LEADING LADIES: FOSTERING FEMALE LEADERSHIP
24 Seven launched our Leading Ladies content series to educate companies on how they are able to create better workplaces and environments for women. Our goal has also been to inform women about career best practices, from job search recommendations to understanding their worth and setting compensation goals, to advice on managing their development, so they can reach for the sky and become one of the stars.
Information Is Power
Celeste Gudas launched 24 Seven with the founding elements of being a supportive and empowering workplace where women were enabled to charter their own professional and financial course. Today, it is critical for companies to provide women from all walks of life, industries, and professional levels with the tools they need to reach for the sky and become one of the stars.
Leading ladies combines inspiring and practical content and information that women can use as they navigate their careers and for companies to use to allow for advice, support, and clarity as women make their climb up the linear corporate ladder or a more non-traditional trellis.
Why Women Leave Their Jobs
Do some of your top female talent have one foot out the door? Perhaps they do and you don’t see it happening. 65% of women we surveyed last year said they were contemplating a job change in the next twelve months, and when asked specifically why they were walking out, we were given 5 concrete reasons that could occur in any company.
- Money money money
- Growing up
- Training and development
- Benefits and perks
- She’s just not that into you
While these were the top factors on the female job seeker’s list for jumping ship, paying attention to them and tweaking the employment proposition accordingly is sure to have a positive impact on the entire organization and talent retention overall.
Executive Female Leadership
Women today represent just under half of the labor force. Companies looking to attract and groom top female talent into leaders need to understand what it takes to attract women employees, and how increasing their on-the-job happiness and engagement through professional and leadership development is an essential component to retaining them. With the current social climate, it is en vogue to stand with the female empowerment du jour. Yet at many companies, female leadership development isn’t anything more than a veneer-deep corporate social responsibility checkbox item.
While companies might use a lot of flowery prose to promote all these features in their employer branding, today’s female job seekers are seeking concrete reasons to believe in a company’s support of a female-forward workplace. How would your company fare under scrutiny?
Sisters, Do It For Yourselves
A study by DDI, a global HR consulting firm, finds that women are hesitant to ask for mentorship from other women, and an almost equal amount don’t raise their hands to mentor others. Most often, these women say that they lack the confidence or experience to be a proper mentor, and feel that they don’t have adequate time for the responsibility.
Raise your hand and become a mentor – formally or informally. If your company has an official mentorship program, find out how you can participate. Whatever you do, don’t limit your idea of what mentorship looks like, but make sure you stay realistic about the amount of time you can spend and stick to that commitment. Be upfront about the limited time you have to offer and set the proper expectation.
Think of your active participation in mentorship as spreading the seeds of female leadership on the winds of change blowing across Businessland today. Read the full post here to see why you should sign up to be a mentor and to continue fostering leading ladies.
