A toolkit to help employers recruit, retain and promote more women and bring them onto boards

Introduction

It is now well-known that the pandemic has had a disproportionate impact on women in the workforce. They face the crushing pressures of working from home in demanding professional jobs while juggling family obligations that tend to fall on their shoulders more than their male counterparts. They also dominated the sectors that had the pandemic impacted most significantly – retail, food services, health care etc.

In many cases, women are not only taking care of their children, but also elderly parents and relatives as well, and bearing the brunt of domestic responsibilities. Some have had no choice but to scale back in their jobs, reconsider advancement ambitions, or leave the workforce altogether. Others have excelled in the workplace, either in senior roles or as entrepreneurs. But that has come at a tremendous cost to their mental health and personal lives.

Women in business face barriers, including microaggression, burnout, pay inequity, discrimination, as well as a lack of mentors and allies.

All of these issues have broader economic implications, given the pandemic also laid bare a shortage of skilled labour in Canada. Even as some sectors were decimated, others boomed. Many companies are still struggling to hire the workers they need.

Significantly increasing the number of women in business and in senior leadership roles is vital to address this imbalance. Critical to this effort is tailoring upskilling and reskilling training to the realities of women’s needs and lifestyles, confronting discrimination and bias, and setting women up to succeed.

A concerted effort to champion women in Canadian business is not just about gender equality, it’s an economic issue. Companies with more women in executive teams are more likely to outperform on profitability, value creation, customer satisfaction, and employee engagement.

When women reach their full potential in the workplace, the whole economy grows and all Canadians reap the benefits. This playbook toolkit contains practical steps to help employers recruit, retain and promote more women into leadership positions and onto boards.

Acknowledgement
We’d like to thank Compass Rose for their collaboration on this effort.

Issues: State of Women in Business in 2022

• Employment losses by women have started to rebound from earlier in the pandemic. However, a “leaky talent pipeline” means women remain significantly underrepresented higher on the corporate ladder.
• While there has been progress in boosting the number of women in top positions in corporate Canada, they still only make up about 18% of executive teams. Barriers preventing women from reaching the C-suite and boards include a limited candidate pool, a lack of recognition of women leaders and a lack of diversity-driven recruitment.
• Racialized women held 6.4% of board seats held by women, 7.4% of female executive officer roles, and 11.5% of female roles in the pipeline to the executive officer level. One factor affecting the career progression of racialized women is microaggression — insults, comments or gestures charged with sexism and racism.
• Women are more likely than men to be discouraged by detailed job descriptions. An often-cited statistic is that women only apply if they think they meet 100% of the qualifications, while men will apply even if they only meet 60%.
• Women make up approximately 45% of all entry-level employees but only 25% of vice-presidents and 15% of CEOs. Only three women are promoted to manager for every four men. When it comes to advancing from director to vice-president roles, men advance at triple the rate of women.
• Caregiving realities of the pandemic have had an impact on retention and promotion of women. Working mothers have consistently put in fewer weekly hours at the office than fathers. In the first year of the pandemic, 12 times as many mothers as fathers left jobs to care for toddlers or school-aged children.
• Despite facing stress and burnout, many women have excelled and persevered in the business world — taking on extra work, launching new companies, and stepping up to support their teams in advancing diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. However, this work is often not financially recognized even though it drives better outcomes for all employees.
• Even at the most senior levels, women face barriers to reaching a level playing field with men due to male-centric norms around leadership, which are behaviors and roles typically associated with male leaders. While representation of women on the boards of Canadian companies is slowly increasing, they still only hold 21.5% of all board seats among TSX-listed companies.
• Addressing gender equality will pay dividends in the broader national economy. If steps are taken to level the playing field for women, Canada could add $150 billion in incremental GDP in 2026 or see a 0.6% increase of annual GDP growth.

Practical steps to help employers recruit, retain, and promote more women and bring them onto boards

There are four main areas to supporting women in the workplace and setting them up to succeed. The following table provides suggestions that companies of all sizes in Canada can adapt to their unique culture and circumstances, as well as resources to help you get started. It doesn’t matter where or how you start, the important thing is to start!

Recruiting, retaining and promoting women