Working from home risks women’s career progress

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on in December, Crosbie said that she noticed women were less likely to return to the office since the organisation changed its 100% remote working arrangement to a hybrid policy a year ago.

“What we find, certainly at Nationwide, is that men are more likely to come into the office than women,” she said.

Interacting with leaders is crucial for career growth, Crosbie noted. “We have to be really careful that we don’t prevent women from accessing development-watching. I benefited enormously from watching some really excellent leaders and how they navigated challenging problems,” she said.

We asked HR commentators whether there’s a working pattern that best supports women’s career development.

“Flexible working has obviously been hugely beneficial for many employees, particularly women, who traditionally shoulder more caring responsibilities than their male colleagues,” said Victoria Wakely, people and business partners director at clinical analytics provider Medidata EMEA.

Employers need to involve women in decisions about working patterns amid a return to office push, she added.

Office days need to deliver benefits over working from home

Wakely continued: “Ensure that employees feel that they are deriving value from being in the office, such as through in-person collaboration sessions, training or participating in charitable initiatives.

“This way, we avoid the frustration that people can feel when they’ve taken time out of their day and away from their caring responsibilities to travel into the office, but feel like they are just sitting at their desk doing tasks that they could easily do at home.

“Take a considered, supportive and consistent approach to working arrangements. This means ensuring that we bring people along on the journey, are transparent and cascade communications down effectively, and that we receive regular feedback from employees.”

Learning and development teams should be responsible for ensuring that women learn from their team at each stage of their career, regardless of caring responsibilities, Becky Wallace, head of people for the learning platform LearnUpon, suggested.

She told HR magazine: “Learning is a huge part of every business’s journey towards a more equal and inclusive environment.

“Women are most likely to leave jobs or fall behind in their careers when returning from having children, so strong onboarding programmes and training modules that help them get back up to speed quickly can help challenge this.

“The support that learning and development teams provide should help women achieve success by engaging in development that helps them to achieve mastery in their current role, as well as preparing them for the next role they may take on.”

Working from home risks women’s careers but most mothers prefer it

One in 10 working mothers have quit their jobs due to childcare pressures, research jointly published by gender equality charity the Fawcett Society and hiring platform Totaljobs revealed in November 2023.

The research also highlighted that 84% of working mothers struggled to find a job that accommodated their childcare needs, and 41% had to decline a promotion that didn’t align with their childcare arrangements.

Negotiation training and leadership development can be most helpful for helping women advance, Wallace noted.

She said: “Negotiation training and leadership development should be a part of programmes aimed at women in the workplace. This will help empower women to advocate for themselves, helping them advance their careers.

“Additionally, organisations should also roll out unconscious bias training that equips managers with the mindset and thinking to recognise biases and make conscious changes. This will ensure any bottlenecks to women’s progress are addressed.”