9 Meaningful Ways to Attract and Retain Women at Work (on International Women’s Day)

This International Women’s Day is one that’s like no other. As 3 million women left the workforce in 2020 due to stress, burnout, and a lack of childcare, CBS News reported that organizations “backslid 22 years on the gender pay gap and 32 years on the labor force participation rate of women.” Along with the loss of progress, companies also will likely lose the innovation, leadership, and profitability that comes with it. 

In order to reverse the gender parity regression, companies will need to take corrective actions - and fast. In our newest The State of Diversity Recruiting in 2021 research, we surveyed over 150 HR, Talent, and Diversity leaders to understand their diversity recruiting priorities, goals, and actions. 98% of companies surveyed reported that diversity recruiting is a top priority in 2021.

On this International Women’s Day, we’re thrilled to share 9 actionable steps organizations can take to make meaningful improvements for working women. See them here now: 

1. Set tangible diversity goals and tie them to leadership performance and compensation 

While 98% of organizations said diversity recruiting is a priority, only 54% of companies surveyed said they had tangible diversity recruiting goals. Setting goals is a great way to keep diversity top of mind. Beyond just goal setting, though, “the single most effective way to turn words into action (and get leadership on board) is to tie goals and metrics to leadership’s performance evaluations and compensation or bonuses,” says Romy Newman, the co-founder and President of Fairygodboss in recent What You Need to Know About Diversity Recruiting in 2021 webinar. Once there’s a financial incentive attached, it will become a priority. 

2. Conduct compensation audits to uncover and rectify the gender pay gap

The pandemic has forced many families to make the difficult decision for one member to leave the workforce due to significantly increased household and childcare responsibilities. In many heterosexual relationships, that member was the woman. Why? The gender pay gap. 

Prior to the pandemic, women already averaged 80 cents per every dollar men make with Black and Latina women making significantly less. After 2020, however, CBS shared that companies backslid 22 years on the gender pay gap. 

Companies can help and lay the groundwork for a more equal future by committing to uncover and rectify pay gaps through compensation audits. Yet, The State of Diversity Recruiting in 2021 found that only 29% of organizations conduct pay audits to ensure fair and equal pay. When asked about these findings, cofounder and Chief Data Scientist for compensation audit technology, Syndio, Zev Eigen says, “This finding is not surprising because the traditional antiquated ‘one-and-done’ approach to compensation audits is time-consuming, costly and often fails to deliver actionable insights employers need to foster sustainable change.”  “By contrast,” he says, “organizations can deploy best-in-class technology to effectively, dynamically and proactively manage pay equity on an ongoing basis. This leads to consistently improved outcomes over time in terms of compliance as well as promoting fairness in the workplace.”

3. Enhance home and childcare benefits for employees

Similar to flexible work schedules and opportunities, targeted child and elder care employee benefits can significantly improve employee lives and workloads, as well. According to the US Census Bureau, moms make up 32% of employed women. Among many of those are single mothers - who are often the sole caretakers and providers for their families. Jobs for Humanity founder, Roy Baladi, says, “Being a mom is a full-time job, but having to provide for a family with a single income in parallel is a huge ask. There are more than 300 million single moms worldwide.” 

To counteract the balance of familial and workplace responsibilities, Fairygodboss and many FGB customers have beefed up family care benefits. At FGB, VP of People, Dan Sprock provides helpful resources in the form of a “Treasure Trove” to keep kids active and learning throughout the day. It includes worksheets, exercise videos, and so much more. Outside of activities, PwC’s Kimberly Jones asked employees to find out where support was needed and found that employees needed more control over their time, help with childcare expenses, mental health support, and assistance with homeschooling. Elastic has given employees every other Friday off. 

4. Adopt and publicize flexible and remote work policies

School closures caused by the pandemic have dramatically changed schedules and availability for working mothers. Many have  added 20 extra hours of work to their plates and are balancing school zoom schedules with their work calendar.

“Nobody wants to lose good talent during the pandemic. People will remember how they were treated during this time,” said Prudential’s Chief Talent and Capability Officer, Vicki Walia. That’s why Prudential is taking big steps to retain women - as well as attract women to their jobs. “Does it matter if someone got their work done in 2 hours or 4? No,” Walia says as she talks about the need for organizations to start focusing on performance outcomes rather than hours. 

Last year, Fairygodboss surveyed 1,000 job seekers in How 2020 Changed the Job Search Landscape. The research showed that 52% of women job seekers say flexible and remote work options are a critical factor in whether or not they will accept a position at an organization. In fact, it was the second most important factor behind financial benefits - for both women and men.

While adopting flexible work policies will certainly help retain women talent, highlighting  these policies with job seekers can help attract women talent, as well. In 2019, leading UK insurance provider, Zurich, added their flexible work policy to 80% of their open job descriptions. Within one year, they doubled the amount of applications from both men and women, and increased women in leadership hires from 37.5% to 50%. 

Although promoting flexible work policies is proven to effectively improve applications and interest from women, only 27% of companies in The State of Diversity Recruiting in 2021 said they were doing so.

5. Develop diversity-focused employer branding and recruitment marketing

There’s no question that employer branding and recruitment marketing impact a company’s ability to attract, engage, and hire talent. In fact, Fairygodboss customer, LinkedIn, found a strong employer brand can increase qualified applicants and decrease cost per hire by 50%. 

