HR Survey says, “No love for the ladies of tech”

Posted by Jim Stroud

January 29, 2008

Hat tip to Janine Milne over at CBR for the heads up on this one. Very interesting read… It screams to me how retention is as important (if not moreso) than recruiting. Like that old blues song says, “Its cheaper to keep her.”

Women in IT feel let down by the lack of support from their HR departments, according to a UK survey by Microsoft and networking portal womenintechnology.co.uk.

When asked to rate the support given to them as female employees, HR’s reputation fared significantly worse than other members of the workforce. More than a quarter (28%) of respondents rated HR departments as less than okay, compared with just 19% of line managers and bosses, and 11% of colleagues.

This lack of perceived report is worrying as HR is the department charged with devising and implementing retention initiatives, such as helping women return to work after having children. A poor reputation for diversity could adversely affect recruitment. Two-thirds of respondents said that a prospective employer’s diversity policy would be an “important factor” in deciding between employers.

pregnant working woman, microsoft, survey, jobs, recession, IT, tech One survey respondent noted: “A lot of effort goes into training graduates, none into refreshing women returners’ skills”. Another drew attention to the fact that her employer supplied a basketball court, but not a creche. “When the issue was raised at a company meeting, it was not well received,” she said.

Maggie Berry, director of womenintechnology.co.uk stressed that this did not mean women were looking for special treatment, and argued that flexible working and other benefits should be open to all.

“But what came out of some of the comments in our survey was that there is a perception that women who take advantage of these policies or benefits would be seen as ‘weak’. Consequently HR departments need to adopt a universal approach and encourage more male uptake which would avoid damaging women’s’ ‘brand’ within an organisation,” said Berry,

It was encouraging that 57% of bosses were rated as good or excellent at giving support by the female respondents, together with 60% of colleagues, and 47% of line managers. Only 39% of the HR departments were rated this highly.