Carrie Kerpen* says there’s plenty of research to show that women leaders are building workplaces that perform better for their employees.
Photo: Rebrand Cities
Plenty of research shows that women-led companies perform better financially than those led by men.
One recent study compared the performance of Fortune 1000 companies that had women CEOs against the male-dominated S&P 500’s performance and found that the 80 women CEOs produced equity returns 226 per cent better than the S&P 500.
But there’s also evidence that women are building workplaces that perform better for their employees, too.
Engaging Employees
It’s impossible to truly engage employees if they don’t believe in where the organisation is headed.
A new study from HR data platform Peakon finds that organisations where women hold at least half of executive positions are more likely to have employees who understand and believe in the organisation’s mission and strategy — and feel more inspired by its purpose.
At the day-to-day level, women have also been found to do a better job at connecting with their employees.
In 2015, Gallup research found that female managers are better at engaging employees than male managers, and were rated higher in areas such as giving recognition, providing helpful performance feedback, and getting people in the right role to grow.
Recruiting and retaining talent
Multiple studies have found that more people would prefer to work for a female boss.
In 1953, when Gallup first asked US workers “If you were taking a new job and had your choice of a boss, would you prefer to work for a man or a woman?”, two-thirds said they preferred a male boss and just 5 per cent preferred a female boss.
Six decades later, now one-third would prefer a male boss, while 20 per cent would prefer a female boss (46 per cent say it doesn’t matter).
In a recent study from Berlin Cameron, The Harris Poll, and The Female Quotient, research reveals that half of Americans would prefer to work for a female-led organisation over a male-led organisation.
Why?
A majority say that these organisations are more purpose driven (56 per cent) and more likely to include access to childcare (78 per cent).
Driving diversity and inclusion
In today’s workforce, where employers are waking up to the importance of diversity and inclusion, it’s women who are really leading the way.
A recent survey by UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School Executive Development shows that female-led organisations are more likely to have a mature diversity and inclusion function, and are less likely to run into hurdles with senior leadership.
Organisations with female executives are also 13 per cent more confident in their organisations’ ability to achieve their diversity and inclusion goals.
And they rank higher than male-led organisations in several key areas, including awareness of bias (27 per cent), appreciation of difference (17 per cent), and understanding of diversity (21 per cent).
Despite the progress we’ve made in putting more women in leadership positions, we still have a long way to go.
According to Weber Shandwick’s Gender Forward Pioneer Index, among the world’s 500 largest employers, only 10.9 per cent of senior executives are women, and 37 per cent of these organisations have all-male leadership teams, while 21 per cent have only one woman.
This, of course, is to the detriment of the organisations themselves, as there’s clearly so much evidence that gender diversity has a positive impact on performance.
Ultimately, having more women at the helm isn’t just about equality — it’s good for business and good for people, too.
* Carrie Kerpen is the co-founder and CEO of Likeable Media. Her podcast is All the Social Ladies and she tweets at @carriekerpen.
This article first appeared at www.forbes.com.
