Back in October with the release of the 2019 Women in the Workplace study from LeanIn.org and McKinsey & Company, we explored the newly coined concept of The Broken Rung. The Broken Rung identifies the initial move from entry-level to manager as “the biggest obstacle women face on the path to senior leadership.”
In the report, there are five suggestions to fix the broken rung in organizations that see this drop in representation of women moving up to managerial levels:
Set a goal for getting more women into first-level management
Require diverse slates for hiring and promotions
Put evaluators through unconscious bias training
Establish clear evaluation criteria
Put more women in line for the step up to manager
All of these elements work together to interrupt bias in the hiring and promotion process, and it is clear how they can ensure that all diverse candidates are given the appropriate consideration for advancement.
Putting Evaluators Through Bias Training
The recommendation I want to focus on today is putting evaluators through bias training. While it is critical for organizations to focus on eliminating bias in all of their processes, it can be especially important for entry-level employees. These “candidates tend to have shorter track records early in their careers, and evaluators may make unfair, gendered assumptions based on their future potential.” Performance bias research tells us that women are often judged based on their performance alone, while men are often judged based on their future potential.
With more opportunities for bias to creep in based on the candidates being evaluated, we also turn to look at those who are doing the evaluations. “Companies are less likely to provide unconscious bias training for employees who participate in entry-level performance reviews than senior-level reviews.” There is certainly value in ensuring buy-in from senior leaders within the organization through bias training, but being mindful of providing this robust training to employees at all levels has proven to be more effective. “In companies with smaller gender disparities in representation, half of employees received unconscious bias training in the past year, compared to only a quarter of employees in companies that aren’t making process closing these gaps.”
Beyond just basic bias training, mid-level managers may also benefit from a clear understanding of how they can better interrupt bias and support all of their direct reports—male or female. Through taking time to better understand the unique needs of each direct report, managers can provide more equitable resources based on the biases employees may be experiencing in the workplace, even outside of the performance review process. By implementing small tweaks in day-to-day management, even something as simple as setting up a rotation for “office housework” that tends to fall on female team members, can be effective in interrupting bias.
Managers can better position their reports for advancement by giving them opportunities to manage people and projects, advocating for them to experience new opportunities and helping them to navigate organizational politics. When managers successfully do these things, employees are 2-3 times more likely to “think they have equal opportunity for growth and development”, and “to think they have equal opportunity for advancement.”
data from womenintheworkplace.com
As your organization is planning for future training and development for all employees, and especially mid-level managers, take time to consider where there may be holes in your managerial training that can help to advance the stalled entry-level population.
Our new Changing Bias Behaviors program is specifically designed for mid-level managers that have a wide circle of influence within their organizations. With the ability to not only interrupt their personal biases and those in their peer circles, they are able to implement measures that reduce the impact of bias for their direct reports and entry-level employees.