New report reveals challenges facing women in frontline roles
Many companies have practices that don't meet the needs of women working in frontline roles.
That’s one of the reveals in a new study from Accenture and Catalyst, a global nonprofit promoting gender equity and workplace inclusion. The report analyzed interviews with women in frontline roles and direct managers in retail, hospitality (including food service) and manufacturing. It uncovered an imbalance between the needs of women in these roles and the facilities, policies, and systems their employers provide.
The “Women on the Front Line: Enabling Them to Thrive, Stay and Perform” report found that women in frontline roles and their managers feel that their physical needs, safety, and well-being are often unacknowledged or ignored.
Other findings include:
•Rigid scheduling policies and practices often overlook or ignore the needs of women, who are disproportionately responsible for caregiving.
•Advancement pathways are not always clear or accessible.
•Direct managers need to be allowed to make team-level decisions guided by empathy.
The research identified four key steps companies must take to create respectful and rewarding workplaces that engage, support and retain women at the front line:
•Invest in physical well-being. Women's bodily safety, physical needs, well-being and autonomy should be centered. Organizations must design or refresh facilities and policies to accommodate women.
•Adopt employee-centered scheduling practices. Companies must remove sources of instability, unpredictability and rigidity from scheduling systems to account for women's lives outside work.
•Create and clarify growth opportunities. Companies must clearly communicate well-structured opportunities for growth and advancement designed to meet women's needs.
•Enable managers to lead empathically. Company leaders should enable managers of frontline employees to create positive environments so that employees feel valued, supported and connected.
“It is critical that organizations across retail, hospitality, and manufacturing reimagine how women in frontline roles experience their work,” said Jill Standish, senior managing director and global retail lead at Accenture.”The good news is that a wide range of digital technologies can contribute to advancing more flexible and meaningful workplaces—everything from providing employees with wellness exercises and healthy eating guidance that promote well-being to enabling remote scheduling of shifts for more desirable work patterns—helping these essential women build more rewarding careers."
In tandem with the report, Catalyst is releasing tools that companies can use to address high burnout and turnover rates, low engagement and productivity among women at the front line.
This report is the first from Catalyst's Frontline Employees Initiative, which seeks to understand the unique workplace challenges faced by women in frontline jobs and provide research and tools to shed light on their specific experiences and needs. The Frontline Employees Initiative is a new pillar of work in Catalyst's more than 60-year history creating workplaces that work for women, driving equity at all levels.