Hiring a Woman Could Be Your Best Talent Strategy
Would you be surprised to learn that gender biases are unfortunately common in the workplace, at every level of an organization?
Hiring the RIGHT talent, especially executive level talent is not easy, in fact according to Leadership IQ survey 46% of hires failed within the first 18 months!
In “What If the Most Powerful People In Business Were Women?” CEO Sharon Bush points out some astonishing facts about the lack of women leadership amongst organizations. Many people we meet are surprised that as of June 2015, only 5% of Fortune 500 companies were led by women. And depressingly since then the number has actually decreased!
Bush argues that businesses that lack female leadership are tremendously missing out, stating:
United States non-profit Catalyst.org found that women make better entrepreneurs. Their 2011 report saw a 26 percent high return on invested capital (ROIC) in top companies with 19-44 percent women leaders and no women directors in the bottom. What that means is that companies with female entrepreneurs performed extremely well in generating revenue. This figure is even more impressive with women in the tech space who founded their own startups.
Female leaders certainly bring a lot to the table. Results like generating revenue is an obvious sign of success, but even studying less tangible outcomes – like employee engagement ? women entrepreneurs still tend to bring more to the table.
Market research firm, Gallop, reports that women are more successful at engaging employees than there male counterparts.
Understanding the value that women leaders bring to an organization is the first step to overcoming any gender biases that an organization or individual may have. Creating a successful talent strategy includes eliminating unconscious biases during the hiring process ? whether its gender ? or something else and shifting the focus to creating a more inclusive, diverse and balanced workforce.
We have a really SIMPLE trick to equal out/even out your biases in an interview. Feel free to email us at info(at)wejungo(dot)com and ask, we’re happy to share our secret with you!
Feel free to connect with us if you need help finding the RIGHT fit executive/ your executive search, or help building a talent strategy and recruiting resources for your company.
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Has there been a female leader who has stood out in your career? If yes, tell us who and why?