While there is value in focusing on employee retention and staying aware of employment trends like the “Great Resignation,” Beth Castle of InHerSight, a company review platform for women, argued in Fast Company that tuning into those big-picture issues can mean individuals are overlooked.
“It’s not, ‘How do we keep women working at our company?’ but ‘How can we build a culture that prioritizes the person over everything — deadlines, metrics, end-of-year goals, all of it?'” Ms. Castle wrote.
A survey her team conducted found female employees felt listened to at home and with friends, but not at work. She recommends creating strong listening and communication channels; for instance, setting up town halls and interest-specific Slack channels. Decentralizing work and engaging with employees about the wider world can also help build open communication and provide insight.
She mentions the advice of Ruth Gotian, EdD, Weill Cornell Medicine’s chief learning officer, who advises women to change their goals when their career trajectory has been thrown off. Forging new paths that are malleable can give employees new energy to achieve their goals.
