Our society is grappling with the “new normal”, and workplaces may never look the same. The makeup of the workforce is shifting, as 252,000 Alabamans quit their jobs in the fall of 2021, with women leaving at a rate 25% higher than men. Women’s participation in the labor force has plummeted to rates not seen since 1980, erasing 40 years of progress. Women of color are leaving at the highest rate, as they often work more in retail, healthcare, and administrative fields that come with a high risk of exposure to Covid-19 and lower pay.

The pandemic exposed many of the long-standing inequities that have been holding women back. As schools shut down and the workforce went home, our country got a front row seat to the challenges of working parents, particularly in relation to childcare, education, caring for parents, healthcare, and housework. Women disproportionately shoulder the lion’s share of this “invisible” work.

With the Omicron variant spreading rapidly across the country, schools and businesses are starting to shut down…again. The flexibility that remote work afforded many women during the pandemic aided with the juggling of work and family. Now that they’ve experienced such flexibility, they are not likely to give it up. Furthermore, they shouldn’t have to. Many business leaders in Alabama have stated that productivity held steady or even increased with remote work.

Those employees who do return to the office, more often men, are more visible to senior leaders and more likely to get chosen for plum assignments and promotions. The employees who choose to maximize their remote time, more often women, are less visible to senior leaders and less likely to be considered for advancement. Mounting frustration from these two issues could cause another exodus of women from the workforce in 2022. There are several changes companies can make to retain this critical part of their talent pool.

With Huntsville’s strong job market and abundance of women-owned businesses, women have lots of options if they leave their jobs. How can employers avoid losing these valuable employees?

Flexibility, for both women and men, when it comes to family care and personal time off. Working women don’t just need flexibility for themselves—they need it for their spouses too, if the burden of care is to be divided equally.

Equal opportunity for advancement. Companies need to invest in training on the impact of implicit bias in recruiting, hiring, performance evaluations, promotions, compensation, and leadership opportunities. Extensive research has been conducted in the last decade on implicit bias, and the data clearly shows that women experience a wide range of daily micro-aggressions to blatant sexism in the workplace when it comes to advancement.

Access to informal networks. The happy hours after work, weekend golf, hunting retreats, sporting events, and power lunches can be uninviting, unappealing, and inconvenient for female employees– and yet, these are often where business gets done. If the goal of the activity is purely social, go right ahead. But when business conversations are taking place, make sure all stakeholders have equal opportunity to participate in the conversation.

Equal pay for equal work. On average, women in the US are paid 20% less than men for the same work. For women of color that number is 38% less, and for Latinas it’s 47%! The pay gap adds up to over $400,000 over the course of a woman’s career, and affects her ability to save for retirement, build institutional wealth, and give back to the community. Companies need to conduct pay audits, train managers on fair review/promotion practices, normalize negotiation for women, and eliminate salary history from the hiring process.

Paid Parental Leave. The United States is alone among wealthy countries in its lack of a national paid leave program. Offering paid parental leave can increase productivity, improve employee morale, help employers retain and attract top talent, and have a positive impact on social disparity and the health and well-being of employees and their children.

Assistance with childcare. Huntsville is seriously lacking availability in quality daycare options. Waiting lists at many daycare centers exceed the gestation period of the baby. While every employer is not able to have on-site daycare, companies can subsidize childcare, create alliances with certain centers to shorten wait times, and provide after-school study group options for school-aged children to do homework near their parents.

Provide perks that make life easier. Companies that provide services like healthy food options, on-site wellness, comfortable mothers’ rooms for nursing moms, dry cleaning pickup, travel arrangements, and college savings plans are all perks especially attractive to working women.

During the pandemic, companies were forced to quickly make alternative arrangements for employees to work from home and care for children. Companies that didn’t adjust to the pressures of the pandemic saw women walking out the door in record numbers. The pandemic gave us a rare opportunity to see an alternative to the traditional workplace, one that equalizes the burden of care for all parents.

Employers should take permanent note of lessons learned from The Great Resignation. The factors that led to so many departing women will not just disappear as the pandemic subsides. Employers who find permanent solutions to the challenges that were amplified by the pandemic, like providing workplace flexibility and true opportunities for advancement, will be in the best position to compete for female talent.

Guest Author: April Benetollo, CEO, Momentum
This article is a contributing guest post in partnership with the Huntsville Business Journal. Momentum is Alabama’s premier leadership organization, using skills training and mentorship to help women leaders advance in the workplace.