In practice, 81% of women job seekers surveyed in How 2020 Changed the Job Search Landscape said a company’s commitment to gender equality will play either a moderate or very important role in employment decisions. Yet, only 51% of companies in The State of Diversity Recruiting in 2021 said they maintain a dedicated space for diversity efforts on their career pages and 52% said they published a public statement about their company’s commitment to diversity. 

Beyond corporate statements, women want to see and hear from other women who are thriving in the organization. Qualtrics’ Global Talent Brand Manager, Shaunda Zillich, said that sharing employee stories from women and underrepresented employees has helped Qualtrics increase applications from women and underrepresented job seekers from 34% to 50%. “Now that we understand the unique needs of different job seekers, instead of finding the needle in a haystack, we can focus on telling the right story, and the best people for the job will come,” Zillich says. 

6. Implement gender neutral and inclusive job descriptions 

Study after study confirms that gender-neutral job descriptions significantly increase applications from women, and also maintain interest of men. Yet - our research found that only 56% of companies use gender-neutral language in job descriptions. 

Recruiting communications expert and CEO of Three Ears Media, Katrina Kibben, says, “If you want to write gender neutral job descriptions, you have to start by really understanding what you're looking for. Asking unique questions that prompt hiring managers to talk about common experiences the right applicant should have must happen first. Once you've written a posting that highlights those skills, then use augmented writing or gender bias tools to identify any gender-biased language in your post. But remember, use common sense and train your team on what good looks like before using automation to make decisions for you.” 

7. Partner with targeted employer branding and recruitment marketing platforms 

Diversity recruiting expert, Jennifer Tardy, recently said “70% of jobs are filled on the hidden job market.” That means most jobs are filled through personal networks and connections, which makes diversity among personal networks highly critical to achieving diversity at work. “Unless you diversify your personal connections, sourcing for diversity will be a challenge,” says Tardy. 

Recruiters looking to attract women can start expanding their networks by building relationships and partnering with targeted, women-focused employer branding and recruitment marketing platforms, networks, and communities. These platforms -- like and including Fairygodboss -- provide talent teams with a space to learn about what women need from an employer, how they search for jobs, and creates content that actively attracts and engages women job seekers to apply. 

8. Conduct interview audits to ensure fairer candidate evaluations

Once candidates have applied for a job, they should participate in a fair and discrimination-free hiring process. But, the truth is that there is significant bias in interviews and candidate evaluations. In order to combat that, interview audits can help. 

“Interview audits are a compliance check to ensure you’re following the hiring process, collecting interview evaluations, and have reasonable justifications for hiring the candidates you did,” says recruiting expert and CEO of Trap Recruiter, Keirsten Greggs. She continues, “during an audit, recruiting teams can evaluate and audit interview questions and candidate evaluation ratings for each candidate and not just the person who was hired to truly uncover sources of bias.” 

Despite being effective at uncovering bias, The State of Diversity Recruiting in 2021 survey found that only 27% of companies conduct interview audits. “Simply checking a box to say that a person was hired according to the organization’s compliance standards is not enough,” Greggs said. 

Although it may seem challenging, new talent intelligence technologies that allow companies to record and analyze interviews and interview trends like Gong calls can help. Bennett Sung from Humanly.io said, “You can’t change what you cannot measure. One set of interviews from a beta customer uncovered junior female account managers were getting 5-6 minutes less talk-time in interviews as compared to their male and more experienced counterparts.” Once measured, talent intelligence “solutions can create data-driven and personalized coaching plans to overcome biased behaviors, improve candidate experiences, and strengthen the company’s employer brand.”

9. Diversify interviewer panels and candidate slates 

Diversifying interviewer panels and candidate slates are essential to increasing diversity. Diversity-focused employer branding  is important because it allows underrepresented job seekers to see people like them thriving in the workplace. Diversifying interviewer panels has a similar effect, and also reduces bias in the hiring process. When asked in The State of Diversity Recruiting in 2021, just 49% of companies said they have policies around diverse interviewer panels. 

More companies are starting to embrace the concept of diverse candidate slates. Yet, many are starting by requiring just one candidate from a historically underrepresented background. Research shows that if one woman is part of a candidate slate, the changes of a woman being hired are statistically zero because that candidate is always the outlier. Still, our research found that only 26% of organizations said they have diversity requirements for candidate slates. Even more, among a good portion of the companies who do have requirements for candidate slates, many of those requirements were “at least one woman” or “at least one underrepresented” candidate. If organizations are going to move the needle, diversifying interviewer panels and candidate slates is a must. 

In summary, diversity recruiting doesn’t just happen. It requires a strategic, targeted approach. On this International Women’s Day, we hope you’ll explore the aforementioned steps to elevate women in your organization. If you’d like more information on how to elevate women at work, read our brand new The State of Diversity Recruiting in 2021 research. And, schedule time with our diversity experts if you have any questions about how Fairygodboss can help.  

About Fairygodboss

Fairygodboss is the largest career community for women, and the place where millions of women are finding their next job. Through our career community, job board, employee reviews, curated content, and hiring events, Fairygodboss helps organizations enhance their employer brand and develop diversity-focused recruitment marketing to attract, engage, and hire more women - especially in hard-to-fill technology roles.

Founded in 2015 and based in NYC, Fairygodboss has helped more than 150 enterprise organizations diversify candidate pipelines and achieve diversity hiring goals. As of 2020, Fairygodboss has 9 million women job seekers each year. See why organizations like Apple, Johnson & Johnson, Home Depot, and Deloitte have chosen FGB today.