Building Sustainable Societies
Human Ecology at Work

“While family members often work to support companies, companies don't often work to support families,” said IESE Prof. Nuria Chinchilla at the "Building Sustainable Societies" conference held at the school’s Madrid campus in June. Spain's HRH Princess Letizia of Asturias inaugurated the event, which was organized by IESE's International Center for Work and Family.

In 2000, European Union leaders set out the Lisbon Strategy with the principal objective that the EU become the most competitive knowledge-based economy in the world by 2010. But according to McKinsey & Company, European businesses still do not do enough to attract and develop the female half of its talent pool.

This was one of the main conclusions of the McKinsey study “A Wake-Up Call for Female Leadership in Europe.” Claudia Funke, director of the consultancy firm, presented its analysis of practices in 23 European countries at the conference.

European demand for specialists and managers is spiraling: Germany alone will have to find an additional two million graduates from tertiary education by 2020, according to McKinsey. The country will not be able to meet this demand unless the share of women in the workplace increases significantly.

The report identified three mechanisms to help ramp up the percentage of women in overall working hours. The first is more flexible working arrangements for both men and women. Secondly, more day care facilities should be provided. And thirdly, business leaders need to make targeted talent management for women a top priority for management.

Out of sight, out of mind Funke said that flexible work models can be a career killer for women in the long term if only women take advantage of them. Employers rarely consider part-time female workers as fully-fledged staff members and pass them over for promotion. But in Bulgaria, men and women generally work the same hours and one in five leadership positions is held by a woman - almost double the figure in Germany.

Therefore, adaptable work arrangements need to go further than a shorter working day or week for new moms. Parents need greater independence in shaping their daily working lives and greater freedom in deciding whether they work remotely or in the office. “We need to put an end to the misconception that the remote worker lacks motivation,” Amparo Moraleda, General Manager of IBM Spain, Portugal, Greece, Israel and Turkey, said.

Child warning: career risk ahead In terms of leadership positions, the McKinsey study found that, the higher the share of women as a proportion of total hours worked, the better their chances of promotion to executive roles. In Norway, where women account for 43 percent of total working hours, they occupy one in three management positions. In comparison, German women make up only 38 percent of the total hours worked and fill only one leadership position in ten.

Funke also noted that better childcare provisions are a prerequisite for increasing this figure. Having children still represents a career risk for women, above all, in countries with poor childcare provisions. The McKinsey survey found that over half the European women in leadership positions had no children, compared to a third of men. In countries with a shortage of day care places such as Germany, mothers have to stay at home with their children. As a result, the choice between pursuing a career or having a family is significant.

Countries with low birth rates such as Germany are waking up to the consequences of failing to provide real alternatives for women. “Families produce the next generation, which will be key in companies’ development,” noted Patrick F. Fagan, senior fellow and director of the Center for Family and Religion. And "social pollution," which stems from the lack of support for family members working in corporate environments, can cause societal problems beyond the workplace.

Shaping the offer Even if women do make it to management positions, they are three or four times more likely to leave, according to Krista Walochik, CEO of the executive search firm, Norman Broadbent, in Spain. Another study showed that companies that stem this flow could reap benefits. The 2007 study “Women Matter” found that companies with a higher share of women at the top achieved better financial results.

Walochik said that for women, a company’s culture and values could be as much of a deal maker as money when it comes to taking a job. Women seek companies that allow them to maintain some balance with the rest of their lives and to develop their careers in a supportive environment, according to Walochik.

The headhunter said that male candidates were beginning to think this way, too. “When people are in a position to swap a high salary for a different set of values, they do it.”

For Walochik, this is a clear indication that companies need to overhaul their human resource models and replace them with a new model that resolves the problem of long working hours and a balanced lifestyle.