Globally, 40% of employers face the highest talent shortage since 2007. (Manpower Group)
In the United States, at least 5.5 million jobs remained unfilled since 2016. The highest shortage were for professional or business services and healthcare or social assistance with at least a million open positions each. (Pew Research Center)
The talent deficit is much higher (88%) in Southeast Asia, likely due to 65% of Asian women who take a career break for reasons like further education, care for family members, or to raise children.
While women make up half the world’s population, only 40% of them work, even though they outnumber men in the total postsecondary degrees (bachelor, master, doctorate).
“[W]omen clearly make up one of the most significant talent pools available to all organisations. And CEOs have finally woken up to the fact that they’ve failed for far too long to leverage this immense talent pool as fully as possible.” (PwC)
Since 1988, the rate of women who opted out of their careers remained steady at about 29 % likely due to a change of circumstance, since women are more likely than men to shift or pause their careers for family needs. But often it’s because their values change.
“[W]omen in mid-career shift from a desire for challenge in their careers to a desire for balance among all pieces of their lives, which does not only refer to balance between work and family.” (Zimmerman & Clark 2016)
So when employers demand rigid work conditions and fail to accommodate the professional woman’s need to harmonize her values and career, the woman usually leaves her job. This is a hard decision for high-skilled women especially if they are highly educated and accomplished.
“Professional women who have left the workforce to focus on personal commitments represent an untapped pool of talent,” says Renata Janini Dohmen, Senior Vice President, Human Resources, SAP Asia Pacific Japan (APJ).
“In our research, most highly qualified women who are currently off-ramped (93%) want to return to their careers.” (Harvard Business Review or HBR)
But re-entering the workforce after a gap of even just a few years is difficult as these women face employer prejudice that: their skills are outdated; they are less committed or reliable; and need more time off.
“Unfortunately, only 74% of off-ramped women who want to rejoin the ranks of the employed manage to do so, according to our survey. And among these, only 40% return to full-time, professional jobs. Many (24%) take part-time jobs, and some (9%) become self-employed. (HBR)
Worldwide, even in developed countries, majority of women are forced to downgrade to part-time or lower-skill occupations because they need reduced or flexible working hours for family. The shift is more severe for high-skilled professional women who move to clerical or sales positions “which underuse their educational and professional training.” (ILO)
This off-ramp results in a lawyer working as an executive assistant; an accountant as a bookkeeper; and an engineer as a teaching assistant.
How to fill the talent deficit
“With so many demands on performance, the key to success is embedded in talent – and when you aren’t considering half the population, you are missing an immense pool of creative minds. This is the reason why 78% of large organizations are actively searching for more women, especially in senior roles.” (World Economic Forum)
“With exceptionally talented women now in the workforce, leaders are turning their efforts towards greater levels of female recruitment as one approach to plug these gaps, win the war for talent in today’s skills crunch, and gain competitive advantage.” (PwC)
Dominant global employers now recognize that returning female professionals already possess the experience and competence needed in hard-to-fill senior and management positions. Women bring the much-needed diversity, a different perspective, and coveted skill sets.
CEOs actively seek valued skills like problem-solving, collaboration, adaptability, leadership, creativity and innovation, and emotional intelligence.
These are rare, especially in inexperienced young workers. (PwC)
“Women (and men) who are older, have more professional experience, and who have learned the soft skills of collaboration, communication, and cooperation are important for any workplace. Those individuals who have paused are not learning the same thing as newly minted college graduates. They are learning technical skills to complement the wealth of experience and soft skills they have learned by being in the paid workforce and being active parents,” says Lisen Stromberg author of Work Pause Thrive (2017).
“With significant skills shortages being experienced across Southeast Asia,..successfully attracting and retaining returning women represents a significant competitive advantage to organisations.” (Robert Walters) “[C]ompanies need to look beyond traditional recruiting tactics to find the best talent,” says Stromberg.
Reentry programs
“Companies are finally realizing that highly qualified women who have paused their careers are fantastic employees so they are creating re-entry programs like “returnships” to help these women relaunch their careers. The companies are discovering that these women are often the most engaged, dedicated, and productive employees who fill in the pipeline of women into leadership. It’s not corporate social responsibility, it’s smart business,” says Stromberg.
SAP, a German multinational software corporation, launched Back-to-Work in 2016 to mentor professional women re-entering the workforce. It began in Japan and is now in Korea, Singapore, Australia, and India. SAP plans to expand the program in the region.
“This is mainly driven by the reports of large number of women who are keen to come back to the workforce in Asia,” says Dohmen.
“There is a global talent shortage and companies need to transform to win the digital war for talent and meet further objectives. Our Back-to-Work programme aims to close the talent gap by offering opportunities to an untapped pool of high-calibre female professionals,” says Dohmen.
“[H]iring managers…recognize that women returning are highly self-motivated and possess a high level of skills sets from their previous experiences which they can use right away into their new roles. Coming from similarly sized organisations as SAP, they also bring with them best practices from other leading companies,” says Dohmen.
Such was the case for Back-to-Work trainee Christina Anthony, a former Cisco Regional Manager for Asia on Corporate Social Responsibility for over 10 years, before she took a three-year break. She is now the APJ Program Manager of Back To Work.
“The ability to work 60% of the time, was a tremendous help in balancing my need to be there for the family and also find time for myself and yet work in a fulfilling role. The company, managers and team have been incredibly welcoming, SAP is truly a place where human talent is a focus!”
SAP Senior Manager in Silicon Valley, US Barbara Pei agrees, “SAP is really good for women.”
SAP commits to have 25% women in management by the end of 2017. At SAP APJ, women account for 24% of total managers and 37% of all external hires last year, and their female workforce continues to grow.
SAP is the first multinational technology company awarded with EDGE (Economic Dividends for Gender Equality) Certification by the World Economic Forum for its offices in Australia, India, Singapore and Japan, which all have SAP’s Back To Work program.
Other global companies with similar reentry programs for professional women are Intel, Phillips India, GE India, IBM, PayPal, PepsiCo, Deloitte, PwC, Goldman Sachs & Co., Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, and Bank of America UK and Ireland.
“64 million Millennials are expected to become parents in the next decade and many report they plan to pause their careers to care for children. Forward-thinking companies are setting themselves up for success by creating programs and policies that support talent who have non-linear careers. These companies are going to be the ones that win the talent war,” says Stromberg.