Many women all the over globe encounter one or more challenges in their workplace and these challenges have made lots of female talents lost interest in their career development. However, this article seeks to examine the most common challenges women encounter in the workplace, recommend how leaders can prevent those challenges from reoccurring in order to motivate female talents to develop further in their career.
The Absence of Flexible Work Arrangements
Flexible work arrangements mark out how, when and where employees work, affording them the opportunity to manage their career and personal priorities more effectively. However, this crucial package is lacking in most of the workplace in which women find themselves. In turn, managing and balancing their career and their personal priorities become a big challenge. However, when flexible work arrangement is seen as an advantage for employees or a special provision for caregivers especially women, it turns into an effective tool for organizations to attract top talent female, a good measure to reduce absenteeism.
How Can Leaders Prevent This?
- Leaders should focus more productivity and results, rather than time spent at the desk
- Leaders must encourage their team to be a role model and consider utilizing flexible work arrangements
- Search for leaders who currently work flexibly and find out what works and what does not.
Non-Inclusive Workplaces
Women often feel excluded or ignored in the workplace especially when it comes to making important decisions. When women feel like outsiders in the workplace as result of gender differences they feel excluded and that can lead to a lack of satisfaction in the job, diminished employee voice, and give them great a reason to leave the job. An inclusive workplace is one that fully engages and supports all workers.
How Can Leader Prevent This?
- Design conversation ground rules and hold yourself and your team members accountable for not following them.
Lack of Sponsorship
Many leaders are not sponsoring highly qualified female talents by speaking up on their behalf in areas where they need sponsorship to improve their career. Women need sponsors in the workplace because they act as advocates in positions of authority to give women high visibility, talk about their accomplishments behind closed doors, and promote them for career advancements opportunities.
How can leaders prevent this?
- Leaders must recognize that sponsorship is something doable by anyone, especially, men who can take many powerful actions.
- Carefully cultivate a listening culture and listen to your female colleagues, this can help them feel more supported.
- Offer training to defend and support women colleagues’ innovative ideas.
