First, let’s start with the good news. According to the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report, the gap has actually been closed by 68%!But now the bad news. Despite the progress, it will still take 132 years to achieve full parity. And here’s where it gets even worse. According to data from the same report heading into 2020 (pre-pandemic) the gap was set to close within 100 years.It’s not all doom and gloom though, as some key measurables show progress is being made in countries around the world.WEF’s report finds that although no country has yet achieved full gender parity, the top 10 economies have closed at least 80% of their gender gaps, with Iceland (90.8%) leading the global ranking and serving as the only economy to have closed more than 90% of its gap. Other Scandinavian countries such as Finland (86%, 2nd), Norway (84.5%, 3rd), and Sweden (82.2%, 5th) are in the top 5, with additional European countries such as Ireland (80.4%) and Germany (80.1%) in 9th and 10th respectively. Sub-Saharan African countries Rwanda (81.1%, 6th) and Namibia (80.7%, 8th), along with one Latin American country, Nicaragua (81%, 7th), and one country from East Asia and the Pacific, New Zealand (84.1%, 4th), are also in the top 10.On the workforce front, gender gaps continue to be driven and impacted by many factors, including long-standing structural barriers, socioeconomic and technological transformation, as well as economic shocks. More women have been moving into paid work and, increasingly, leadership positions, yet globally societal expectations, employer policies, the legal environment, and the availability of child and elder care continue to impact the educational tracks and career trajectories women choose. And the fallout from the pandemic continues to disproportionately affect women as more companies engage in belt-tightening to weather any potential financial storm.Data from ManpowerGroup’s 2023 Workforce Trends report, The New Human Age, backs this up as 20% of women said the pandemic has made them want more security about their future – more important than a role reflecting their passion or values. A quarter of women (25%) are anxious about changing jobs now due to economic uncertainty and 1 in 3 women believe the current economic climate is a direct threat to their job.While incremental progress is still progress, it’s not enough and we need a broad coalition of employers to step up and make a difference. Here are some ways to help women overcome the barriers to entry, advancement, pay inequity, and more:Own Your Numbers and Measure Your ProgressWhen asked what women want at work, they were more likely than men to say equality in the workplace, regardless of age, race, or gender. Be accountable for making measurable progress and for tracking representation, hiring, and promotion outcomes.Repair Your Management PipelineOnly 19% of women report having a clear career path mapped out for them with their supervisors or organizations. Set a goal to get more women into first-level management, making it easier for more women to rise to senior leadership in your organization.Grow and Develop Your Female TalentAccording to The New Human Age, less than half of women believe their employer encourages upskilling or training and more than 40% say their manager does not recognize their skills or potential. Help employees develop both technical and soft skills, identify adjacent skill sets for new roles, and demonstrate how short bursts of training can accelerate people from one job to the next.Provide What Women WantWomen are more likely to value flexibility in locations and hours, including the option to work a compressed four-day week, and time off for mental health/well-being days.Flexibility is so important to women that The New Human Age data found 35% of women would trade 5% of their salary for a 4-day week.Gender equity is not just a women's issue; it's a human issue. While progress has been made in recent years, there is still a long way to go to achieve gender equity in the workplace. By encouraging diversity and inclusion, providing support for work-life balance, addressing unconscious bias, ensuring pay equity, and providing leadership opportunities, organizations can help women thrive in the workplace and achieve their full potential.
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Breaking Down Barriers: How to Embrace Gender Equity in the Workplace
13 March 2024 -
Women at Work 2024: Closing the Gender Gap
13 March 2024 Closing the Gap: Assessing the State of Gender Equity and Women at WorkAs we celebrate International Women's Day, it's a time for both reflection and action. We've made progress, but let's be real – the numbers still tell a story of inequality. Only 5.8% of Fortune 500 CEOs are women. Less than a third of executive committee members at major companies are female. And the equal pay? Well, currently women around the world earn 77 cents for every dollar earned by men.But amidst these hard truths, there are glimmers of hope shining through. ManpowerGroup's new “World of Work Outlook for Women in 2024“ report shows that some industries are stepping up and making real strides towards gender equity. Consumer Goods & Services, Financials & Real Estate, Communications Services, Health Care & Life Sciences, and Information Technology are leading the charge and showing us what's possible. As Becky Frankiewicz, ManpowerGroup's President, North America Region and Chief Commercial Officer, puts it, “In a world of talent shortages, we need everyone contributing to employment in a meaningful way. Bringing women into the workforce with an equal playing field is an economic imperative, not a nice-to-have. Knowing what women expect and need is the foundation for building equity. Actively upskilling, empowering allyship, leveraging technology to enable flexibility – this is how we unlock potential and growth, both for women and organizations.” The Business Case for EquityMomentum towards gender equity isn't just a feel-good movement. It's backed by powerful economic forces. Research shows that achieving gender equity could inject a staggering $12 trillion into the global economy over the next decade. And studies prove that when leadership teams are diverse, innovation soars, driving up profits and resilience. So, organizations have a choice to make – do they want to be at the forefront of this evolution, realizing the full potential of women? Or do they want to risk becoming irrelevant as their competitors reshape around inclusive talent strategies? Tech as a CatalystThe new report highlights some promising changes on the horizon. Over a third of employers confirm that flexible working policies are the most effective way to retain and attract diverse talent. And that's not all - leadership development, inclusive culture, coaching and mentoring, and academic partnerships are also top initiatives. And let's talk about technology – it's playing a huge role in advancing gender equality. 65% of employers say new tech has helped them be more flexible, 62% report it's diversifying their IT talent pipelines, and 52% say AI-based tools are helping them recruit the best candidates, regardless of gender. Systemic Barriers RemainBut let's be real - there are still significant disparities deeply embedded in our systems. Just over half of the companies surveyed report that their pay equity initiatives are on track, while the rest are lagging behind or have no initiatives at all. And when it comes to expanding the number of women candidates, it varies by role – administrative and operational positions are leading the way, but Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) and top-level management? There's still a long way to go. Steps To ProgressSo, how do we unlock the full potential of women in the workforce? The report lays out some key opportunities: Empower Women’s Allyship – Guide young women’s career journeys early on. Facilitate mentorship and sponsorship programs for women led by senior executive female allies. Leverage An Internal Talent Marketplace – Implement AI-based talent marketplaces matching women’s skills and aspirations to projects, gigs, and leadership opportunities enabling professional growth. Focus On Upskilling and Reskilling – Offer AI-enabled and virtual upskilling and reskilling to suggest personalized courses. Host tech academies to ensure women develop high-demand digital fluencies. Keep Flexible Benefits – Survey staff to shape policies supporting work-life harmony. With growing return-to-office plans, maintain caregiving benefits and hybrid remote options to retain women. Support Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) – Embed DEIB goals into operations with executive support, clear KPIs, tools, and training that build capabilities across all levels. The Road AheadThis International Women's Day, as we celebrate the progress made, let's also confront the hard truths head-on. The road to true equity remains long and winding, with stubborn barriers and biases continuing to block women's paths. But here's the good news...we know what works. ManpowerGroup's “World of Work Outlook for Women in 2024“offers a comprehensive blueprint for unlocking women's full potential in the workforce. By implementing the report's key recommendations – from progressive policies and allyship programs to skills-based hiring and diversity-driven technologies – organizations can take concrete steps towards creating cultures where women thrive. So the question becomes, what role will each of us play? The insights are clear, the tools are within reach, and the time for action is now. Change won't happen overnight - we know that. But every small step we take brings us closer to a future where women can thrive at work without barriers or bias.
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Unlocking Limitless Potential: Empowering the Next Generation of Women in Tech
12 March 2024 Step into any classroom where young girls are immersed in coding, and you'll immediately sense the vibrant energy of untapped potential. The sheer joy and creativity as they construct websites and design games from scratch are nothing short of inspiring. These brilliant young minds possess boundless talent, ready to dream up groundbreaking innovations if we nurture their passions early on. I still remember an exploratory course I took coding graphics (0’s & 1’s) on an Apple 2E in the 6th grade!Tragically, many girls have experienced a gradual erosion of confidence due to outdated gender norms and subtle signals suggesting their skills aren't valued in technical fields. By the time they reach adulthood, these discouraging biases have often eroded their career aspirations, resulting in a loss of diverse ideas and perspectives for all of us.But here's the good news: we're no longer accepting the status quo. Across the tech industry, a fervent conviction is sparking real action and investment to dismantle barriers for women. Flexible work arrangements, remote opportunities, mentoring programs – these innovations are swinging doors wide open. And the proof is in the new data from ManpowerGroup’s, “World of Work Outlook for Women in 2024” report:• 65% of employers acknowledge that technology has made them more flexible, paving the way for women's advancement.• 62% observe IT hiring pools becoming more gender-diverse, thanks to emerging recruiting methods.While celebrating this hard-won progress is crucial, we must recognize that statistics about inclusion only take us so far. To truly unleash potential for generations to come, we must transform technology cultures from the inside out.This requires a brave, honest introspection. Identifying and addressing lingering biases. Engaging in uncomfortable yet crucial conversations. Tirelessly challenging the status quo. It's about walking the walk of inclusive values, not just talking the talk. I’m grateful (and lucky) I’ve had incredible mentorship throughout my career from male and female executives, who were invested enough to both challenge and support me. They helped me grow and learn from the tough lessons and failures along the way. And they helped me build confidence and continue to pursue my leadership goals to become a Chief Information Officer (CIO), in a time when there weren’t many female technology executives to seek out for advice.As a woman in tech leadership, I am personally committed to being a catalyst for change by:• Mentoring young women as they navigate STEM paths.• Sponsoring employee resource groups and programs to empower women.• Advocating for cultures of belonging (and watching out for unintended, yet outdated boys' clubs).• Speaking out against discrimination at every turn.• Ensuring diverse talent recruiting for technology positionsTogether, we can construct a vibrant reality where girls' love for technology is continually nurtured, not dismantled. A reality where they pursue their passions unbounded by gender stereotypes, and their voices confidently resonate in decision-making rooms.This International Women's Day, I extend an invitation to every leader to join me in accelerating equality through deliberate, daily choices:• Leverage technology solutions to implement flexibility and open doors for women.• Scrutinize cultures vigilantly and uproot any biases.• Visibly champion women through sponsorship, mentoring, and unwavering vocal support.We stand at an exhilarating tipping point. The road ahead is still long and winding, but progress has unstoppable momentum. With purpose and innovation propelling us forward, there's no limit to how high we can elevate women and the technology world as a whole. So let's keep marching forward, empowering tomorrow's barrier-breakers with each step. Their futures have never looked brighter.
