Bringing Women Back to Work

This somewhat back-handed compliment was given to me about 15 years ago. The C-level executive that said it to me had a knack for slightly missing the mark on the pep-talk front, but I understood the purely good intentions behind the comment.

And to be fair, they were right.

On paper, I had been ‘under-qualified’ for several opportunities given to me in the early days of my career. Each time, I would have the work equivalent of a ‘near drowning’ experience. Then I would learn to ‘swim’. And succeed.

This series of opportunities happened because people gave me a chance. And as my career has progressed, I’ve never forgotten how important a chance is.

In several leadership positions since then, I have had the wonderful experience of hiring and developing dozens of others. While many of these talents have fit the ideal mould of the role, in several cases this has meant taking a leap of faith, modifying my expectations, or creating the needed space and support for this talent to thrive.

For women trying to get back to work, the challenge of fitting the ideal mould is particularly pronounced. With extended gaps in their resumes and flexibility requirements due to their caregiving responsibilities, many women who seek employment won’t make it past the screening process let alone get their big break. The rejection cycle becomes so demoralising, many simply give up. Yet I frequently hear business leaders complaining about the ‘lack of great talent’ and ‘hard to fill’ roles. Could these women be the answer to the talent crisis?

It is possible — and our shared responsibility as business leaders — to help bring these women back to meaningful work. Doing so is not only good for society, it is good for business. It does take effort to do so, but less than you think. I’ve curated some of my best advice for successfully bringing women back to work.

If you’re waiting for your ultra traditional industry to change the rules of the game... If you’re waiting for a Top Down mandate from the C-suite... You might be waiting a long time. But if you are in a position to either hire or influence hiring, you can make small and big changes which make it possible to bring women back to work after an extended absence. The first step is making it a priority for your own sphere of remit.

Make sure that the hiring manager/direct supervisor has the support and backing of the organisation/you to help women come back to work. They may need some additional considerations. For example, onboarding this talent might take the team additional time. Or it may require some investment by the organisation for coaching or training. Also, select the right environment and leadership style. For example, newly formed teams or departments won’t be steeped in history and feelings of “we’ve always done it this way”. A growth mindset and a desire to challenge the status quo is important to making this integration a success.

This is a tip I learned from a (senior female) machine learning engineer at Slimmer AI. We were doing a round of hiring, and I was interviewing a young female developer at the time. “Nothing feels more lonely than being ‘the girl’ on the team. Hire women in pairs or groups if you can. They can coach and support each other.” So that’s what we tried to do, whenever it was possible. We found that they advanced faster, both technically and socially, and we reduced attrition of talent.

Funny thing, goals: They sure do influence organisational behaviour. If you’re in a position to create a Top Down initiative to bring women back to work, it’s incredibly powerful. Knowing that this is genuinely important (as in: measurable and clearly communicated by senior leaders) to the organisation means that it has the potential to drive real change. Top Down initiatives can reduce ambiguity and much more clearly align incentives. I find it useful to focus on the KPIs/OKRs which align hiring managers and HR/people leaders, as there is often a big disconnect between how these two functions view talent and potential. These two functions must work together to be successful.

A big reason roles aren’t getting a lot of applications from women is because they simply cannot fit the current structure of the role. It could be that the rigid shift schedule doesn’t match up to their caregiving commitments. Or they need additional time to ramp up to full time after being out for an extended period. And then there is the classic obstacle of the career ‘Catch 22’: Not being qualified because they don’t have experience, but can’t get experience because they can’t get hired... For this last one, I’ve loved creating paid apprenticeships (our “Junior Junior” roles) to help women learn new skills and rebuild confidence. In general, my advice is to understand what exactly is keeping women away from your roles and customise accordingly to meet them halfway.

We’ve all experienced the heartbreak of a talent not working out. They aced the interviews. They had all the ‘right’ experience. But when put to real world tests, it wasn’t a fit, wasting precious time and setting your team backwards a step or two. In response, you battened down the hatches. You’ve made the criteria even more strict, more hoops to jump through, more assessments.

But haven’t you equally seen the magic of giving someone an opportunity and watching them shine?

Didn’t anyone ever take a bet on you?

I’m certainly not suggesting you throw your standards and processes out. But taking a chance is going to mean bending or breaking your ‘rules’. Focus on the most important elements of success for most roles, which are culture fit, capacity and capability. These are likely to not reveal themselves on a CV, and can be lost in a rigid or highly automated process that doesn’t involve enough human intervention. The more humanity you bring to your process, the more opportunity for chance you create.

This last, rather heartbreaking, quote is from a friend speaking about the challenges his wife has faced in her attempt to get back to work after taking a few years off to raise their family. It’s stories like hers that make me want to solve this problem at scale — far beyond the individual jobs I’ve been able to create and hire for.

All people deserve livelihoods of dignity and meaning. And when women — who’ve been out of work due to caregiving, or pushed out due to the pandemic — are ready to rejoin the workforce, I hope you answer the call.

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