This underrepresentation may stem from many causes, but one of the biggest challenges is what Leanin.org called the broken rung. A sweeping 2021 study looking at 329 companies employing 13 million people found that the biggest obstacle most women face with being promoted is that first step up from entry-level roles to manager. For example, the study showed that for every 100 men promoted to a management position, 86 women are promoted. At the beginning of 2020, women held only 32 percent of manager positions, while men held 88 percent. So women are significantly left out of entry-level management positions that would put them in the succession pipeline for significant promotion along a leadership track.
COVID-19 and working women
The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic may erase the gains toward equity and parity for women in the workplace. The challenges of the pandemic have pushed women employees to either downshift their careers or leave the workforce altogether. The pandemic has had the worst impact on mothers, women senior executives, and Black women for a variety of reasons, including the following:
Lack of flexibility
Feeling they need to be constantly “on call”
Caregiving burdens due to COVID-19
Feelings of being negatively judged because of caregiving during the pandemic
Discomfort in sharing challenges with team members or managers
Feeling unable to bring their whole selves to work
The pandemic effect on women in the workplace has been so overwhelmingly negative because work performance goals didn’t adjust to accommodate the pandemic changes but rather increased to meet market needs (more on this in the later section “Increasingly Digital and Hyperconnected”). The work performance goals and needs were met, but there was little consideration for the added stress and trauma of the pandemic (and other social justice concerns that took place in 2020). Some companies provided supportive services like changes to the performance review process, homeschooling support resources, mental health counseling, and stipends to offset working from home costs, the majority of these measures came from less than 50 percent of employers. So room for growth definitely exists to tangibly support employees in a major crisis such as a pandemic.
What are some ways that your company worked to engage and retain women during the global pandemic? What could you have done differently?
Racial and ethnic diversity
Racial minorities are the primary demographic engine of future growth in the United States, countering an aging, and soon-to-be declining white population. The 2020 census data projected that the nation will become “minority white” in 2045. During that year, whites will comprise 49.7 percent of the population in contrast to 24.6 percent for Hispanics, 13.1 percent for blacks, 7.9 percent for Asians, and 3.8 percent for multiracial populations. Among the minority populations, the greatest growth is projected for multiracial populations, Asians and Hispanics with 2018–2060 growth rates of 176, 93, and 86 percent, respectively. The projected growth rate for blacks is 34 percent. The new census projections also indicate that, for youth under 18 (the post-millennial population), minorities will outnumber whites in 2020.
Racial diversity is growing in many nations. According to a recent survey conducted by Pew Research Center, approximately 69 percent of people surveyed across 27 nations said their respective nations have grown more diverse over the last 20 years. Close to half of survey respondents say that they favor a more racially diverse nation. Even though racial diversity is still growing in some nations, other nations, such as Trinidad and Tobago, already have a very diverse population. Groups in this country include East Indians, Afro-Trinidadians, and mixed races. Belize is another country with racial diversity, with its population made up of Mestizos, Kriols, Mayans, East Indians, and other races.
Guyana is also racially diverse. Races that reside in this nation include East Indians, blacks, mixed races, and Chinese.
Other racially diverse countries throughout the world include:
Brazil
Canada
Colombia
Panama
Suriname
United States
In the United States, the most diverse states are California, Texas, Florida, Hawaii, New Jersey, and New York.
While many companies increasingly understand the value of recruiting and retaining diverse talent, many companies fail to recognize the benefits of having a more racially and ethnically diverse workforce. Factors such as prejudice and stereotypes toward certain racial or ethnic groups, whether conscious or unconscious, are still too common. A number of global studies continue to tout the benefits that a more ethnically diverse workforce brings including better returns on sales, more innovative products and services, and the ability to meet the needs of more diverse customers and clients.
Increasingly More Flexible and Working More Virtually
What a difference a year makes when disruption comes and shakes up policies, practices, and beliefs. One of the many effects of the global COVID-19 pandemic for businesses and schools alike was the immense shift to working and learning more virtually. In many cases, it meant working from home because normal gathering networking places had to shut down too. Homes became de facto schools and workplaces. All over the world, people had to pivot; for employers, that meant they had to be more flexible and learn to work very differently to survive and maintain business operations.
A new way of thinking about work
The COVID-19 pandemic changed daily life in a matter of days and weeks. Normal events such as concerts, festivals, graduations, and weddings were cancelled. Travel came to a screeching halt, and places of worship even went virtual.
As dark and disruptive as the global pandemic was, it yielded some very positive outcomes and proven successes for the concept of working virtually and remotely. For years, I had been trying to convince old-school types of leaders that flexible work arrangements were an important practice and benefit that the new generation of talent (across genders, generations, and ethnicities) would expect or even demand as a condition of employment. The constant objections I got were “I need to see them here, butts in seats, so that I know that they’re working” and “I don’t think people will be as productive if they work remotely.” My responses have become a workplace mantra and a common tweet during my training sessions: “Visibility doesn’t equal value” and “Many people quit a long time ago; they just didn’t leave. Just because you see them in the seat doesn’t mean that they’re invested, committed, or engaged.” In fact, employee engagement surveys conducted by Gallup reveal that less than 40 percent of workers worldwide are “highly engaged.”
