One might think that a worldwide pandemic would have a significant impact only on health. However, the coronavirus has effectively changed the model of work that was prevalent in the world.
One of the biggest changes in work culture is to do with timings. In the pre-corona days, usual working hours concretely sat between five to nine hours per day. While this doesn’t seem like too much, it is important to take into account the fact that women, even when they are working, are expected to take care of the children, families, homes, and more.
This severely impacts the amount of time that women can dedicate to rising to the top of their work game.
According to a study conducted by Zurich Insurance Group in collaboration with the UK government’s Behavioural Insight Team, a significantly higher number of women applied for leadership positions and roles when the job posting was shared with part-time, job-share, or flexible working options.
According to the study, the female applicants for management roles rose by almost 20% when the work hours were flexible!
The advertisements with flexible job hours used gender-neutral language and made sure that the target audience was a wide gamut of people. It was noticed that men, as well as women, were more interested in applying for jobs that did not require a rigid schedule. This signals a departure from the traditional models of work culture.
With the option of a malleable schedule, it was noticed that 15% more women applied for jobs in general and 20% more applied for jobs specifically in leadership positions. Many leadership roles have not been available on a part-time basis in the past.
According to Zurich Insurance, not only did the predicted number of female applicants increase in this time, the number of women who were hired for senior roles as a direct result of this initiative also skyrocketed.
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There was a phenomenal 33% increase in the number of women who found employment as managers and more.
Even though this finding seemed to be separate from the actual study conducted, it is conjectured that the results are not divorced from the idea behind the research. Even though this data is from after the study was concluded, both events happened in the same time period!
“By offering roles that fit flexibly around family life, employers could open the floodgates to a much wider pool of untapped talent. This will also help women progress into higher paid jobs whilst fitting other commitments around their careers,” said Steve Collinson, Zurich’s head of Human Resources.
What started with a home-bound initiative to keep the virus away is the gateway to a simpler and much better work ethic. Women are often not able to give their best at work because of other responsibilities. Some who might have to work part-time due to time-management issues often cannot find a path to rise to leadership positions and managerial positions.
The world is changing and women are slowly rising to their full potential. The next step would be for companies to allow this growth and ensure that top positions in their organizations are available with flexible timing!
Ladies, it’s time to get hired.
Source: Zurich Insurance
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