When the COVID-19 pandemic triggered society-wide restrictions in March 2020, millions of women grappled with challenges they could not have foreseen. Between losing their jobs, overseeing their children’s education, and managing childcare (and sometimes parent care), women—and especially women of color—suffered setbacks to workforce participation unprecedented in the modern era. Consider:
- A McKinsey analysis in September 2020 found that women’s jobs were 1.8 times more vulnerable than men’s during the pandemic. Though women held 39% of jobs in 2020, they accounted for 54% of job loss as of May 2020.
- A survey of female technology workers in the UK found that one-third believe women were set back in technology by 10 to 20 years because of the pandemic.
- As of 2021, women reported higher rates of stress, burnout, and exhaustion than even a year before, during the initial pandemic. The gap between women and men in self-reported levels of burnout almost doubled in that same year, with over 40% of women reporting consistent burnout at work.
- As of December 2021, the employment-to-population ratio of Black women ages 25 to 54 was still 3.4 percent below the measurement of one year before the pandemic. The same measurement is 2.3 percent below pre-pandemic levels across all women and 1.9 percent below for white women.
In this environment where women, and especially women of color, are still struggling to recover career paths and financial stability, companies have a unique opportunity to implement measures and policies that can speed the post-pandemic recovery for women and help them advance and grow into the future. By integrating the move toward hybrid work with DE&I initiatives focused on women and women of color, companies can help meet the challenges women still face in the post-pandemic world.
As organizations and leaders recruit and seek to retain talented women in the post-pandemic world, they need to focus on the things women say they need moving forward:
3 Reasons Hybrid Work Can Help Women
1. Flexibility
The remote and hybrid work revolution has led to an expectation of flexible work scheduling among most employee groups. By giving people control over their days, employers communicate that it doesn’t matter when work gets done as long as it gets done. For women, the flexibility to work when they are most productive or manage work activities around family members could sharply reduce the burnout and stress they feel on the job. Providing flexibility can also improve recruiting opportunities and allow women to move to other remote locations that will enable them to manage their obligations better. Communicating openness to hybrid work and flexible work arrangements will show women the company understands their need to balance work with other commitments.
2. Accountability
A hybrid model doesn’t help women if they still feel pressure to be visible in the office for a certain amount of time. Senior leaders can advocate and help create paths for women working in a hybrid model by putting less emphasis on physical presence in the office. They can also help generate visibility for women in a hybrid model by highlighting their achievements and opening ways to fully participate in growth opportunities without being present in the office all the time.
3. Empathy
In Gartner’s 2020 New EVP Employee Survey, only 63.7% of women at the executive level thought their employers understood what they needed at work. At the manager level, that percentage fell to 58.2%, and at the individual contributor level, only 40.8% of women thought their employers understood their work needs. These results reveal an empathy gap that organizations need to address. Organizations need to help their managers develop the ability to have courageous conversations. When people work remotely, even part of the time, having these conversations can be incredibly challenging. Leaders must intentionally create openness to give women a chance to express their needs and challenges.
The COVID-19 pandemic triggered sweeping changes throughout the world in various ways, and many of the ripples from those changes will influence the workforce for years to come. As women find new ways to advance their careers and manage their obligations going forward, companies can meet them where they are and create opportunities for recovery and growth well into the future.
