The past two years or so have made life for many working women much more complex. Many women’s “second shift” – the time after work which they spend caring for homes and families – got longer and melded into the workday thanks to work from home requirements.

In a McKinsey survey from 2020, 79% of men said they’re effective working from home, and 70% cited “a positive state of well-being.” For women, those numbers were 29% and 42%, respectively.

Some other stats:

  • Five million women left the workforce in 2020.
  • In 2020, society lost 36 years of progress on closing the gender gap, according to the World Economic Forum.

Women’s withdrawal from the workforce — and the countless other changes of past months — prompted reflections on leading as a woman during the Women’s Leadership General Session at SuiteWorld 2021.

“I’ve been the only woman in the room for a lot of my career,” said Rebecca Bayles, a panelist and managing director of Deloitte Digital.

“It can be very lonely being the only female person in a very male-dominated company, especially when you’re going into meetings and attending events,” Sara Kaur, another panelist, said of her time in the finance industry.

New Leadership Tactics for New Times

Atop navigating that decades-old imbalance, women in leadership positions had to make creative adjustments to their tactics.

Kaur, now CFO at skincare brand Codex Beauty, began one-on-one calls to check in with team members. This was her way of “showing employees and consultants that the company cared about them – that we cared about their well-being, about how their families were doing … just actually being able to show that the company was supportive of them,” she said. It’s an initiative she’s still running.

That type of communication could be critical: In the recent Brainyard survey, only 55% of respondents “agreed” that management is “concerned for their safety and happiness.” Meanwhile, 14% would take a new job for “better safety and comfort.”

Acknowledging the struggles of working from home — both logistical and emotional — was paramount for Jennifer Smith, group vice president of marketing at Oracle NetSuite.

“There is the listening aspect of [checking in] with your teams, but then there is the understanding piece of it,” she said. “I started talking about [my challenges as a working mom], and that opened the door for others.”

Smith and her executive team also ran an employee survey to gauge sentiment around working from home, company leadership and more, she said. They’re now poring over results and adjusting leadership tactics accordingly.

Addressing Diversity and Bias in Hiring

Darlene Slaughter, chief diversity officer at the March of Dimes Foundation, said her organization felt it needed to respond to the national conversation about race.

“We had conversations that we did not have before,” she said.

With much of the team already working remotely and efficient on Zoom in 2020, Slaughter could quickly engage staff in what she dubbed “‘courageous conversations’ about race and racism [in general] and in the workplace. We stretched the boundaries of how people were thinking — about what bias and privilege look like — and employees listened to each other.”

Slaughter said she is challenging managers to “think about who is not at the table” during the hiring process — and before it.

“We’ve been able to ask some provocative, straightforward questions to hiring managers and managers [in general],” she said. “‘How many people [of color] do you have on your team? Do you think about having a team full of men or women, or a lack of diversity on your team?’”

Returning to Work — After the Pandemic or After Decades

Women and men who paused their careers for childcare, senior care, military service and more have an especially tough time getting back into the corporate workforce.

What’s more, women’s representation is dropping in some industries. For example, women comprised 37% of the tech industry’s workforce in the ‘90s. In 2020, they comprised 21%. Bayles highlighted the Deloitte Encore Program, an effort to “offer this untapped talent market an entry point back into the workforce.” Through it, the company intentionally recruits women and men who have been out of the workforce for significant time, then provides on-the-job training, mentorship and growth opportunities internally.

“People may lose their confidence when they’re out of the workforce for a while,” said Kaur, citing struggles with technology as a major cause. In response, her business assigns new employees a “start buddy” who runs regular calls to both walk through internal tools, including technology, which mitigates the isolation of starting a job from home.

Employee Retention Tactics

Retention is currently high on many leaders’ priority lists. And it’s not just a matter of flexible work arrangements or better pay — the top two reasons employees would take a different job, according to the Brainyard survey.

Smith saw her teams’ desire for acknowledgement as a retention opportunity. So, she kicked off a “high five” program in which employees give each other accolades visible to peers.

Oracle NetSuite’s employee survey also showed employees were craving inspiration. In response, Smith launched a “What inspires you?” project, which yielded employee-made videos on personal passions ranging from espresso to the K-pop group BTS. Sharing those videos in an online meeting “created a memory” for teams, Smith said. “Sometimes you just need to not talk about work.”

At Bayles’s consulting firm, “retention is very equivalent to advancement,” she said. “It’s not just about diversity and bringing people in. If [hires] are not given the same opportunity to advance – and additional opportunity to advance ­– retention is not going to happen.”

So for Bayles, top retention tactics include mentorship for employees and bias training for the decision-makers who hand out promotions.

Advice for Women Leaders

The session ended with each panelist providing a piece of advice for women leaders, both current and aspiring:

“It’s always good to have a mentor within the organization …. someone who is going to care about you, who understands your aspirations, who is going to give you the kind of advice that you need. … That was my way of advancing in my career.” –Kaur

“Be yourself, and be bold. Your authenticity is your superpower. Know what you’re really good at, and then go make that happen for yourself by opening doors that may not be open for you. Open them yourself – and then bring your crew in with you.” –Bayles

“Say yes more than you say no. Many times, we talk ourselves out of opportunities and challenges, or we think that we can’t do something, so we don’t try. Just say yes.” –Slaughter

“Believe in yourself. And if you don’t, put people around you who believe in you. Take the risk, because it’s worth it.” –Smith

Watch the full Women’s Leadership General Session from SuiteWorld 2021: