Mercer’s 2019 Global Talent Trends Study, notes that one major concern for talent acquisition is delivering on diversity. More and more executives accept diversity as increasing “the likelihood of innovation, empathizing with a broad customer base and boosting employee morale.” In their media advisory about the study, Mercer identified three items related specifically to gender balance. We think each has noteworthy implications for talent acquisition.
Gender balance related to pay and promotion
Only 11% of companies use analytics “to measure the extent of pay inequities in their organization, and even fewer (5%) deploy modeling techniques to help correct them and prevent them from re-emerging.”
TA Impact: If you want to differentiate yourself in 2019, transparency about ‘rewards’ with respect to gender, ethnicity etc. should be a priority. Research your disparity and do something about it before it gets legislated (as it already is in the UK).
Gender balance related to decision strategies
Pay is more often the symptom; treat the cause as well. “Mercer’s When Women Thrive research notes that the ranks of women thin out long before they reach the upper echelons: women make up just 33% of managers and 26% of senior managers.” “When asked which human capital risks are most concerning, women executives rank ‘inadequate workforce/leadership diversity’ among the top three. Male counterparts do not.”
Additionally, Mercer’s Global Talent Trends study suggests that of two decision strategies:
- Aligning people with the business and thereby valuing employee engagement drivers and experience VS
- Using analytics to simply determine whether to build, buy, or borrow
the first is more valued by women, the second by men.
TA Impact: Both strategies seem relevant and, while not mutually exclusive, suggest that the real choice is how the context of the business environment is assessed differently. It is hard to imagine an employer not engaged in transformation along these lines in the next few years. Is TA prepared to partner with Talent Management to augment and influence the decision processes? If not TA will likely simply be the technician executing on the decisions.
Providing an environment for women to thrive
“Mercer’s study shows female employees are more likely than their male peers to say work/life balance helps them thrive at work (59% vs. 48%).” Job security may be the most frequently cited reason for why all employees stay but workload is the number one reason women use to describe an unhealthy work environment. (For men that reason is corporate culture.)
TA Impact: Profiling the strengths of a company’s culture and values for differences in gender, ethnicity, etc. may be as essential as the words that are used when considering how to write job marketing documents, videos, and other career content.
