Leadership talent is in short supply in New Zealand and globally. Yet at every successive management level significant proportions of talented women drop out or their career stalls. This is the leaking talent pipeline. This report examines how three factors create barriers to women’s career progression and contribute to the loss of leadership talent.
Key Results
The benefits of attracting and retaining talented women in leadership roles are clear. Clear too are existing barriers to women’s career progression associated with unconscious bias, career breaks and flexible working. There are a number of actions organisations can take to reduce these barriers and gain the benefit of attracting and retaining talented women leaders including:
- raising awareness and developing actions to address the unconscious bias that otherwise will continue to create invisible barriers to women’s progress in the leadership pipeline
- supporting talented women to return to work or re-enter the workforce in jobs that fully utilise their leadership skills and value to the organisation
- aligning policies, workplace practices, and organisational culture to support effective flexible working arrangements for all employees
- proactively planning and managing women’s leadership careers in a way that supports their career and life choices
- taking an executive-led and strategic approach to implementing transformational change that will shift existing mindsets and behaviours to ones that support gender balance in leadership.