Retaining Talented Women

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Retaining Talented Women on a  Global Scale
Moderator Jennifer Brown, President Jennifer
Brown Consulting, LLC

• Consulting Team with training, consulting, and
  coaching expertise
• 10 years specializing in Leadership,
  Communication Skills, and Diversity in the
  Workplace
• Corporate and non-profit clients variety of
  industries

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Two Key Aspects for Women

• The importance of life stages women are impacted
  globally by personal and family life changes such
  as children in the home, responsibilities for
  aging parents, etc.
• The importance of supportive managers
  supportive managers rather than mentors crucial
  for retention and advancement of women.
• (From a recent study entitled Women in a Global
  Workforce, done by Sharmila Rudrappa at
  University of Texas at Austins Center for
  Womens and Gender Studies, regarding feedback
  from a summit sponsored by Dell and Diversity
  Best Practices)

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Recruitment and Retention Factors

• Recruiting talent Factors for the recruitment of
  women
• 76 look for good compensation and benefits
  packages
• 58 look for strong market positions for the
  company
• 51 look for opportunities for challenging work
• 44 look for opportunities for women to advance
• 42 look to identify with company values
• Retaining and advancing women workers Factors
  for retaining women after they are part of your
  organization
• 63 Supportive Managers
• 54 Supportive Networks outside the workplace
• 50 Flexible work hours, job share, ability to
  work from home or work part-time
• 42 Commitment to diversity and culture
• 40 Access to challenging assignments

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Obstacles, and Reasons for Leaving

• Obstacles to advancement and retention
• Obligation to family (Asians looked to extended
  family and hired help other women sought
  flexible hours)
• Perception of womens obligations outside the
  company
• Perceptions of womens capabilities
• Stereotyping
• Being unwilling to relocate hurts my
  advancement
• Reasons for leaving the workforce
• Personal/family obligations
• Excessive work hours hindered familial
  obligations (particularly for American women)
• Personal choice to stay home and be a wife,
  mother
• Inadequate salary compensations
• Forced choice to stay at home to be a wife,
  mother

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Additional Points of Note

• Perceptions on Position, Culture, and Career
• Differences in particular between Asian women and
  other regions in importance of career and access
  to career advice. They had a higher response
  rate in being willing to relocate to a global
  assignment, especially compared to women in North
  America and Europe.
• Networking groups
• Even though 31 of the women said that their
  companies sponsored a womens network, only 53
  of them took part in these networks.

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Attracting, Developing and Retaining Talented
Women on a Global Scale
Monica Diaz Merck - Diversity Director, Global
Constituency Groups Work Environment
Mary Tatarian IBM - Global Dependent Care,
Work/Life Fund Life Works Program
Manager\ Vera Chota IBM - North America Leader,
Workforce Partners
October 29, 2008 215 335 pm
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• The world's largest technology innovation
  company, offering software, hardware and services
  in areas ranging from mainframe computers to
  nanotechnology
• A leader in work/life programs, dating back to
  the 1950s
• Approximately 386,000 employees in 170 countries
• Over 40 of IBM global employees work virtually
• 72 of IBM global women executives are moms

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IBMs Reality The Current Environment

• 43 of global population has less than 5 years of
  service
• 19 of global workforce joined IBM via
  acquisition or outsourcing arrangements
• Continued growth in EO legislation
• 69 of the 73 countries in which we operate have
  anti-discrimination laws and the number is
  growing!
• Employees at every level are increasingly
  interacting with customers and colleagues in
  other countries/time zones
• Globally Integrated Enterprise

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Why should business be concerned about developing
women leaders?

• It makes good business sense
• Extends the portfolio of skills at the top of the
  organization
• Provides female role models and mentors
• Creates an organization that is reflective of its
  customer base

• It drives business results
• Companies with the highest representation of
  women on their senior management teams had
• 35 higher Return on Equity
• 34 higher Total Return to Shareholders
• 42 higher Return on Sales

2004 Catalyst study, The Bottom Line Connecting
Corporate Performance and Gender Diversity
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IBMs Advancement of Women Strategy
Input on Barriers
Develop Strategies

• . Surveys
• . Focus Groups
• . Roundtables

• Encourage girls
• Recruit the best talent
• Mentor / Network
• Formalize the process
• identify
• grow the talent

Measure Results
. Challenge the system
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How Does IBM Develop Women?

