K
Kathleen Martin
Guest
THE TECH INDUSTRY IS BOOMING, YET IT’S WELL-DOCUMENTED THAT IT’S STILL A LARGELY MALE-DOMINATED SPACE. THOUGH THERE ARE A LOT OF REASONS FOR THIS THAT MAY BE BEYOND OUR CONTROL AS HIRING MANAGERS, WE CAN TWEAK THE HIRING PROCESS IN ORDER TO BRING MORE WOMEN INTO THE TECH FOLD.
We sat down with Yael Sapir-Zehavi, the VP of Human Resources at Tailor Brands, to get her take. “There are a number of things we can do all along the hiring funnel in order to fix the biases that help to create the gender imbalance in high-tech,” Sapir-Zehavi begins, “starting with the top of the funnel.”
Be an Equal Company From the Start Addressing the top of the hiring funnel means answering the question: How do you get more qualified women to apply for positions in tech and come for interviews?
“If you’re a relatively small company like we are at Tailor Brands, you need to make sure you’re hiring professionals. This means we can’t implement affirmative action to balance the gender gap; we have to hire people with the right potential and experience,” Sapir-Zehavi acknowledges. “If you get to Tailor Brands, it means you have the right skills for the job.”
So what can you do to increase your chances of hiring women with relevant experience?
“You have to set yourself up as an equal company to begin with,” Yael says. Here’s how she suggests we go about it:
Set the same expectations for men and women This applies both to the way you treat employees as professionals, and to setting the expectations for a good work-life balance.
“For example, we believe in active parenting,” Sapir-Zehavi says. “It’s 2021, and it’s not only mothers who want to participate in their children’s lives! If the standard is for parents to go home early from work so they can pick up their kids from kindergarten, then that acceptance needs to extend to men as well.”
When something is considered acceptable for men in the workplace, Zehavi explains, it makes it more comfortable for women by default. “It’s not just about helping men to be better dads; it also helps women to feel like they’re in an ecosystem that supports them as parents.” Being an equal company means creating a culture in which there’s no judgment on parents, regardless of their gender.
Establish a flexible landscape This, too, applies especially to employees who are parents. In this day and age, most women in high-tech are parents, and having a flexible work schedule allows parents to feel comfortable coming and going as they need to.
Mothers tend to need this type of scheduling flexibility and establishing your company as one that provides it will help parents to fit in better – making your company a more attractive option to mothers (or women who are thinking about having children in the future) as a result.
Continue reading: https://www.thehrdirector.com/features/recruitment/11-tips-for-recruiting-more-women-in-tech/
We sat down with Yael Sapir-Zehavi, the VP of Human Resources at Tailor Brands, to get her take. “There are a number of things we can do all along the hiring funnel in order to fix the biases that help to create the gender imbalance in high-tech,” Sapir-Zehavi begins, “starting with the top of the funnel.”
Be an Equal Company From the Start Addressing the top of the hiring funnel means answering the question: How do you get more qualified women to apply for positions in tech and come for interviews?
“If you’re a relatively small company like we are at Tailor Brands, you need to make sure you’re hiring professionals. This means we can’t implement affirmative action to balance the gender gap; we have to hire people with the right potential and experience,” Sapir-Zehavi acknowledges. “If you get to Tailor Brands, it means you have the right skills for the job.”
So what can you do to increase your chances of hiring women with relevant experience?
“You have to set yourself up as an equal company to begin with,” Yael says. Here’s how she suggests we go about it:
Set the same expectations for men and women This applies both to the way you treat employees as professionals, and to setting the expectations for a good work-life balance.
“For example, we believe in active parenting,” Sapir-Zehavi says. “It’s 2021, and it’s not only mothers who want to participate in their children’s lives! If the standard is for parents to go home early from work so they can pick up their kids from kindergarten, then that acceptance needs to extend to men as well.”
When something is considered acceptable for men in the workplace, Zehavi explains, it makes it more comfortable for women by default. “It’s not just about helping men to be better dads; it also helps women to feel like they’re in an ecosystem that supports them as parents.” Being an equal company means creating a culture in which there’s no judgment on parents, regardless of their gender.
Establish a flexible landscape This, too, applies especially to employees who are parents. In this day and age, most women in high-tech are parents, and having a flexible work schedule allows parents to feel comfortable coming and going as they need to.
Mothers tend to need this type of scheduling flexibility and establishing your company as one that provides it will help parents to fit in better – making your company a more attractive option to mothers (or women who are thinking about having children in the future) as a result.
Continue reading: https://www.thehrdirector.com/features/recruitment/11-tips-for-recruiting-more-women-in-tech/
