A recent analysis of 500 million candidate profiles by Entelo found that 18 percent of tech roles are held by women in the U.S., while only 10 percent of tech executives are women.
The difficulties of recruiting women aren’t just limited to the tech sector, however.
Here are 3 facts to understand when recruiting women to your company.
Fact #1: Women are attracted to equal opportunities more than workplace flexibility
A new survey by Indeed found only 49% of women feel that both genders are treated equally in the workplace. 36% of women surveyed say they’re paid less and 59% of them report receiving fewer opportunities than their male counterparts.
A recent study conducted by Great Place to Work found that when women feel they “make a difference at their companies,” they’re 6x more likely to want to stay with their companies. When women say they’re “treated as full members of the team,” they are 3x more likely be motivated to do the job well.
Regardless of what kind of perks you offer such as workplace flexibility, if female candidates don’t perceive they’d be treated fairly at your company, they’re not going to be attracted to work there.
Fact #2: Greater female representation requires setting a quantifiable goal
A recent survey by Allegis found that while 72% of respondents reported having “a strategy and are making progress” or “we’ve arrived,” when it came to diversity and inclusion initiatives, only 37% reported having actual diversity hiring goals.
Even worse is the leading response to what D&I best-practices their company has in place was “none.”
Start small: focus on a quantifiable, realistic hiring goal for improving your gender representation. For example, to increase female hires in management positions by 10% within six months. Figure out a strategy on how to get there by leveraging AI technology and opening up your sourcing pools.
Fact #3: Change requires admitting to your lack of diversity
In general, diversity attracts diversity.
A recent study on school recruiting sessions held by tech companies in the Bay Area found that female students were more engaged during the recruiting sessions when female engineers spoke on both the technical issues and the social impact of their products. The reality is, however, not every company is gender-diverse.
So address the the elephant in the room by admitting to your lack of gender diversity and how your company is motivated to change this and lay out in detail your strategy for doing.