How to Retain Men and Women Equally

For the last four decades, gender disparities have been a focus of the U.S. workplace. Pay and promotion of women often lag behind that of men. Salaries and child-care responsibilities are often cited as the most obvious reasons. The solution advanced is higher pay for women and more flexible child care arrangements. The digital workplace has only made these differences clearer.

It is increasingly obvious that this pattern exists for multiple reasons, and that the reasons may vary by position and industry, to name just two variables. More granular information is needed to explore the reasons for gender disparity issues and develop plans for rectifying them.

One of the variables is retention. While retention is not synonymous with advancement in pay and position — people may be retained but not promoted and promoted but not retained — companies generally need to retain employees, promote them into higher-earning positions and senior management, and put them in positions where they can develop greater and more valuable business leadership skills. Retention is, therefore, a key variable in assessing gender disparities.

How to Retain

A Harvard Business Review article focused on the consulting business notes that, in this sector, relationships and an apprenticeship model are highly important — key to accessing a promotional path. Yet a study at a particular company showed women scored low in their apprenticeship program. As a result, a plan for increasing relationship ties, fostering strength development, and coaching on communication styles was developed and implemented.

Five years on, the number of women promoted to senior management had risen by 22%. The attrition rate was down 5%.

Part of the plan was to respond to employee feedback from both genders indicating that reviews focused too much on areas needing development. To rectify this, managers were encouraged to link strengths with needs for development. Rather than telling a quiet apprentice that they needed to speak up more in meetings, managers were encouraged to focus on a strength — good insights or observations — and to link the "speak up more" directive to encouraging them to share their insights. The number of employees who believed reviews focused too much on areas needing improvement fell 18%.

Managers were also encouraged to strengthen relationships within the firm in four areas:

• Making relationship connections
• Wanting success for individuals
• Advising
• Making sure relationships were maintained even if no projects were ongoing

The bottom line? Gender parity was reached for mid-career managers, with an equal percentage of men and women being retained. Women employees' satisfaction with retention efforts rose 20 percentage points; more senior women managers showed an increase of 30 percentage points.