tech women Archives | The Glasshammer

While attracting women (back) to tech has been an ongoing theme across the industry, promoting and retaining the valuable women that get through the door is also critical.

Here are five key interventions that leaders in tech and organizations can do to develop and hold onto valuable female talent.

1) Tap a Broader Talent Pool and Recruit Returners

On the hiring front, Deloitte recommends that companies extend to a broader talent pool with “work from anywhere” models as well as recruit from overlooked sub-segments such as women who are returning to work or transitioning from other industries and upskilling career-switchers and those with resume gaps. BCG also recommends that tech organizations carve various pathways to leadership such as returnships that gradually reintegrate returning women into the workplace, to leverage this experienced talent for mid-level and senior-level positions.

2) Link Tech Opportunities to Purpose and Influence

Research has shown that women stay around for enjoyable work that they can fit in with other areas of their lives and that gives them opportunities to make a difference. Tying tech roles more closely to the impact they make in our world will drive appeal and job satisfaction.

As tech trailblazer Joyce Shen recently told The Glass Hammer, women who may not think of tech as a career option or career twist might want to reconsider: “There tends to be two main paths in technology careers in conventional thinking. One path is a purely technical path, often as an individual contributor as well as a super-doer. But there is another path where people get into more of the operational and business side, around product management and distribution as well as considering emerging topics such as ethics, fairness, governance in technology and especially in AI and machine learning. There is also a lot of opportunity to get into highly critical technology areas such as cybersecurity. In my experience, a lot of the influence and ability to make changes come from working at the intersection of different disciplines and taking that experience to management and leadership.”

3) Address Early Promotions (first five years) in Tech

McKinsey argues that companies need to address equitable advancement in early promotions. Whereas generally, 86 women are promoted to manager for every 100 men promoted, in tech it plummets to 52 women promoted to manager for every 100 men. Women hold only 34% of entry-level engineering and product roles in tech (versus 48% generally) and just 26% of first-level manager positions in tech (versus 41% generally).

Early promotions are the most critical to future success. McKinsey found that companies which have a more systemic approach to promoting women in tech roles are creating more diverse, inclusive and better performing workplaces by:

Providing more equitable access to training, projects and resources to accelerate skill building for women in technical roles. This means more structured guidance on career development and a formalized professional-development process including mentorship and formal sponsorship, and more opportunities to build a broad range of skills and work on higher visibility projects.
Implementing a highly structured approach to early promotions. Per Ipsos research, only 1/3 of women in tech felt support was in place for promotion and only 1/5 felt processes for promotion were in place. A structured approach includes clear and transparent systems, well-defined criteria for each role and level, accountability and clear bars for when promotion should be anticipated. It also includes employee-manager check-ins as to whether the right access to projects and skills are being provided to advance, and senior leader check-ins when individuals aren’t advancing at expected timelines.
Connecting early-tenure women with competent managers, mentors, and sponsors. Connecting senior colleagues with hires early in their careers can help catalyze their development. It also means investing early in the training and development of tech junior managers since they are in the coaching seat for entry-level talent.

4) Address and Mitigate Bias In All Aspects of Talent Development

Men in tech (67%) feel more comfortable than women (52%) to ask for a promotion – with 39% of women saying gender bias is the reason for not receiving one. Korn Ferry offers up that women don’t lack belief in their abilities but how they will fair in the assessment process. Removing unconscious bias at the level of hiring and throughout promotion processes, with clear and visible data to illustrate target areas and impact, is critical in tech.

One of the top three motivators for women in tech is development, but they report lacking the same opportunities as their male peers – and 2/3 don’t see a clear path forward in their company. In additional to clear and structured career paths, tech companies need formal mentorship and sponsorship programs to even the playing field so women can advance. According to Ipsos, 57% of UK tech women said mentorship and sponsorship would attract them to a company, but only one in five women felt they had access to sponsorship. Importantly, 55% of those who did felt it has greatly benefited their career.

BCG recommends, as the remote workplace has eased some of the obstacles to influence for midlevel women, tech firms could take heed and structure meetings to give all voices equal opportunity to contribute. Also making sure the frequency and value of manager-employee interactions are not being driven by affinity bias, and that mentorship and sponsorship are operational (and equitable) in the hybrid world.

5) Promote Well-Being Among Tech Women

A March 2022 study among IT professionals in 33 countries showed women (69%) were likelier to report feeling “run drown and drained of physical and emotional energy” than men (56%), and were more at high burnout risk (46% versus 38%).

