Is your company a women friendly workplace? Today companies are trying to morph into women friendly workplaces. The habits and cultures that have developed over the years, in many cases, are not easy to manage for a woman needing a place to pump milk, someone to check on childcare options, and demanding hours that eat into family dinner and even nighttime rituals.
The solutions are complex. Some companies demand a promotion path that requires a move every 2-3 years or hours that prohibit a healthy family life. What is the best advice I’ve heard for women today? Seek out the companies that have already attained ‘women friendly workplace’ status. Fortune magazine published a list of the top 100 places to work for women. Find their listing on the web at: http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/bestcompanies/2010/.
It will be far less frustrating to get into a company striving to make it easier for you than to remain with the companies that are lagging behind in that regard. Eventually, companies will hire consultants, invoke change management, and restructure their benefits and company structures to make your life easier. This will take years.
They will do this because they see the potential benefit to their bottom line. Diversity has shown to pay off in spades, increasing the bottom lines of the companies that have found a way to create a diverse workforce. For diversity information, I find the Catalyst organization to be a great source of information (http://www.catalyst.org/).
If you search for a company with a focus on diversity, you will find them. They will soon become the new norm.
Bethany Williams is an expert in business development, personal branding, and healthcare operations. She has held high level positions at PricewaterhouseCoopers, Perot Systems Corporation, GE Healthcare, and IDX Systems Corporation. Williams shares her stories and helpful tips on career success in her book, Winning Strategies for Women, and a popular motivational blog. She volunteers as a life coach and mentor for employees around the globe through her website and personal one-to-one visits. She currently works as an executive at a big four accounting firm, and speaks on branding, career planning, and women in business. She lives in Dallas with her husband, Michael, and her three children. You can find her on the web at www.bethanywilliams.org.