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World of Work Outlook for Women in 2024 White Paper
11 March 2024 ManpowerGroup’s 2024 World of Work Outlook for Women report examines the progress, persistent gaps, and opportunities for employers as women represent an increasingly significant portion of the workforce. It leverages data from more than 40,000 hiring managers around the world to learn more about the current state of gender gaps and what organizations of all sizes are doing to address them.Download Report
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Potential, Not Credentials: Rethink Hiring Strategies for Tomorrow’s World
14 February 2024 As our latest Global Talent Shortage report demonstrates, the skills gap affecting the vast majority of employers and industries is very real and durable.While some of the shortage is due simply to demographic, technological, and macroeconomic factors, talent acquisition leaders must actively seek to change a system that no longer works as it once did. Necessity is the mother of invention, and now is the time to set aside established patterns and processes. Embracing new ways of thinking will enable employers to forge ahead with generative artificial intelligence (AI), the emerging green economy—and whatever other breakthroughs are around the corner.With that, here are some obvious recommendations to consider:Stop! It’s an old joke: A person complains to their doctor about the sharp pain they experience when they hit their thumb with a hammer. “So, stop doing that,” the doctor advises. When it comes to talent, then, those who complain about their inability to find it may benefit from stopping to look for it in the same old places. For example, stop insisting on the same universities, the same degrees, the same old hard skills and qualifications. It isn’t working. There aren’t enough candidates that check all those boxes, and the competition for those who do is absolutely bloodthirsty. If you are trying to find a date by always visiting the same bar, at some point you need to realize that it’s time to go somewhere else, and a new strategy should always start with the abandonment of the old, obsolete strategy.Already today, and especially tomorrow, what you know is less important than what you are able to learn. We’re all reimagining our jobs on the fly due to artificial intelligence and other innovations. Recruitment must reflect this new reality, hiring on present and future potential for tomorrow’s roles, rather than past performance or talent for yesterday.Upgrade your mindset. This is, of course, the corollary; once you take the brave step of rejecting the old ways, you make room for new approaches. You are able to focus on potential, on the future. What soft skills will candidates need in order to succeed? What departments and industries are they working in now that, while not an obvious fit, might help fill the skills gap?One example of this skills adjacency can be found in the world of computer gaming, where we have found that nearly two-thirds of employers plan to consider gaming skills in future hiring, and no wonder: creativity, critical thinking, problem-solving, leadership, and collaboration can all be demonstrated, and to some degree harnessed, in the rich and challenging universe of games. Combine these soft skills with gamers’ obvious comfort with technology, and you’ve got a huge and heretofore overlooked talent pool.Another increasingly important, though usually neglected, factor is a candidate’s value system. We know that younger workers, more than their older counterparts, like to feel their employer has a mission to which they can contribute. We know young workers feel strongly about sustainability issues. So as companies and industries increasingly tackle green initiatives (more about these in a moment), CHROs and other leaders should seek candidates to whom climate change and sustainability are important. To truly achieve these steps, organizations should take a long-term approach to pre-skilling emerging talent. This involves identifying critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, communication, and emotional intelligence as key skills to develop before they are absolutely required on the job. Dedicated pre-skilling programs, rotational assignments, project-based learning, and partnerships with education providers can cultivate these human skills in the talent pipeline.Forward-looking companies will treat pre-skilling as an investment, not an expense. Though establishing this initiative requires effort and resources before skills are needed, it pays dividends through more adaptable talent who can learn continuously as needs evolve.Embracing the New ToolsHow can organizations transition from old ways of thinking to address the skills gap creatively? This question serves as a perfect segue to the growing role of AI in talent identification. When utilized effectively, AI can broaden the pool of potential candidates, making the hiring process more inclusive. However, it's crucial to ensure that AI complements human interaction rather than dehumanizes it. To achieve this, organizations should harness AI's capabilities for providing candidates with feedback, enhancing their self-awareness regarding their career development, and making the hiring process more candidate-centric.Even more importantly, special attention and care must be applied to sanitizing the training data that AI ingests so it neither replicates nor scales human biases. While AI has faced legitimate accusations of bias in certain instances, it's essential