This article first appeared in Forum, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on March 7, 2022 - March 13, 2022

The Covid-19 pandemic has drastically disrupted the way we live and work. With lockdowns and work-from-home mandates in force, the global workforce has experienced a fundamental shift from pre-­pandemic work norms. In November 2021 alone, 4.5 million workers quit or changed jobs, a phenomenon that is being called the “Great Resignation”. Closer to home, Malaysia faces a troubling talent recession as employers struggle to fill job vacancies, even as unemployment remains high. May 2020 saw unemployment hitting an all-time high of 5.3%, remaining at 4.2% even in December 2021, significantly above the pre-crisis average of 3%.

Breaking it down, the trend is even more troubling for women.

During the pandemic, significantly more Malaysian women were unemployed than men. Female unemployment jumped to 5.5%, compared to 4.7% for males. 

This jarring gap of 0.8 percentage points highlights the disproportionate impact that lockdowns have had on women. As families struggled with strict lockdown measures and sudden school closures, the burden of unpaid household work and caretaking duties fell largely on women.

Women make up over two-thirds (68.7% or 5.06 million) of those outside the labour force. Housework and family responsibilities were cited as among the main drivers for those who opted out of the workforce.

With the Great Resignation threatening a significant risk of talent loss and a widening gender gap in the workforce, it is a post-pandemic imperative for employers to intensify efforts to empower women to return to and remain in their jobs.

Research from the Harvard Business School shows that gender diversity leads to more productive companies, both by market value and revenue. Internally, a gender-diverse workforce allows for a wider range of perspectives, enhancing collaboration and innovation to drive better decision-making. Externally, it improves the firm’s perception and image in the eyes of jobseekers and investors alike.

However, these findings are only true in firms with normative acceptance of gender diversity, that is, firms where diversity is strongly ingrained in their culture. Moving forward, companies need to find new ways to address the unique challenges women face in the workplace. With the new normal, traditional diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) programmes will no longer work.

Employers must seek to address the breadth and magnitude of today’s challenges. They need to understand women’s motivations and how they make decisions about jobs and careers.

Using a demand-centric growth methodology, Boston Consulting Group (BCG) developed a global framework, based on a detailed survey of the US workforce, to address the pressing concerns of women at work.

This analysis used a segmentation model to de-average female employees and identify both functional and emotional drivers of decision-making. One of the key findings is that emotional needs, often more difficult to articulate than functional needs, are a leading indicator of positive employee outcomes.

It is not enough to motivate women to work in an organisation by only fulfilling functional needs, such as income, flexibility and other benefits. It is imperative for companies to realise that emotional needs matter too. These needs include being respected, treated fairly, feeling secure, valued at work and more. Meeting emotional needs can correlate more strongly with employee satisfaction and retention.

As companies seek to balance aspirations and resources, they can target the needs that matter most and build targeted programmes that will be more successful at attracting, retaining and advancing their female employees.

While systemic challenges of pay equity, leadership representation and day-to-day discriminatory experiences are important to focus on, to truly make a difference, companies need to ask if their current DEI programmes are tapping into the diverse sets of needs that influence their female employees.

Employers that will win the war on talent understand that there is no one size that fits all. Women have diverse functional and emotional needs, depending on age, tenure, life stage, household composition and other factors. Simply put, a 25-year-old fresh graduate will have different needs from a new mother with a young family, or a senior woman whose children have grown up. In other words, the trajectory of a woman’s life and career is central in shaping a woman’s workplace needs. Therefore, reshaping existing programmes depends on de-averaging female workers into segments and developing customised interventions.

While these findings may seem intuitive, few programmes recognise and support the dynamic evolution of needs as women move through different life stages. Traditional solutions, such as expanding benefits, providing training, implementing codes of conduct and adopting policies should be expanded to encompass both functional and emotional needs suitable for a woman’s present life stage. For example, a part-time option which fulfils the functional needs of flexibility and work-life balance must also consider the emotional needs of a woman juggling multiple roles, by ensuring a supportive ecosystem of supervisors who respect her off-hours, provide meaningful work and ensure long-term career progression.

Truly addressing emotional needs will require stepping outside the boundaries of traditional programmes and focusing on a broader employee value proposition. Emotional needs can be met in multiple ways — through positive interactions with a supervisor, celebrations and appreciation of milestones and events, measured response in times of crisis and equal opportunities to excel.

The workplace experience is shaped by millions of daily touch points such as these. Companies will only attract and retain promising talent if they are deliberate in developing a supportive and respectful corporate culture and emphasising that through their leadership model.

To truly attract and retain promising female talent, companies must demonstrate their commitment to helping women succeed. By developing more intentional interventions and meaningful employee value propositions, employers can create a more equal, diverse and gender-balanced workforce, making gender equality a net-positive for everyone.

Jasryn Ng is project leader at Boston Consulting Group

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