Here are a few interesting facts to consider this Mother’s Day:
- A 2107 report from the US Department of Labor found that mothers are the primary or sole earners for 40% of households with children under 18. That number was just 11 percent in 1960.
- According to a 2017 PwC study, entitled, “Winning the Fight for Female Talent”, one of the top five reasons women leave a company is because they wanted a role with more flexibility and one of the top three things that makes a company attractive is flexible work arrangements.
Millions of women leave the workforce every year because they cannot balance work and life due to inflexible and obsolete work models. This “care chasm” affects millions of mothers around the world and the negative impact it has on the global economy is well documented. A primary driver of this chasm is the reluctance of companies to allow their employees to telecommute or work remotely. This reluctance is due in most part by a lack of transparency managers have into the work their employees do in a remote environment.
Technology has made that no longer the case. Technology can not only provide managers with the transparency they need to feel comfortable with employees who are working out of the office, it can make that employee a better and more productive worker.
The digital transformation is well under way but in some cases not fully understood or realized. That is evident in the opportunity to leverage an army of women who want to reenter the workforce but must do it on their terms and the terms that enable them to balance the responsibilities they have at home.
As a woman and an entrepreneur, I find it puzzling that with the perfect storm of digital transformation fueling our global economy, companies are losing talent while women are losing opportunities — all because we are still stuck in analogic work models.
This is why I founded SheWorks!. Our mission is simple: leverage incredible technology to eliminate the barriers that impede remote work from becoming mainstream and give companies the tools they need to harness talent from around the world — namely trust, engagement and accountability. The fact is we can make it easy for companies to work with talented women from across the globe by simply using technology the way it is intended to be in the digital age.
Today employers have access to technology that can create a more engaged and transparent work environment, whether it is in the office or remotely. It enables real-time collaboration with any worker wherever they may be and provides insight that increases efficiency and productivity.
But the real power of this technology? The power of inclusion.
In short, technology available today can bring these women back into the workforce on their terms. A recent study by Werk found that 70% of women who dropped out of the workplace said they would still be working if they had flexibility.
Imagine if your company had a complicated and sensitive initiative that required a specific talent most people do not have. And you needed that talent now.
What if you cannot find these people in your local area? Where do you go? How do you complete that initiative?
With historic lows in unemployment, this is a situation many companies face today. This struggle for talent is another well documented problem.
The fact is the talent is there — all over the world. And they are ready to work. All that is needed is the framework that ensures transparency and inclusion. That framework is available though platforms such as TransparentBusiness.
As we celebrate Mother’s Day, we focus on honoring mothers for their tremendous contributions to our societies. But many of them are ready to contribute more. We just need to give them — and employers — the tools to do so.
