I was delighted to speak at Ireland's first very DisruptHR event earlier this month. My talk was about how organisations can protect female leadership pipelines by building reciprocal relationships with their employees. Essentially, if we want our employees to thrive when they're at work we need to support them to thrive in their lives outside of work.
This talk focuses on supporting new parents in particular, as this is a time of massive transition in their lives - but the same principles apply to any employee facing big changes and challenges outside of work.
When we look at workforce demographics in Ireland at present, recent CSO data tells us that 30% of the workforce are women aged 20-44, with a further 31% of men of the same age. While on average more than 60% of employees at work in Ireland are aged 20-44, I know many companies where in excess of 80% of their workforce fits neatly into this demographic!
In looking specifically at women in work, we know that while 11% of women aged 20-24 have at least 1 child, this jumps to 70% by aged 35-44, and resulting in 80% of working women having at least 1 child. We also know that the average number of children born to women in Ireland is 2.33. And of course, the vast majority of these women are likely to have a partner who is also working. Something to think about when building your manpower plans and engagement strategies...
In reality, parents of young children are likely to be a majority feature in most companies in Ireland, and they very often feel quite 'excluded' from Inclusion & Diversity agendas.
Watch here for my talk in full...
Reciprocity At Work: Protecting The Female Leadership Pipeline | Claire Flannery | DisruptHR Talks from DisruptHR on Vimeo.
In preparation for a new workshop I am designing, this month I'll be focusing on what employers can do to help their teams to thrive in and out of work - so subscribe to my mailing list below to get my next article on this straight to your inbox.
If you would like to learn more about what we can do to help your employees to successfully navigate periods of transition, let's have a chat. If you'd like to talk about speaking opportunities in your company, I'd also love to hear from you!
Claire Flannery is the Founder and Owner of Strength Within coaching and consultancy, where she focuses on helping people create the headspace and mental clarity to discover, cultivate and maximise their strength within. She is a qualified Business Psychologist, Executive, Business & Personal Coach and Gentlebirth Instructor with over a decade of experience working in HR leadership in Financial Services. She is also a Mum to two small boys and has personal experience of successfully managing her career while preparing to transition out of, and back into, the workforce; and is passionate about helping people to successfully navigate the huge identity and life transition involved in starting and growing a family. As a large part of her work, she is privileged to work with women and their partners as they make their journey through pregnancy, birth and early parenting. Along with Coaching services, she runs Gentlebirth and Return-to-Work workshops in Dublin, Ireland.
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Tags: back to work after babybusiness coachcareerDisrupt HRdisrupthrdisruptHRDubemployee engagementemployee experienceemployee retentionfemale leadershipgender equalitygreat place to workleadership pipelinesmaternitymaternity coachmaternity leavemental well-beingparental leaveparenthoodpaternity leavereciprocityresiliencereturn to workwomen in businesswomen in leadershipworking parentworkplace equality
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