Women - They Should Really Know Their (Rightful!) Place.

Interesting, isn’t it? You never, ever hear a story about a top male CEO who has a bundle of kids and has still made it to the top of the pile! We can all think of stories about successful women with children who’ve made it to the top – precisely because it is seen as being such a stretch, a huge difficulty, a triumph of female will in the workplace over family duties.

It shouldn’t be this way in 2019.

The good news is, your company, right now, can highlight its female-friendly policies to make it as normal as possible for women to climb the career ladder if they want to.

Start from within

Actively promote the female-friendly policies you have that current employees may have forgotten about. For example, do you offer flexi-time? Are you open to offering job shares? Perhaps remind your female employees about courses and training that are offered by your company. It’s always a good idea to reiterate your company’s harassment policies – and encourage women to report this if it happens to them.

Think about what could be done better

Are you offering female employees the chance to apply for a position on the board? Are you actively recruiting women? Do you offer flexible working during the summer holidays for working mums?

Think about how you present your company to the world

From your website, to your social media posts, to your published job specs – take care to show that you are a female-friendly employer.

Your website should contain photos of an inclusive, open workspace, preferably not full of white men in suits! (Sorry chaps, nothing personal.)

How about those job descriptions you send out? They will be read by working mums and returning to work mums. Give them a reason not to automatically exclude you. Explicitly state you offer flexible working, and are a family-focused organisation. Go further and highlight that you offer generous maternity and paternity leave. If you offer space and time to use a breast pump for recent returning to work mums, your job spec is a great place to shout about it. Check the language you use…is it too ‘masculine’ i.e. using phrases like ‘tech ninja’ and ‘social media shark’. These are off putting to many women. 

Be fair

Too many companies are sleepwalking when it comes to their treatment of women when it comes to equal pay. Make sure your company has checked that its pay is fair – or risk not only losing a valued female employee, but gaining unwanted negative publicity. 

There are many ways to make sure your workplace is a positive and rewarding one for your female employees. Give us a call here at Avvio Reply and we’ll be happy to help you identify and communicate your female-friendly policies to attract, engage, and retain employees.