Korn Ferry points out that burnout is driving the great resignation, especially for women. Tech companies need to be aware that hybrid working is part of both the problem and the solution. Promoting work-life separation and balance in tangible ways is important. Allowing for sabbaticals and extra paid leave can help returners to come back refreshed and more impactful. Embody a culture of inclusion for women.

Women who enter into tech roles of any kind have already crossed a hurdle by claiming their own belonging despite cultural messaging. Savvy organizations will make sure to reflect that belonging back to them in tangible and visible ways.

By Aimee Hansen

Every year, tech becomes more in need of talent, especially underrepresented women. Over 3/4 of tech decision makers say they are facing critical skills gaps, a 145% increase since 2016. Over half say they have a position unfilled and 38% are struggling to find the right candidates for three+ job posts.

Women’s technical propensities are being undertapped and the belonging divide continues to inhibit participation at different hurdles. Far fewer women who majored in computer science (38%) are working in the field compared to men (53%). Women hold a low share of tech roles – 16% in engineering and 27% in computing. They hold 28% of leadership roles, per BCG, and in the biggest 1,000 tech companies, only 18% of CFOs or CIOs are women. Between 2019 to 2021, the number of U.S. tech managers increased by 9%, but the share of women went down by 2% points.

But on a global level, Deloitte estimates that the overall tech workforce has increased 6.9% from 2019 to 2022, while share of tech roles is up by 11.7%. They project a gain of nearly 20% for women in leadership, stating 1 in 4 leadership roles at global tech firms would be held by women in 2022, a 4% increase.

In no where more than tech right now is diversity needed to help debias the technologies that are ever more pervasive in our daily lives. Not only that, but women in tech matters to the bottom line relative to competitors. The most gender-diverse companies are 48% more likely to financially outperform the least gender diverse. Companies with good representation of women at the top earn up to 50% higher profits and share performance.

Job Satisfaction, Work-Life and Retention

According to Deloitte’s Women @ Work global survey, among women, satisfaction with work-life balance has dropped to 32% from 70% before the pandemic, and in every category – productivity, mental well-being – satisfaction has dropped by double digits. Half of women in tech drop out by mid-career and women comprise less than 1/4 of senior roles. Women leave their tech jobs at a rate 45% higher than men.

In line with the continued resignations, 57% of women in tech said they expect to leave their employer for a new role within 2 years—with work-life balance as the biggest reason and Deloitte says 22% are considering leaving the workforce altogether. In a BCG survey, 73% of digital workers said that they expected to leave their job in the next two to three years, and 40% were job-searching.

Retention is also an issue in the tech C-suite. While men across Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta and Microsoft average eight years in executive roles, women stay for only 6.4 years. And while White execs last eight years on average, that’s five for Asian leaders, six for Black leaders, and four for Hispanic leaders.

Different Experiences of Hybrid/Remote Workplace in Tech

According to BCG research, the impact of the pandemic had different impacts for different women in tech. Midlevel women particularly found that work-from-home arrangements made their managerial work easier – such as chairing meetings, influencing decisions and delegating work, and they were even promoted at rates above midlevel men. Midlevel men found those same tasks had become more difficult, suggesting that some of the gender bias is neutralized in the remote workplace.

Women of color (47%) were more likely to report that it was more difficult to connect with mentors and sponsors in the remote setting than white women (35%). Both men and women of color reported less frequent and valuable interactions than their white peers, and women of color (41%) were more likely to report a negative impact on work-life balance than white women (28%) – suspected in part to be impacted by caring for family members other than children.

Senior women (36%) were more likely than senior men to switch jobs (31%), but they were less likely to get a pay increase (39% versus 50%) after doing so. After the pandemic, having a good work-life balance jumped ahead of financial compensation as the top priority for senior women.

Reset Tech Culture Towards Inclusion

Tech firms are still judged as “bro cultures” by many women, and it’s been substantiated that a widespread cultural reset is what is needed to get women back into tech and feeling they fully belong, again. Ipsos research in the UK indicated that 58% of women said that visible role models are one of the things that attract them to organizations, but many noted the lack. 83% of tech women in the UK rate an inclusive manager and 76% rated an inclusive culture as important for joining a tech firm.

But a culture of inclusiveness is not created only by an atmosphere of belonging and being valued, if it doesn’t show up tangibly in action throughout the career journey. It as good as an organization’s ability to remove bias from access to development opportunities, promotions, pay and leadership so that women can participate and advance to their full potential. Next week, we will focus in more on actions that organizations can take.

By Aimee Hansen

Tag Archive for: tech women

Women in Tech: Five Interventions to Develop and Keep Your Talent