Welcome back to closing bell here on cheddar news ken
buffa here. Now the coronavirus pandemic has changed the
work landscape in significant ways, according to information technology
giant Hewlett Packer, there are over one million fewer
women in the workforce than in february 2020. However
, while recent studies survey shows that on a global
level more women are looking to advance their careers.
Men in some regions like the US, we're more
likely to get promotions joining us. Now is Stephanie
Dismore, managing director of north America at HP.
And Stephanie, my first question for you, just
how much more of a push are you seeing when
it comes to female employees pushing for promotions and are
you seeing it in some regions more than others?
Yes. Hey ken, good morning, good afternoon
. It's great to be here and thanks for having
me. So the answer is, yes, actually
, women are in a place in their careers now
where there is incredible opportunity, largely driven by what's
happened as a result of the, of the,
the pandemic. This whole idea of hybrid working um
, is a challenge, but it's also an opportunity
and ideally what it can do for women is provide
extreme flexibility um, and it gives them an opportunity
to really be very vocal about what they need and
and how they can be, um, and contribute
the best in the environment that they're in, in
, in, in a place in life that they're
trying to manage. So yes, women are interested
in getting promoted. However, at the same time
while women are applying and wanting to advance their careers
. Um, Covid actually had the reverse effect.
And if you look at other studies, one in
four women actually took a step back from their careers
or exited the workforce altogether as a result of just
the massive amount of responsibility of managing um you know
our new life at home and at work and just
the incredible amount of work that fell upon women's shoulders
. So according to your data we're seeing more men
apply for promotions Than women. 38% vs 30%.
But more men are also getting these promotions at a
higher rate. Why is that? Yeah. You
know this is something that we as an industry and
a culture need to fix. Um Our challenge right
now is we need to make sure that we are
creating the right environment for women to succeed. We
need to make sure that we are recognizing and promoting
women and we need to make sure that we are
mentoring and sponsoring women so that when they do apply
they are more likely to get promoted because the decision
makers that are making those decisions are aware of their
contributions. They're aware of what they're able to do
and capable of doing and they have sponsors and mentors
and allies within the workforce that are promoting them um
at the same level as men. So another question
is why does where women are working play a factor
maybe at the home at in the office remote work
hybrid, whatever have you. How much of an
impact does that have on getting that promotion. Mm
great question. So the where is a is a
new word? Right? So pre covid, where
was typically in the office And now when we're talking
about where we're talking about a hybrid opportunity, we're
talking about, are you working from home? Are
you working in the office? And so we,
when we're thinking about that, we have to make
sure we're giving um equality to folks that are not
only in the office but also working from home.
And so it's really critical that we value both being
in person and working remote at the same level and
we're giving the voice to the person that's not in
the room, um, the same level that we're
giving the person that's in the room. So sometimes
the people that are not in the room don't get
the visibility, they don't get the recognition, get
the recognition. And we need to be very responsible
and very intentional about creating that equality in terms of
the wear some ideas right? To solve some of
these is to create the buddy system. So whoever
is not in the room, whoever is working remotely
um has a person that they're connected within that same
meeting. So if they didn't hear something that's going
on in the room, if they have a comment
to make, they can, I am the person
in the room saying, Hey, you know,
can you help me out? I need, I
need to say something, I need to speak up
. I have a valuable input, important input that
the room needs to hear. And I think as
you start to think about those things to create value
inequality on the wear that really will contribute to recognizing
all contributions, whether it's in the office or at
home, Stephanie is more managing Director of North America
at HP. Stephanie. Solid advice. Thank you
so much for joining us and sharing this important information
. Thank you Stephanie.