to acknowledge that human hiring managers and recruiters are inherently biased as well. They tend to favor candidates who resemble them, a challenging bias to overcome, as managers naturally wish to claim their hires as the cream of the crop.As an alternative approach, consider training AI algorithms to prioritize attributes like hard and soft skills and values that the company should have, rather than fixating on past hiring criteria. In essence, AI can be optimized to identify qualities that may have been overlooked previously. This brings us back to the importance of changing your thinking and reengineering your habits.At ManpowerGroup, we have extensive experience meeting with and evaluating jobseekers. Generative AI is one of the tools we use, and it’s instructive that when we do, candidates often don’t realize it. Correctly managed, generative AI can be more personable than other recruiting processes. Today, after all, jobhunters typically shotgun out hundreds, even thousands, of resumes in hopes of pleasing a mysterious algorithm. More often than not, they hear nothing back. That’s worse than impersonal—it’s cruel.Contrast this with a well-designed generative AI system. The algorithm is tuned to uncover soft and adjacent skills that may help fill a need in the hiring company. It is empathetic and curious. When candidates don’t make the cut, the generative AI provides feedback as to why, helping them improve their interviewing skills.Case in Point: The Green RevolutionWe are fortunate to be early in a period that will allow—even force—forward-looking employers to put all this advice into practice.The rising green economy is a beautiful cauldron of innovation and adaptation. Whether you’re talking about vertical farms, offshore arrays of solar panels, or the infrastructure needed for electric vehicles, there are not only jobs but companies and even industries that don’t exist yet—but will soon. And the green revolution isn’t just for born-digital organizations; due to regulatory pressures, consumer demand and the simple desire to do the right thing, leaders in all industries face challenges around sustainability.On the skills front, what all this means is that job categories we have yet to consider will crop up and will do so quickly. Obviously, there is no existing pipeline for credentialed workers to fill these positions. That means CHROs and other leaders will have to think outside the box to find the skills they need.Reskilling needs to happen in tandem with technology adoption—gradual implementation paired with reskilling opportunities maximizes human potential. Cross-training displaced workers into related roles retains institutional knowledge. Investing in reskilling today ensures critical talent transitions are supported.Looking AheadDigital transformation, changing attitudes toward sustainability, demographic trends, and workers who want to feel like they’re not just making widgets have created interesting times. It’s understandable for business leaders to bemoan what they view as a dearth of qualified candidates. But those who stop looking at credentials and start studying potential will lead the way and gain a lasting competitive edge.
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A People-First Green Business Transformation
17 January 2024 ManpowerGroup's new Global Insights white paper, Building Competitive Advantage with A People-First Green Business Transformation, explores the impact of the green transition on the future of work for employers and workers. Download Report
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The Age of Adaptability 2024 Workforce Trends Report
17 January 2024 ManpowerGroup's 2024 workforce trend report outlines 4 key forces impacting the future of work, along with 14 trends that are accelerating along with key insights and takeaways to help you stay ahead.Download Report
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Manpower Global Insights Green Jobs Report 2023
5 January 2024 The foundation of the global green business transformation is a skilled and innovative workforce. This ManpowerGroup Global Insights report examines the top trends business leaders should consider as they consider the future of work and the green economy.• What are the key drivers of the global green business transformation?• What can business leaders do to accelerate their ESG performance and competitive advantage in the market?• How can businesses future-proof their operations by embracing the transition to a green economy?• How will these trends impact workforce planning and workers?Download Report
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ESG Report 2022-2023, Working to Change the World
6 December 2023 The people we impact, the planet we love, and the communities we live and work in drive ManpowerGroup’s commitment to meaningful and sustainable employment.Explore our Working to Change the World plan in the new ESG report.Download Report
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The Future of Work is huManpower
31 October 2023 The future of work will be shaped by the accelerating pace of change and persistent talent scarcity, which is good news for workers. Employers are increasingly open to non-traditional candidates who may have gaps in employment that have impacted their careers. This will create more opportunities for seniors with invaluable work and life experience and individuals with e-sports and gaming skills. It also means green business leaders will need to apply the same sustainability mindset to their human resources.Download Report