The Gap:
Type of Gap: ...at middle management level
At entry level, we hire an even number of female and male employees. But when they progress towards leadership positions, women tend to leave the company as they feel that they cannot combine a professional career with their personal life, with marriage and children. Due to this attrition it is difficult to build a pipeline of females to the very top of the company.
The Practice:
Type of practice: Work environment, work-life balance
At KPMG in Brazil, we have the 'KPMG Network Of Women' (KNOW). This group offers our female professionals the opportunity to connect with women leaders and discuss topics such as coaching, marketing, retention and career planning.
Initiated by this network, we launched the lactation room and started the 'Mothers to be' meeting program. In addition, we promote events of our leaders with other market leaders to improve external networking around issues of gender parity.
Metrics:
We have defined KPIs regarding gender turn-over rates and network improvements.
Implementation Date:
Both the lactation room as well as the 'Mother to be' program were launched in March 2011.
The Success:
These activities allowed our leaders to become more familiar with the specific concerns of our female professionals and to support improving retention. We have also gained greater visibility in the market. We are planning to expand our program with more initiatives in 2012.
It is still too early to report results regarding the KPIs defined.
Success factors:
- Engagement of leadership
- Continuity
- Innovation
Barriers:
- Demand of work
- Competing priorities