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Corporate Initiatives to Attract and Retain Women
- Alcoa
Challenge:
To attract more women to line roles.
Solution:
Established a "Women in Line Roles" project team to discuss and respond to the needs of women who might be attracted to line roles. Four business unit presidents committed their time to the project. The project identified the current condition of women in those roles, identified areas where the number of women could be increased, and came up with action plans to reach objectives.
- Intel
Challenge:
To interest more women in a career path to Principal Engineer (PE).
Solution:
Created a program (the Technical Female Leadership Series) designed for women and taught by women PEs. Since the program was established in 2006, the number of female PEs has almost doubled. In response to that success, Intel launched an annual 2-1/2-day "Women Principal Engineer's Forum" designed for women PEs and those likely to attain that status. The program offers an opportunity for women to work on their technical skills in a supportive environment.
- Johnson & Johnson
Challenge:
To accelerate the careers of high-potential, director-level, multicultural women (many were scientists and engineers).
Solution:
Started a four-day career acceleration program, called "Crossing the Finish Line" (2-1/2 days for women participants and 1-1/2 for their supervisors) made up of 40 teams, including a multicultural woman and her supervisor. The end product is a career development action plan to be used when the training is over. A team-building exercise also allows participants to discover how each would handle a specific people management problem. The teams discuss the responses, focusing on disconnects between women and their bosses.
- IBM
Challenge:
To help women balance the demands of work and family life.
Solution:
Launched a flexible leave of absence program. This program, initially launched in the 1950s, was extended over the years and now can be taken for up to five years for employees interested in taking educational or military leave. To qualify for a flexible leave, an employee must work out details with her manager. It can be taken for any personal reason.
- GE
Challenge:
To create an on-ramp for women who have opted out of the workforce.
Solution:
Created the Restart program at the John F. Welch Technology Center in Bangalore, India, the largest of its four global research centers. GE India plans to support women by expanding its existing female-friendly policies and appointing a diversity leader. The program was expected to launch in May 2008 and GE expected to rehire 10% of those who participate in the program.
- Cisco
Challenge:
To fight isolation of women in senior positions.
Solution:
Started two programs-not specifically aimed at women, but expected to radically improve women's prospects-to hire people at the VP level and above from outside the company (Executive Talent Insertion Program, known as ETIP) and help assimilate them into Cisco's culture (Executive Talent Assimilation Program, known as ETAP). These programs are expected to create a significant number of women in senior positions, removing the isolation that many women experience at the top and creating a large pool of potential mentors and sponsors for more junior women. Since ETIP was launched in April 2007, 23 new VPs have been hired and 21% of them were women and minorities. ETAP invites its new senior hires to the Executive Action Learning Forum, a 12-week strategic initiative where teams of about 15 gain exposure to John Chambers and other top Cisco executives. The forum provides an opportunity for recruits to collaborate on real-time business issues. ETAP's goal is to push the retention rate of outside senior-level hires to 75t, from the traditional 50%.
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The Athena project research-conducted by Harris Interactive-consists of four surveys (one U.S. survey and three company surveys), 28 focus groups, and numerous one-on-one interviews, all conducted in 2007. The U.S. survey was conducted online among 2,493 U.S. women and men, aged 25 to 60 with training in fields related to SET. Athena Factor, Copyright 2008 by Harvard Business School Publishing Corp. All rights reserved.
Also of interest:
Report: "Where are the Women in Information Technology?" by Nancy Ramsey and Pamela McCorduck, Prepared by the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology for the National Center for Women & Information Technology, University of Colorado, Boulder, February 5, 2005
Book: Women in Science: Career Processes and Outcomes, by Yu Xie and Kimberlee A. Shauman, published by Harvard University Press, December 2005. Scholarly study of the career paths of women in science.
CIOZone Question: What does your company do to attract and retain women in technology positions?
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