HOW FLEXSPACE COULD COMBAT THE ‘SHE-CESSION’
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Shorter commutes, access to an office environment and professional networking – there’s a simple way to get women back into the workplace, and it benefits everyone
Shorter commutes, access to an office environment and professional networking – there’s a simple way to get women back into the workplace, and it benefits everyone
The pandemic has been bad for swathes of the world’s workforce, but disproportionately so for working women. In the US, a report by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR) shows that more than 11 million women have lost their jobs since February 2020, with 2.65 million leaving the workforce completely. Meanwhile, McKinsey’s Women in the Workplace report 2020 revealed that a quarter of all women were considering ‘stepping out’ of the workforce or downshifting their careers.
And it’s not just in America. Data collected by the International Labour Organization revealed that women in Germany saw an 8.6% decline in wages in the first half of 2020, almost twice that of men, while in the UK women’s earnings fell by 12.9%, double the figure of their male counterparts.
This is bad news for everyone. According to the Center of American Progress, working women contribute nearly $7.6trn to the annual GDP – a figure highlighting how such a ‘she-cession’ affects us all.
So why has Covid-19 been so disastrous for the female members of the world’s workforce? One word – childcare. According to the United States Census Bureau, around one in five (19.6%) adults said the reason they were not working was because Covid-19 had disrupted their childcare arrangements, with women almost three times as likely as men to not be working due to childcare demands.
“The real danger at the moment is that people are starting to associate women with childcare more strongly than before,” says Ariane Hegewisch from the Institute for Women’s Policy Research in an article for the BBC. “It may lead to discrimination going forward, [with companies] being less likely to pick out women for fast-track positions or management training.”
The future is flexible
The good news is that organisations are not blind to the exodus of women from the workforce, with many already wondering what they can do to support their female employees in the months and years ahead. And offering flexibility is emerging as a key tool.
Currently, the definition of ‘flexible working’ varies from country to country, and includes flexible start and finish times, job sharing and the opportunity to work from – or closer to – home, perhaps utilising the ‘hybrid model’, which allows employees to be based beyond the office for parts of the working week.
And forward-thinking corporates are really honing in on this latter element – the hybrid working model. After all, the pandemic has highlighted that simply working from home may not be a silver bullet for working women’s woes.
After a year juggling home life and work, the limitations of working from home have become apparent to many. Distractions, an inadequate ergonomic working environment and loneliness are just some of the reasons people are struggling.
Enter the flexspace model – where businesses offer a variety of workspaces closer to where their employees live. Companies that offer access to flexspace closer to home give working women the best of both worlds: the option of working near home but with all the benefits of a structured office environment, such as meeting spaces, a place to focus and networking opportunities.
Women benefit from being able to work closer to home. They are able to more effectively manage their work-life balance – for example, the childcare that has been highlighted during the pandemic. They are happier employees on account of the shorter commute. They are able to be more productive than they would be working from the kitchen table.
Aid the ‘she-covery’
“We didn’t do enough in the 2008 recession to make sure there was an even recovery [between the sexes],” says C Nicole Mason, president and chief executive of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR), in an article for The Guardian. “What I am hoping this time around is that we learn those hard lessons and we make sure there are targeted programmes to help the communities most affected recover successfully.”
The research linking flexspace with the opportunities it presents for diverse hiring and talent retention is compelling. Put simply, if businesses want the most brilliant people to work for them this year and beyond, it could make all the difference. Offering flexspace – whether that’s in a city or in the suburbs, makes your company a more attractive prospect to female talent.
It’s not hard to see how flexibility will be the driving force of any ‘she-covery’ effort. The companies that will successfully ride out the downturn will be the ones that are open to embracing new ways of working and supporting their employees. And, as the economy adjusts, the freedom that flexspace offers will enable even more businesses – and the women who work for them – to thrive.