Ways to keep Women in STEM

At workplace, the dynamic suddenly changes for when a female becomes a mom and joins the workforce again.

• At a manager level, you can ensure that you are not pushing to salary disparity and keep all members of your team at par salary based on merit and skills.
• When a female colleague gets married don’t assume she will take off for maternity soon.
• When a female colleague does take off for maternity, don’t count it as vacation and provide benefits on coming back-workplace day care, breastfeeding rooms, mentors like other moms.
• Respect their working hours - they are handling two full time jobs.

Companies need to start catering to different generations of employees and tailor their experience for them.

• Instill trust and confidence in the employee, with regards to their role, job, and performance metrics.
• Give them the floor to speak and share opinions.
• Assign mentors to them, preferably another female, who can help guide them through the role and the company dynamics.
• Train your employee. As a company, it’s your job to have the training materials and list of policies to share.
• Understand their intrinsic motivation and values in order to rank their performance or assign salary increment.

• The locker room talk should be avoided in all scenarios.
• The events should be tailored to fit the needs of all employees.
• Provide sanitary products in the bathroom and one paid day off a month.
• When sending on company travel ensure all reservations are made to customize the employee’s needs.
• Encourage the culture of assigning and being a mentor.
• Be open and share the salary disparity amongst your employees- will give everyone trust in the organization.
• Don’t always encourage female employees to do the glue work - organizing events, taking notes, representing company.
• Echo your appreciation.