the report found. It may be a new challenge for managers to "intentionally" recognize employees who work remotely, according to Perceptyx. Therefore, managers may need additional training to develop a management strategy that takes into account fully remote or hybrid positions, according to the report. The company surveyed more than 1,000 U.S. employees about their workplaces and their preferences about returning to the physical work environment.

Dive Insight:

"Each time women miss a chance for promotion, the funnel narrows," according to Perceptyx.

Best practices of companies on Working Mother's 2020+ Top Companies for Executive Women released Dec. 1 include offering training for managers on hiring and advancing women, thus benefiting retention. About 90% of the top 10 companies also offered profit-and-loss training for women, including multicultural women, compared to 63% of the top 75. However, managerial training is often overlooked, Janet Harvey, member of the International Coaching Federation Thought Leadership Global Board and master certified coach, told HR Dive in a previous interview. "We spend all this money on high potentials," Harvey said. "I'm not saying that's not important, but if we took 10% of the money that we spend at the top of the house and put that down at the front-line supervisors, we would not have succession planning issues."

In addition to training management, companies that provide flexibility on work schedules and remote work give women options amid crises such as the pandemic. In an earlier study, Perceptyx surveyed more than 750,000 employees across more than 100 global enterprises, and found that women are most driven to depart from a company, if "they aren't empowered to make their own decisions about how to best accomplish their work."

"Many organizations spent 2020 more worried about retaining jobs than employees, but as things return to normal, understanding the drivers of voluntary turnover through people analytics and making the necessary adjustments should be a top priority," Brett Wells, director of people analytics at Perceptyx, said in a statement.