At Untapped Potential’s Fall Speed Interview Event, industry leaders came forward to influence change.
Those in positions of power can pave the way for women returners as we realize that returning our Nation’s Caregivers is not just a female issue, but a family issue and a leadership issue.
Our panelists shared insights of economic shifts, industry trends and leadership imperatives critical to Untapped Potential’s objectives enabling a path for our Candidates to return-to-work.
Brent Robertson, Partner at Fathom, shared key changes in the economy and the make up of the workforce that are critically impacting the way organizations behave. For the first time ever we have five generations in the workplace, and by 2020, 50% of the workforce will be millennials.
Those corporations that think ‘out of the box’ and no longer look for a fixed skill to deliver a defined task -- and seek not only to improve the environment and culture that work gets done -- will be best poised to survive the dynamic shifts afoot. More and more companies need individuals with high emotional intelligence to be the glue between business objectives and the resources that perform tasks -- roles that caregivers have an inherent experience in. Organizations are realizing that their competitive play is their own humanity.
Deirdre Tully, a Senior Vice President of XL-Catlin highlighted that the work Untapped Potential Inc. is doing is right in the middle of what she is passionate about in her role leading global diversity and inclusion, as well as global talent acquisition for the company.
Deirdre emphasized that diversity and inclusion is not only ‘nice to have’ but the vitality of a business depends on it to acquire talent. She debunked key myths regarding this demographic. Namely:
the “glass ceiling” exists
that women are not ‘interested’ in senior management
flexibility is something special only for the ‘unique few'
“Women don’t want to come back”
It is a really leaky pipeline with micro-barriers that prevent women from reaching the top, not one moment in the career cycle. While women are interested in senior roles they lack the sponsorship to develop them to get there. More and more flexibility is desired by talent and companies need to deliver on this in order to access talent. Management needs to open their lens to see the value of the returning talent. A process like Untapped Potential’s Flexreturn can help underwrite the risk to ensure these Candidates have a potential for success.
Manu Mazumdar is the COO and President of Chapman Farrell Group, a member of a number of boards, and the proud father of a 15 year old powerhouse woman. He highlighted how from a leadership perspective we need to value the differences of the individual. This topic is of interest as businesses need to focus on not only the change for business, but also to impact our social culture. He focused on the fact that the number of women CEOs is trending down and not up. Each of us, whether male or female, brings a different way of thinking. Women and men think differently, organizations need to leverage that uniqueness. As our social culture shifts, we will do things differently in leveraging talent to leadership roles than we have in decades prior.