How to Attract and Keep Talented Women
1 )
Find talent early. The best place to start looking is in
the universities
2)
Help your women recruits build networks to fight isolation
and gain visibility while achieving their business goals.
3)
Give them international exposure, but provide plenty of
support for families in the host countries.
4)
Build ties outside the company – to clients, customers,
and communities.
The
opportunity has never been greater for multinationals to
attract and retain top talent in emerging
economies. For some it’s an imperative. Melinda Wolfe,
Bloomberg’s head of professional development, says,
Bloomberg is now in 146 countries and growing at a rapid
pace. We have an urgent need to draw upon a deep pool of
local talent – both men and women – to deliver excellence.
Forward-thinking companies can do several things to
maximize the opportunity.
Find
talent early. With so many
women earning advanced degrees through-out the developing
world, the best place to start looking for talent is the
universities. Smart companies adopt a creative and
targeted approach, differentiating their brand as
employers of choice for talented women. For example, the
Google India Women in Engineering Award was launched in
2008 to celebrate women pursuing engineering and computer
sciences careers in college or graduate school. Sixteen
women in 2008 and nine in 2009 won the $2.000 awards.
Google senior managers and engineers serve as judges.
Anjali Sardana, a doctoral candidate at the Indian
Institute of Technology , a 2009 winner from among 250
applicants, says that the awards has inspired her to keep
pursuing her dreams: “Not only did the award encourage me
to stay in my field, it has made me confident and given me
the spark to mentor other, younger women engineers”.
Help
them build networks.
Ensuring that top talent in emerging markets feels valued
is of fundamental importance in multinational
organizations, particularly those headquartered in the
U.S. or Western Europe. Networking and relationship
building, essential to strengthening engagement and
commitment, help women develop the ties, visibility, and
organizational know-how essential to professional success.
Siemens launched a program this year to establish a
network for its young, high-potential managers in emerging
markets.
Give them
international exposure. Women are more likely to break
through the glass ceiling in multinational companies that
make sure they are posted overseas for short periods.
However, in emerging markets these assignments works best
when companies can provide flexibility and support to
lighten the burden on spouses and families.
Build
communities outside the company. Maximizing opportunities
within the company produces great results for professional
women, but it’s also important to help them build ties to
their clients, customers, and communities in emerging
markets. These external networks serve two purposes: One
is to establish a broader support system for women who are
navigating pushes and pulls – particularly important when
they have few role models at the top. The other is to
strengthen the relationships that help them achieve
business results.
Some
multinational companies are helping to speed up the
process by ensuring that they attract and retain the most
talented women available. This not only improves the
prospects of these companies in developing countries, but
also has a significant effect on the women they employ.
The remarkable reality is that these women are at the
forefront of change, shaping the very world in which they
live.
