Office-first cultures are going to have a harder time competing with remote-first cultures, and it’s more important than ever to do remote work well. Remote work opens the possibility of creating broader talent networks and more competitive teams, but it must also evolve to support workers, especially women.
A McKinsey & Company report found that 79% of men said they had a positive experience working from home during the pandemic, compared to just 37% of women. So, what is failing?
COVID-19 widened the gender gap in employment, potentially impacting global GDP by 2030.
There are many factors that affect women’s experiences. In the first year of the pandemic, 54 million women around the world stopped working. This has significantly widened the gender gap in employment. Of the women who lost their jobs in 2020, 90% left the workforce altogether, compared to around 70% of men. The effects of this are enormous. If nothing is done to fix the current gender parity in unemployment, McKinsey research estimates that global GDP could be $1 trillion lower by 2030.
Not surprisingly, women have chosen to go out at certain times. There are many things that employers can do to improve these situations. Some of them are flexibility on the part of employers, better parental leave policies, and more flexible work-from-home environments. All of these things are said to benefit women, but they also benefit men. They allow men to be equal partners in the family experience.
Caring for children and domestic life is an important part-time job that falls disproportionately on women.
Women, on average, do around 75% of the world’s unpaid care work. Obviously, the demands in this regard have increased considerably during the pandemic. 40% of mothers, compared to 27% of fathers, are responsible for home education and child care.
Another aspect is the pressure to appear professional at all times. This can be incredibly difficult when women have to simultaneously manage homeschooling and other household chores. A Harvard Business Review study on “zoom fatigue” found that the effects of being on camera non-stop have accelerated depression and anxiety. The statistics were significantly higher for women as a result of the so-called grooming gap that projected unfair beauty expectations on women in the workplace.
Overcoming the readiness gap and other remote working challenges will require organizations to take different approaches.
Women must manage expectations around video to combat the preparedness gap. More women are having to limit the number of video meetings they do per week. There must be certain days of the week when video calls are not made. You can also prevent Zoom or Microsoft Teams from automatically turning on video when you join a meeting. This way you can assess whether other people are on video. Improving conditions starts by not requiring everyone to always be on camera.
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Another component is creating more equitable conditions in hybrid environments. When we talk about remote work now, we’re talking about really using technology and systems to connect people in more meaningful ways. For example, in a company that has part of its staff in the office and the other part remotely, if the boss schedules a team meeting, he should not do anything in person since everyone can be online, that levels the field of game.
What else needs to change? Organizations have to really think about staffing and the different needs of introverts versus extroverts. Offering opportunities for people to opt out of team building activities is healthy.
Second, make sure that workplace policies are gender equitable. It is essential to take into account the additional workload that women carry at this time and recognize it.
Finally, examine your global hiring practices: What can you do to hire a more global and representative workforce? When you do that, you create a better, more diverse talent pool that drives innovation and new product development, creating a more competitive environment for the company.
Source: Ambito
