“Without doubt, increasing the employment and participation of women is not only the right thing to do, but also the smart thing to do for employers, societies and women of course. Their collective under-representation within the workforce constitutes a massive loss in productivity, which we simply cannot afford to continue to waste. Workplace practices need to change to encourage more women to enter and remain in employment. It’s not that the women are not ready for the workplace; in many ways it is the workplaces that are not ready for its women.”
- Jones, LeRay and Punshi
Game Changers
Across most ‘emerging’ markets and many ‘developed’ countries, we are facing a unique paradox, where we are losing 50% of the female workforce at every step of career transition.
This is a significant lost opportunity for employers, the female workforce and the labor market. In addition to a lack of representation at senior levels, women are greatly under-represented in core businesses and technical roles across most industries and organizations. While its early days to fully assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on gender balance, this paradox is expected to be further exacerbated and accelerated, resulting in more women losing their jobs or opting out of formal employment and after the pandemic.
While there are some commonalities in creating and delivering leadership development programs, our research at Mercer Talent Enterprise has established that there are some critical areas of focus for enabling and empowering female talent at the workplace. These include:[1]
Developing a comprehensive solution that caters to enhancing the skills of women in the workplace and building a customizable plan that generally entails three phases. Below is a brief illustration of the components for each phase and the estimated timelines.
Below are the findings for participants and organizations based on Mercer Talent Enterprise pre and post assessment results.
