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Women in the Workplace 2020

The events of 2020 have turned workplaces upside down. Under the highly challenging circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic, many employees are struggling to do their jobs. Many feel like they’re “always on” now that the boundaries between work and home have blurred. They’re worried about their family’s health and finances. Burnout is a real issue. 

Women in particular have been negatively impacted. Women—especially women of color—are more likely to have been laid off or furloughed during the COVID-19 crisis,1 stalling their careers and jeopardizing their financial security. The pandemic has intensified challenges that women already faced. Working mothers have always worked a “double shift”—a full day of work, followed by hours spent caring for children and doing household labor. Now the supports that made this possible—including school and childcare—have been upended. Meanwhile, Black women already faced more barriers to advancement than most other employees.2 Today they’re also coping with the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on the Black community. And the emotional toll of repeated instances of racial violence falls heavily on their shoulders. 

As a result of these dynamics, more than one in four women are contemplating what many would have considered unthinkable just six months ago: downshifting their careers or leaving the workforce completely. This is an emergency for corporate America. Companies risk losing women in leadership—and future women leaders—and unwinding years of painstaking progress toward gender diversity. 

The crisis also represents an opportunity. If companies make significant investments in building a more flexible and empathetic workplace—and there are signs that this is starting to happen—they can retain the employees most affected by today’s crises and nurture a culture in which women have equal opportunity to achieve their potential over the long term. The rest of this article summarizes the report’s main findings (and you can go even deeper with a behind-the-scenes chatwith one of the report’s coauthors on our blog).

This is the sixth year of the Women in the Workplace study—in a year unlike any other. This effort, conducted in partnership with LeanIn.Org, tracks the progress of women in corporate America. The data set this year reflects contributions from 317 companies that participated in the study and more than 40,000 people surveyed on their workplace experiences; more than 45 in-depth interviews were also conducted to dive deeper on the issues. These efforts were in the field from June to August of 2020, although the pipeline data represents employer-provided information from calendar year 2019.

Click here to read the full McKinsey Report

Jane Daly's Worklife Podcast: Joan Keevill, The power of Professional Networks

 

In this episode Jane talks to Joan Keevill about the power of Professional Networks

Joan is Director of Designs on Learning Ltd, an e-learning consultancy. She has a wide range of clients, many of them large corporates, and specialises in the areas of leadership and compliance. She also works with a number of associates who manage the production side of the work on her behalf. The majority of Joan's new business comes through her network so she invests time in nurturing it. Joan has been Chair of the eLearning Network since 2018 and on the Board since 2016. She initiated the webinar series, managed the transition in 2020 from face-to-face to more virtual events and recently ran the third round of Board elections. Being on the eLN enables Joan to reach out to over 20,000 industry professionals via its social media platforms, as well as to give something back to the industry after her decades of experience working in it.

Joan recommends listeners explore the following topics if they would like to delve deeper into her insights: 

The eLN Review of 2020 (https://elearningnetwork.org/the-elearning-network-a-review-of-2020-and-a-look-ahead-to-2021/) - I'm constantly amazed by what a group of 12 volunteer Directors of the eLN can achieve and how they stepped up to the plate when the pandemic began. This review explains the range of our activities and how members benefit by being part of this dynamic network. The Learning and Development Handbook, Michelle Parry Slater (https://www.koganpage.com/product/the-learning-and-development-handbook-9781789663327) - to be published on 3rd Feb 2021. I've had the pleasure of reading an early proof and it's a very practical guide that will suit people at all levels in L&D. In itself it's not about networking but Michelle epitomises networking and sharing good practice and that's how the idea of the book came about - via twitter. The Women Talking About Learning (WTAL) podcast series (https://womentalkingaboutlearning.com/) - initiated by Andrew Jacobs, this is an evolving resource and well worth a listen by all in L&D. I feature in the Imposter Syndrome one and also the Evidence one. Andrew felt women's voices were not being heard enough. Again, he is another great networker and blogger, publishing a short blog post daily.

You can find out more about Joan and the eLearning Network (eLN) here 

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Jane Daly's Worklife Podcast - Ian Mcllwain: Digital-first Learning

 

In this episode Jane talk to Ian Mcllwain about Digital-first Learning

Ian is a technology company leader with more than 20 years’ experience in business development, sales, and strategic operations. As part of the UK leadership team and Head of LinkedIn Learning UK & Ireland, Ian is currently leading a team helping clients to develop, retain and transform their talent. 

In the workplace, Ian is passionate about customer value, technology, diversity, inclusion & belonging, coaching, empowerment, compassionate management, building great teams and having fun doing it.

