What Women Restarters Want in Their Workplace
- Sandhya
- in
- Back to Work, Restarter Stories, Career Development, Working Women, HeForHer
- |
- 25 Jul 2022
Organisations have realised the importance of having women on board their teams. Almost all studies indicate that a gender-diverse company has higher sales revenue and profits compared to just a male-dominated team.
Aside from the fact that a diverse team has a positive impact on the business, companies are hiring women professionals including women restarters owing to the skills that they bring to the table. Having women employees ensures better employee engagement and retention of trained talent.
Women who enjoy their work with better job satisfaction levels, a positive work environment with meaningful work, better growth opportunities and most importantly, a job that fits well with other areas of their lives, are more likely to stay on in their current workplace.
While enterprises are going all out to woo women employees with various programs and benefits, do we know what the restarters want in their workplace when they unpause their careers?
JobsForHer’s Dipstick analysis of women professionals has thrown up a few interesting facts on what they expect at the workplace when they return to their careers after a break.
They are
- Flexible work options
- WFH/Remote work
- Childcare Benefits
- Support employee well being with work-life balance
Other studies also indicate that in addition to the above benefits, women prefer better work-life balance, communication and compensation.
Flexible working is among the biggest priorities for working women to be able to balance work and family responsibilities. It offers them the twin benefits of working at their own pace as well as work-life balance. And, most importantly, by being with their young children, they can shed any mom-guilt that may arise. Many women concur that flexibility increases their productivity.
While WFH or remote work options were few and far between before the pandemic hit us, it quickly became the new normal. Many women now prefer the WFH option as it saves a lot of energy, time as well as money due to long hours of commuting and achieve the flexibility to balance personal and professional life while fulfilling all their duties.
Child Care Benefit
Many research reports indicate that women job seekers with young children aged 0 to 5 prefer working in companies that offer child care at the workplace or provide child care expenses. Working women have said that child care benefits are a very important factor in deciding whether they would stay at their current employer or switch over to companies that offer it.
Working women across the industries agree that the increased dual responsibilities both at work and home, can increase stress, compromise physical and emotional health, and lead to burnout and lower work productivity. So they prefer companies that encourage them to have a balanced work-life, and that offer holistic employee well-being.
Well, if we can classify recent times as a pre and post-pandemic era, the year 2022 clearly falls in the latter era. What was once like flexi option or remote work options that were provided only on request, has now become new normal.
It has empowered women, who would have otherwise quit their careers or taken a sabbatical, to remain in the workforce and seamlessly divide their time between work and home.
Organisations are now tapping this talent pool and are now aggressively pursuing their diversity and inclusion initiatives with many women-friendly policies and returnee program for many on career breaks.
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