90% of women report equal employment through hybrid work
Although 8 March is recognised as women’s day, the reality is that women struggle every day: their workplaces, home, family life… Most of their time is taken up with work and family burdens, leaving them with little time for themselves.
A study carried out by IWG in different countries across Europe shows that hybrid work has led to more and more women making important career choices, such as changing jobs and sectors. Women who choose hybrid work enjoy a better work-life balance and new career opportunities.
The report, entitled “Empowering Women in the Hybrid Workplace”, states that 80% of women have chosen this approach because of the flexibility it offers them, which is essential to them. The vast majority of participants, 88%, believe that the flexibility it brings helps to achieve equality in the workplace, while 66% believe they have experienced less prejudice in the workplace, whether based on gender, race or any other grounds.
Professional growth in new sectors and better understanding of other functions within the company.
Not all jobs and companies offer the flexibility that hybrid work allows. This is the reason why many of the women currently working in hybrid work have had to change sectors, with almost half of the women participants (47%) reporting that hybrid work has allowed them to enter new sectors.
This allows women to achieve higher-level professional roles. They report that they are able to grow professionally because hybrid work allows them to be more efficient and productive, as 58% of respondents say, as well as helping them to learn more about other roles within the company (47%) and increasing their visibility among senior management, as shown by 38% of respondents.
Some companies, as shown in previous IWG reports, explain that hybrid work makes it easier for HR managers to recruit and retain talent, especially women. Such is the importance that women attach to this form of employment that 72% of female respondents say they would look for another job if their companies stopped offering hybrid work.
Women also quit their jobs: 40% of the women surveyed said that they quit their previous jobs because they were unable to enjoy the flexible working hours that hybrid work gives them. They have their reasons: 75% of women said that they have a better work-life balance thanks to the savings in time and money that hybrid work offers them, due to the reduction in commuting required.
The hybrid model of work, which also brings an improvement in mental health, helps to equalise working conditions, as 90% of the participants in this study believe. Not only this. 53% of the women surveyed got positions of higher responsibility; the majority of them got these positions after applying for them motivated by the hybrid mode.
In short, a hybrid form of employment brings benefits to both parties: on the one hand, the company, which saves on costs and allows it to benefit from more profits and have happy employees with a better quality of life both at work and professionally; on the other hand, its employees, allowing improvements in general well-being, especially mental health and giving the option to women who work in the company to climb to higher professional positions, work under equal conditions and be able to better combine their work and personal lives. An intangible value that helps HR managers to retain and attract more talent.
