Three facts and three actions to attract female talent to your company
What does the data tell us about talent attraction efforts today?
Those companies seeking to gain competitive advantages, attract the best talent, and develop the best products and services are increasingly focused on one thing: hiring a greater number of women.
What do the data tell us? According to PWC's Winning the Fight for Female Talent Report :
87% of CEOs around the world dedicate efforts and resources to guarantee diversity of talent and inclusion in their companies
71% of companies in Spain actively seek to hire more women , with concrete efforts to attract and retain female talent
80% of Spanish companies have incorporated diversity and inclusion issues as part of their brand or employer branding
Today, more and more CEOs around the world are focused on increasing the diversity of their talent and inclusion in their teams, as a vital part of their organization in driving innovation and gaining competitive advantage . Likewise, more and more efforts are focused on female hiring strategies, especially in those sectors in which women have traditionally been underrepresented.
The war for talent is witnessing an emerging trend: an increasing fight, no longer for talent in general, but for female talent.
Why is there a shortage of female talent in some companies?
The reality is that gender stereotypes and unconscious biases in selection processes are the biggest obstacle to female hiring, especially to hiring women in positions of responsibility.
However, many companies believe that the problem is the shortage of candidates in their selection processes . Although in some sectors this is still a reality - there are fewer women - the lack of women accessing selection processes may also be a consequence, rather than a reason per se . The interesting thing is the reasons why these candidates, even though they are few, select some companies over others, or decide to apply for certain positions instead of others .
These causes can be found in the perception that the different candidates have of the company, for example if they consider that it is a place where they will be able to develop professionally or if they do not have female references in leadership positions that contribute to ensuring their development. Other causes are in the hiring processes themselves, for example how job offers are written, what qualities are listed as necessary, or how the interviewing teams are made up.
86% of women value the diversity of management teams before accepting a job offer
Furthermore, when deciding whether or not to accept a job offer, more and more women (and in many cases men) - close to 86% - make the decision after evaluating equal opportunities in the company and diversity in the employer's management or leadership teams.
What are the current business trends with the greatest impact on attracting female talent?
Companies have many possibilities when it comes to improving their efforts to attract female talent, implementing a number of actions focused on this objective, but which ones can they start with?
The three trends that derive from the aforementioned PWC research as those most popular due to their impact in terms of attracting female talent are:
Ensure diversity of the interview panel throughout the entire hiring process (52%)
Train professionals in charge of hiring and promotion in the company in equality and diversity and identification of biases that may be affecting their decisions (49%);
Review job descriptions and functions to be performed to ensure the use of inclusive language that does not stop women from applying for vacancies (48%).
Companies that have launched these initiatives have reported an impact in terms of female hiring , also noting that practices such as these have led to an increase in the number of female candidates in selection processes and in the number of women hired.
What implications does this have for your company?
If we want to have competitive and innovative companies, we cannot lose female talent along the way.
The first thing is to understand where we are, carrying out a business diagnosis in terms of gender equality and understanding our challenges, what our numbers are, and where our greatest opportunities for improvement are.
With this, we can create a data-based strategy that includes measures and practices on hiring, selection and promotion issues such as sharing, as well as clear indicators to track the measures and the impact they are having on our organization.
Attracting female talent today is no longer merely a social issue, but is a business priority and a matter of business strategy . And therefore it must be approached as such. But it is also just the beginning of the journey. Once we manage to attract and incorporate female talent, their development, commitment, progress and loyalty will be increasingly critical.
There is still a lot of work to do to face these challenges - and companies must continue to strive to win the fight for female talent - but we increasingly have more knowledge, more and better data and better tools to face them.
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