6 ways to ensure women have workplace flexibility

November 22, 2022 5:30 AM

While the era of remote work is coming to an end for some companies, many employers are looking for ways to ensure flexibility remains a steadfast benefit for their employees. But some employers may be missing the mark for the women on their teams.

The Mom Project, a talent marketplace for women, gathered over 1,700 responses from male and female professionals across industries and found that women rated their current level of workplace flexibility 11 points below men's scores. This may point to a disparity in how women and men interact with their workplace policies, says Pamela Cohen, chief research and analytics officer at The Mom Project.

"Women tend to experience the workplace as being significantly less supportive of their flexibility needs," says Cohen. "A lot of times they're combating stereotypes about how they can't get the job done as primary caregivers and as the ones primarily responsible for the home."

And yet, as the gender typically in charge of caring for the home, children and older relatives, women often need that flexibility to thrive. The Mom Project's research notes that women are 1.5 times more likely to prefer flexible hours within their workday than men.

If employers want to build a flexible work environment for everyone, Cohen advises that they go beyond remote work. Flexibility cannot just be a benefit — it has to be ingrained on a cultural level. The Mom Project shares six ways employers can strengthen their flexibility policies.

Organizational support

In order for flexibility to take root in a company culture, it must be supported from the top down, says Cohen. This means executives as well as managers should be prepared to encourage everyone to get the job done on their own decided time. Cohen notes that while men may only need a flexible policy to feel encouraged, women will often look to the organization as a whole to see how these policies are enacted and who takes advantage of them.

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"Companies have to actively respect flexibility at work, because for women that respect shows that employers genuinely care about their well-being," says Cohen. "Encourage people to talk about their needs at work, record meetings and train managers to respect flexibility."

Personal autonomy

Encouraging flexibility ultimately means encouraging personal autonomy — or rather the agency to choose when, where and how tasks will be completed. Employers cannot provide a "flexible" work-from-home option and still expect everyone to be online nine to five every day, explains Cohen.

"Flexibility goes well beyond being able to work outside a workplace environment," she says. "Since women tend to be ones with more home care responsibilities, they need flexibility in their daily schedules and some measure of control over where and how they work."

Cohen notes that this flexibility should also extend to extracurricular work activities like happy hour. Women should be able to opt-out of these events without it being detrimental to their career advancement.

Managerial support

Cohen advises employers to train managers on the need for flexibility — this is especially necessary if the manager does not have experience as a primary caregiver. They may not understand why employees' have unpredictable daily schedules or why certain work-life boundaries are in place.

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"If a manager doesn't understand the need for flexibility and support it, you will never have it at the team level," says Cohen. "I've worked with companies before where there are managers who maybe aren't parents, have grown children, or were never the primary caretaker, and sometimes the need for flexibility can take some explaining."

PTO

While an obvious piece to the flexibility formula, Cohen asks employers not to underestimate PTO. It's crucial that daily demands and current staffing allow employees to have days where they are offline guilt-free.

If employees view PTO as not worth the resulting stress and backlogged work, then that company is a not flexible workplace, says Cohen.

Workload

Another barrier to a truly flexible work culture is an excessive workload. And if the workload feels immovable, then so will an employee's schedule.

"You can't just pile things on and then tell somebody that they've got a flexible work schedule," says Cohen. "There's a difference between flexibility and the ability to create more hours in the day."

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Cohen advises managers to give employees the space to discuss their daily tasks, projects and any additional expectations that come their way. Often, women will try to do it all because they do not feel comfortable talking to managers about what is on their plate and moving deadlines — but managers need to break that status quo, Cohen says.

Team support

Cohen warns managers that flexibility done wrong can leave a sour taste in employees' mouths. For example, if an employee feels like they are picking up the slack for another employee who is a caregiver, this may cause resentment and overall poor team performance.

She asks managers to ensure that no one is being punished in the name of flexibility. This may mean divvying up work across the entire team if someone has to be out for a prolonged period of time, or even adjusting deadlines so an employee can accomplish tasks upon their return.

Most importantly, managers should ensure everyone on the team has the same access to flexibility.

"Managers and team members should not shoulder all the responsibilities because somebody else needs flexibility," says Cohen. "Everyone needs flexibility for their lives too — and team members are much more willing to support other colleagues when their needs are supported too."