Ian recommends the following 3 things for listeners to deep-dive further: 

Something free from Linkedin: https://linkedin.github.io/career-explorer/

 

LinkedIn Career Explorer

Comparing skills across jobs can make it easier to find the right job for you. Since Time Management is a critical skill for both Food Servers and Operations Coordinators, let’s go deeper to understand the other skills that overlap between the two jobs and what skills you would need to build to move from one job to the other.

linkedin.github.io

What does it do

“Our Career Explorer tool will help you discover potential career opportunities based on the skills you already have. Enter your most recent job, and we’ll surface opportunities that you have high skills overlap with and resources to help you build any new skills to make a career pivot”

Something free from Microsoft: https://opportunity.linkedin.com/skills-for-in-demand-jobs

Free Learning Paths for Top Jobs

Start developing your skills with free learning paths from LinkedIn Learning and Microsoft Learn.

opportunity.linkedin.com

 

Something not to do with LinkedIn or Microsoft but a resource I love:

https://fs.blog/blog/

  Find out more about Ian here Enjoyed this episode? There's lots more to listen to, sign up here to find out more 

 

Jane Daly's Worklife Podcast - Nancy Kline: The Promise that changes everything

 

In this episode Jane talks to Nancy Kline about her life, new book and the Thinking environment. 

Nancy Kline is the author of four books including the recently published bestseller, The Promise That Changes Everything (Penguin Random House) and the 20-year bestseller Time To Think (Cassell/Octopus).

She is also Founding Director of Time To Think, a global leadership development and coaching company. Her ongoing research through her lecturing and her work with colleagues, professionals, executives and teams around the world continues to build the body of thought known as ’The Thinking Environment’. 

Nancy is Visiting Faculty at Henley Centre for Coaching, Henley Business School, UK. 

 Born and raised in New Mexico, Nancy is a UK citizen and lives in Oxfordshire with her English husband, Christopher Spence. 

Nancy recommends the following 3 simple things listeners could do to delve deeper: 

- Decide to live for one week without interupting anyone ever, staying interested in where they will go next with their thinking.   - Read these two masterpieces:

Mathew Crawford’s The World Beyond Your Head: On Becoming an Individual in an Age of Distraction (Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux)

        James Williams’ Stand Out of Our Light: Freedom and Resistance in the Attention Economy (Cambrigde University Press)

- Invite someone to be a Thinking Partner with you once a week for six weeks. Take Individual turns of five minutes each to think about any issue of your choice with the other’s full attention and with the promise of no interruption. Avoid comment of any kind unless invited. Appreciate each other at the end.      Links to find out more about Nancy and her work : https://www.nancykline.com  https://www.timetothink.com Enjoyed this episode? There's lots more to listen to, sign up here to find out more 

Jane Daly's Worklife Podcast - Paul Morton: Leadership

 

In this episode Jane talks to Paul Morton about Leadership

Paul Morton has been living and breathing leadership, learning and learning technologies for over 20 years. He started business as a stand-up trainer, then as a coder creating an early LMS, an eLearning author and then as a manager of technology teams. That background combined with a surprisingly useful degree in Scandinavian studies from Edinburgh leads to interesting conversations on leadership, change, learning and business growth with leaders in all industries. 

Most recently, Paul has been working as the regional sales director for CrossKnowledge, a SaaS high-growth corporate learning solution business, leading teams in Europe, the Americas and building channel partners around the globe. 

Born and raised in Scotland, he emigrated to London in 1999 and now lives in Hampshire with his wife and two young children. Paul is a fellow of the learning and performance institute (FLPI) and a fellow of the royal society for the encouragement of arts, manufactures and commerce (FRSA). He is also fluent in English, Norwegian, Danish and French.

If you want to explore more, Paul recommends three books, On Leading self, leading others, leading businesses:

How to win friends and influence people - the book I 'prescribe' most to people, first published in 1936 and still sharp and relevant. It's a playbook on how to get better at being human. Buy it here  Influence by Robert Cialdini - how to persuade and guide people towards your desired outcomes. Buy it here Dilbert.com / anything by Scott Adams. A gentle patina of humour and cynicism towards corporate life. (He's also written a great book - How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big) Buy it here  You can find our more about Paul and how to contact him here Enjoyed this episode? There's lots more to listen to, sign up here to find out more 

Jane Daly's Worklife Podcast - Andrew Jacobs: Learning delivery

 

In this episode Jane talks to Andrew Jacobs, an independent Learning Consultant about Learning delivery. 

Andrew Jacobs is a recognised leader in learning, known for his innovative thinking about learning, training and technology. He has significant experience in a range of roles across learning, training and people development, experience acquired across a variety of industries in both the public and private sectors. Andrew has a specific understanding of developing online and digital solutions for learning, social profile and engagement. In 2020 he won the Jay Cross Memorial Award for his work in the field of informal learning. He is a Fellow of the Learning Performance Institute (LPI) and an independent Learning Consultant.

If you are looking to explore more about successful Learning delivery, Andrew recommends: Dangerous Ideas, a book by Alf Rehn which challenges your thinking about creativity, click here 

 

The Big Man Can't Shoot - series 1, episode 3 of the Revisionist History podcast series. In this episode, a basketball legend - Wilt Chamberlain - is considered. He couldn’t shoot free throws so changed his technique to an underhand method and started scoring at will. He then switched back and the podcast is a great piece to get people to think about what drives success.

 

The Transformative Power of Classical Music - a TED talk by Benjamin Zander which is about passion, leadership, and engaging people emotionally but NOT about classical music, click here 

You can also find out more about Andrew, including details of how to contact him, here 

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