How to Address the Needs of Working Women

This article is authored by Liana Melchenko, Head of Innovation and Insights at the Innovation Foundation.

During the past several years, we’ve collectively endured economic turbulence that was magnified by the pandemic. Global supply chain disruptions, energy crises, economic uncertainty – all have direct implications on the labour market, increasing inequities and polarization. For many workers, particularly in low-skilled, low-wage jobs, such volatility often means falling out of the workforce and losing the ability to maintain sustainable livelihoods. Among those most vulnerable populations are women with low to mid skills, often in front-line and service jobs. They are not seen, not heard and therefore not served by the current employment systems.

Identifying challenges that impact women

Globally, employment losses have most negatively impacted women and young people. When the pandemic hit, many women in low- to middle-level skilled jobs earning low- to mid-level wages did not have the luxury of choosing to work remotely. They had to shoulder the bulk of caregiving responsibilities. While flexible work has become a norm for high-skilled workers, for the majority of women in low-skill service or frontline jobs, this is not a choice they can make.

Contrary to popular beliefs about women dropping out due to COVID, our research at the Innovation Foundation indicates that 80% of women in low- and mid-skilled jobs continued working throughout the pandemic. Furthermore, of the 20% who did not work during the pandemic, only .01% left their employment by choice. As for the remaining 99%, they were hit hard: retrenched, made redundant, bankrupted, forced to take on caring responsibilities, furloughed, or faced unacceptable working conditions. 

Mid-skilled women, often on the cusp of financial precarity or underemployment, are also disproportionately represented in part-time work. Because they are employed, they do not receive the same support and benefits as lower-income groups.

There is an apparent disconnect: companies are encountering talent shortages, yet a significant number of women are in less-than-desirable working conditions, underemployed or unable to re-enter the job market.

These women encounter multiple barriers when returning to work such as a lack of flexible working opportunities and suitable jobs, and bias and discrimination from employers. They also face personal barriers such as a lack of current skills and low confidence. And as time marches on, the longerwomen are not in the labour market, the more barriers they face when trying to re-enter it.

Thinking outside the traditional workday

If employers need talent and women need jobs, it is evident there’s a strong business case for implementing, scaling, and co-creating new solutions to dismantle systemic weaknesses. By co-creating solutions together through the Innovation Foundation, the global corporate foundation of the Adecco Group, we are supporting the most vulnerable populations who are at risk of falling out of the labour market through actionable solutions to improve their employability.  But you cannot boil the ocean. We have to zoom in on those populations most at risk, with the most to bring into the world of work.

Thus, in collaboration with the TASC platform, the Innovation Foundation’s latest research focused on exactly those women in low- and mid-skilled jobs as an under-served population lacking solutions tailored to meet their needs. In our research we bust several myths related to flexible working and the needs of women at work, providing concrete solutions to explore, including split or condensed shifts, job sharing, compressed work or alternate day work, and alternate workweek structures.

• During split or condensed shifts, workers are employed four to five hours in the morning and four to five hours in the afternoon with a flexible gap in between. This can help women who stay closer to their workplace by fulfilling caregiving responsibilities during breaks. Plus, it provides a better work-life balance. Working parents also gain the flexibility to align work hours with school hours to help reduce additional after-hours childcare costs.

• Job sharing is another solution whereby two or more workers share the responsibilities of one full-time job. Each person works part-time hours and shares the same boss. While communication is key for the workers to optimally collaborate so each worker knows where the other one left off, this arrangement provides flexibility to work reduced hours while taking care of responsibilities at home. It also eliminates the notion of either working full-time or being forced out of work completely. It keeps workers engaged with their employer and their skills sharp as they’re actively employed

• Alternate work weeks can offer more personalised flexibility. Instead of being forced to either work full-time or not at all in a traditional Monday through Friday 35- to 40-hour weekly schedule, this solution also offers a choice. Compressed work or alternate day work allows workers to work the same number of hours in less than five business days. One example is working four 10-hour days instead of five 8-hour days. Another option, the four-day workweek (more suited to white-collar workers), involves reducing the workweek to 28 hours over four days rather than 35 hours over five days. The four-day workweek upends the traditional Monday-to-Friday norm. In fact, Microsoft Japan, Iceland, and New Zealand recently shared positive results after piloting the initiative. The Adecco Group’s research about the four-day workweek revealed positive findings as well. In 2020, 76% of executive or C-level managers said that employee contracts should focus more on meeting the needs of the business instead of hours worked.

Collaborating to co-create and scale solutions

As the mandate to create a more inclusive and sustainable workforce strengthens, companies and organizations understand the urgency for proactively seeking for and building solutions for inclusion of those workers. Those who lose access to labour markets and struggle with securing sustainable livelihoods are lost talent.

This emphasis on innovating, co-creating, implementing, and scaling solutions allows women to access work and find the flexibility they need to combine work and caregiving responsibilities.  Companies and stakeholders are addressing these challenges, often starting with small steps, which is encouraging to see. However, not enough effort is being made to better understand the true underlying needs of those who are falling out of the labour market.

At the Innovation Foundation, we collaborate with all stakeholders and end-users in ideating the most viable solutions and we work with partners to prototype and scale them for those most in need.  This is how we ensure sustainable change.