How female leaders hire tremendously affects the company’s overall diversity status. In this article, we discuss:
- Trends and metrics indicating that women tend to hire women
- Challenges female leaders face when hiring
- Exclusive insights from Liz Armbruester and Amelia Ransom from Avalara
To create a truly diverse and inclusive workplace, every gender must receive equal opportunities. Unfortunately, this isn’t always the case. Right from the application stage to joining the company and getting promoted, female professionals face the possibility of discrimination. Could hiring more women in leadership roles to address this issue? How do female leaders hire, and is their approach more diversity-focused?
We considered the results from recent industry reports and spoke to two leaders from AvalaraOpens a new window , an automated tax compliance software:Â Liz Armbruester, SVP of global compliance, and Amelia Ransom, senior director of engagement & diversity. This conversation revealed a few telling insights into how female leaders hire.
Learn More: The Future of Gender Pay Equality Relies on Today’s LeadersOpens a new window
Is There a Correlation Between Women in the C-Suite and Company Diversity?
The short answer is YES. While women could find it challenging to break the glass ceiling and enter leadership ranks, once they do, it transforms a company’s diversity stance for the better.
A few years ago, the World Economic Forum highlighted a direct correlation Opens a new window between women at the C-level and positive gender representation across other ranks, confirmed by LinkedIn data. For example, in 2007, 10% of CXOs/Partners in the software industry were women. Only 23% of associates were women. In 2017, the share of women in leadership grew to 14%, and consequently, representation at the associate level reached 30%.
These figures throw light on how female leaders hire. Armbruester says, “I’ve noticed that most (but not all) women leaders are conscientious of the balance between women and men in their hiring patterns and will seek diverse candidates to broaden their teams.â€
Ransom agrees: “Women, like most people, tend to hire people like themselves. So yes, women tend to hire women.â€
The Boxed In 2018–19 study by the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film Opens a new window suggests a similar trend in how female leaders hire. Television shows with at least one female creator are more likely to hire women – for example, women make up 65% of the writing team in shows with a female creator, compared to just 19% in shows with all-male leadership.
There is a clear pattern here. Looking at how female leaders hire, it is likely that women are more aware of diversity and inclusion (D&I) Opens a new window requirements than most men. This is probably because they might have faced discrimination in the past and intend not to perpetuate this cycle for future generations.
Ransom tells us her stance in this area: “I’m a big fan of calling these things out. We can’t fix what we can’t even discuss. If we’re not willing to talk about how to improve to the point where we’re okay being uncomfortable, then we probably aren’t going to get the best outcomes.â€
So, what about the challenges on the road to achieving these best outcomes? Ransom and Armbruester discussed a few roadblocks faced by female leaders when hiring.
Learn More: 5 Ways Hiring more Women in Senior Leadership Will Positively Impact Your Bottom LineOpens a new window
3 Challenges Influencing How Female Leaders Hire
While women might want to prioritize diversity when hiring, there are a few roadblocks along the way. Here are three important ones highlighted by Ransom and Armbruester:
1. The talent pool is skewed in favor of men
“In some cases, there is a smaller pool of women candidates to choose from, which can also limit the leader’s ability to hire more women when they are looking to fill the position quickly. Some women leaders also don’t want to be perceived as biased towards women or intentionally excluding qualified male candidates,†tells us Armbruester.
To address this, recruitment specialists must focus heavily on ensuring an equally gender diverse applicant pool, ensuring that female leaders don’t have to choose competence over diversity.
2. Female leaders are often risk-averse when hiring
Ransom believes that “Women – even those in power – have less ‘political capital’ than men do and are sometimes more strategic in how they hire. So, they tend to take less risk on hiring “potential†for fear that any woman who doesn’t make it will be seen as a reflection of them.†While men might take a gamble on a candidate with less experience but a lot of promise, a female leader would take a risk-averse position.
This can be addressed by implementing skills assessment and personality tests that offer an objective picture of candidate potential, regardless of who is hiring. This also requires bias-free recruitmentOpens a new window technology, such as candidate screening technology that assesses only skills and no other factors such as gender and age.Â
3. The way in which female leaders hire is subject to unfair scrutiny
Ransom narrates an interesting incident on unfair scrutiny of female leaders. “I recently spoke with a man who mentioned that he was going to focus on using all-female vendors for an entire year,†she says. “He was celebrated in his company. A woman in a different area of the company tried this and was told she was ‘playing favorites’ and not hiring ‘the best.’â€
Such double standards have existed for centuries, and eliminating them is still going to take more time. However, change can begin by evaluating hiring decisions for both male and female leaders with the same yardstick. Post-hiring, a performance management tool that objectively scores new recruit performance can negate the impact of such unfair scrutiny.
Learn More: What Deloitte’s Report on Women in the Boardroom Tells Us About Leadership DiversityOpens a new window
Female Leaders Are Instrumental in Paving the Road to Diversity
A survey of 279 female entrepreneurs by Inc. and Fast Company Opens a new window revealed that women do, indeed, hire other women. The average workplace, as per the study, had 66% of women workers; 45 of these companies had no male employees at all.
“In technology, women tend to know more women in those roles because they often create social circles full of talented and capable women that they identify with, which is a plus for recruiting women,†notes Ransom.
While companies must lead the change for gender equalityOpens a new window , it’s also essential to go beyond only gender and look at an equitable representation of all minorities – across age, ethnicity, language, and sociocultural divides.
According to McKinseyOpens a new window , the number of companies with three or more women in senior leadership (the C-suite) has increased from 29% to 44% since 2015. This bodes well for the future of diversity in the workplace, with 65% of women managers prioritizing diversity in 2019.
In a Twitter pollOpens a new window we conducted early in January 2020, we asked users what they think about how men and women hire. **While 29.3% agreed that women hire more women, 21.2% still believe that women tend to lean toward hiring men. But 49.6% said that gender doesn’t matter when women hire.**
Men hire men. Whom do women hire more?
— HR Technologist (@_HRTechnologist) January 7, 2020Opens a new window
This is an interesting take – does it mean that women are less biased toward the gender of the applicant? Or that their choice of candidate is not necessarily a biased choice but the result of a skewed talent pool we’ve mentioned above?Â
Bolstered by diversity and inclusion (D&I) advocacy groups and the right technology tools, female leaders can hire with confidence. This will help to align business objectives with their D&I goals, creating a safe, diverse, and culturally vibrant workplace.
What is the most prominent trend you’ve noticed in how female leaders hire? Tell us on FacebookOpens a new window , LinkedInOpens a new window , or TwitterOpens a new window . We’d love to hear your thoughts!
This article was updated to include the results of HR Technologist’s Twitter poll conducted on January 7, 2020.