We hear talk about diversity a lot in the tech industry. The lack thereof, the need to address it, the data points around it, but one glaringly overlooked segment of this discussion is the solution itself. As we enter 2017, we’re all well aware of the problem at hand — of the top nine tech companies in Silicon Valley, women make-up only one-third of the workforce. Look outside of the Valley, and it’s apparent that this problem is really more of an epidemic. With the way the tech industry as a whole is exploding today, this doesn’t add up. The demand is there, so why aren’t more women answering the call?
While the problem is likely much bigger than a single answer, there are several contributing factors: motherhood (68 percent of women surveyed cited becoming a mom as the primary reason for leaving the industry), poor maternity leave policy (12 percent), minimal flexibility in the work environment, lack of support from the leadership team, and the cost of childcare round out another chunk.
Women are telling us what they need to adequately balance career and family. But, they’re not the ones making the decisions—we the employers are. Business leaders must begin taking ownership of change, and it needs to starts early in the foundation of a company’s DNA.
The Myth: Overworked Startups
One of the biggest myths in the startup industry is that once you sign on, you’ve simultaneously signed away your personal life. In other words, the dream of a healthy work-life balance is just that—a dream. The culprits of this stereotype for Silicon Valley and beyond are two-fold. Employers that work their employees to the bone, such as the rumors about Amazon offering gift cards to employees who put in 40 hours of overtime a week. And, on the flip side, hungry, competitive employees who gauge their effort by how little they sleep.
Despite this myth, the reality is that many startups are taking huge strides to ensure their employees are well rested, and it’s being touted as one of the perks of working at a startup these days (isn’t that ironic?). The smart entrepreneur knows that it benefits no one to burn out team members—the rabbit and hare for instance, is not a myth but a moral.
The Stork: Welcoming Motherhood into the Workplace
On a cultural level, every employee should realize how impactful welcoming a new child into the world is on an employee’s family and on their job. From there, the answer is to work backwards, to identify what benefits are lacking to achieve work-life balance. Take the basic company-backed maternity leave package for example. What happens after the 10 weeks of paid leave? New mothers are typically expected to return to work immediately, and seamlessly transition back into their former role while juggling new parental duties. To be successful, employers might consider offering transitional support, such as a 50/50 split between working from home and in-office, when applicable. This involves breaking boundaries, offering services that go above and beyond—meal delivery, day care facilities, and even night nannies to ensure new parents gets a good night’s sleep.
There is no such thing as the ‘mommy path’ when it comes to diversity in the workforce. Female employees deserve more than just a bouquet of flowers and a card with a stork from the boss. Women should no longer have to make that very difficult choice between growing their family and growing their career.
Breaking the ‘Loop’
Women in particular have been historically caught in a “success within limitations” loop. This reality impacts diversity and diminishes a company’s ability to retain the best people. A report by the Center for Talent Innovation reveals that 43 percent of all women take an extended career pause after giving birth to raise their families. Yet, of the 90 percent who attempt to return to work, only 40 percent return full-time.
From personal experience building and growing a company in the Seattle market and working for big name giants like Microsoft and Amazon—I can attest to the improvement in quality of life and lower turnover. And there are hard numbers to prove it—according to a Boston College Center for Work & Family study, 80 percent of employees indicated that flexible work arrangements, such as telecommuting and co-working options and scheduling flexibility, had a positive impact on retention.
While tight-budget startups may find the expense of enacting such progressive policies during the foundation period risky, the investment is worth it on multiple levels. Over at Domo, a business intelligence software company headquartered in American Fork, Utah, it takes family-friendly work environment seriously—and its company benefits reflect this. The company instituted a generous $2,000 maternity clothing-shopping spree. Now its expecting/new mothers can shop for maternity clothes at Nordstrom and A Pea in the Pod — on the company's dime.
At Outreach, we’re not only laser focused on solving our customers problems, we’re also committed to identifying and incorporating a solution for our employees’ hurdles as well. As of late last year, we instituted a progressive parental leave policy that supports our new parents 100 percent, from expecting to their gradual return to work. Although newly enacted, we’re already hearing that the policy’s benefits are “priceless.”
The tech industry faces an increasingly competitive hiring climate and every day is a race to attract the best talent. The benefits-battle is just beginning, and it’s the catalyst for change in an industry that’s starting to “walk the walk” when it comes to employee retention.