• Enhance the pipeline
• Encourage girls to be engineers
• Recruit the best talent
• Make women feel welcome
• Womens networks
• Womens programs
• Support their growth throughout their career
• Identify talent and make it a formal process
• Formal and informal programs to grow talent
• Aggressive mentoring and career development
  programs
• Challenge the system
• Measure results

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Filling the Pipeline with Women Technical Leaders
Recruiting
External Partnerships (SWE, WITI, MentorNet)
WIT Campus Liaisons
Global
Recruiting Events
Marathon
WIT Chapters
Take Your
Children to
EX.I.T.E.
WIT Subnets
Work Day
Introduce a
Girl to
Conferences Webinars Classes
Engineering
Mentoring
Womens Technical Leadership Forum
Top Talent
Outreach
Womens Communities
Womens Councils
Development Retention
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IBMs Womens Councils

• Proportional representation across all levels
• Enhance the technical, professional and personal
  development of women in IBM
• Facilitate IBM's commitment to the advancement of
  women
• Create a vision for women as future leaders
• Successes
• Networking events
• Top Talent . How to have your cake and eat it
  too!
• Taking the StageTM series
• Womens Speaker Series
• Womens Communities
• Mindset Workshops
• Roundtables/Town Halls/Panels
• Social Events
• Communications
• Executive updates
• Newsletters
• Web sites
• On-line communities
• Womens Conferences

Focus on inclusion all women, at all
levels, across IBM -- regardless of
their definition of success
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IBM Global Winning Plays
India Winspiration 08
South Africa, Slovakia Vietnam Ex.I.T.E.
Camps
GBS Diversity Fusion
Brazil Advancement of Women Town Hall
US Focus on Black Talent
NE SW IOT PwD Academic Partnerships
Japan Career Development For Women Engineers
SWG Super Womens Group
Hungary Inspiring Talented Roma Students, The
Hungarian Business Leaders Forum
UK Career Development for 14-15 Year Old Black
and Asian Students
NE SW IOT Seeds for Development
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• Merck is a global research-driven pharmaceutical
  company dedicated to putting patients first.
• Established in 1891, Merck has a long-standing
  tradition of developing innovative new medicines
  and vaccines to improve the health and well-being
  of patients around the world.
• Merck also strives to improve the worlds health
  through programs that help ensure patients have
  access to our products.

• We try never to forget that medicine is for the
  people. It is not for the profits. The profits
  follow, and if we have remembered that, they have
  never failed to appear. How can we bring the best
  of medicine to each and every person? We cannot
  rest until the way has been found with our help
  to bring our finest achievements to everyone.
• - George W. Merck, 1950

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Our Case for Change
Merck in 1950
Merck in 2008

• 5,000 employees (mostly U.S.)
• Ex-U.S. employees unknown
• U.S.A. Population was 89.5 white, 10 black
• Merck operated in 21 countries, but primary focus
  was on U.S.

• Nearly 60,000 employees half ex-U.S.
• 70 of U.S. population is white an increasingly
  multicultural market
• Merck products are sold in over 150 countries
• Market growth is faster outside the U.S., and
  multicultural in nature

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The Business Imperative
Our Customers

• Women are entering the medical and professional
  health care community in record numbers
• Women can be patients, but in most cases, they
  are also stewards of family health and wellness
  decisions - making most pharmaceutical decisions
• Demographic trends suggest that the need for
  flexibility is greater for women and is likely to
  grow in the future
• Mercks workforce is young close to
  three-fourths of the total workforce under the
  age of 45
• Most of our female employees are mothers
• The family situations of Merck workers, the
  nature of work and the size of the Merck
  workforce in locations around the globe vary
  dramatically

Our Employees
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The Approach
Multi-cultural and Multi-dimensional Womenas
part of the model
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What else Merck does to Develop Women?

• Make the attraction, retention and motivation of
  superior talent an integral part of how we
  measure the success of our leaders
• Focus on womens needs and identified barriers
  for career progression (i.e. Mentoring,
  Flexible work arrangements, etc.)
• Leverage external opportunities for networking
  and development (i.e. Working Mother events)
• Monitor progress through employee engagement and
  culture surveys

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The Outcomes

• Continuously improved the number of women in key
  roles
• Currently, global female representation at the
  senior manager level (typically within two
  reporting levels of our CEO) is 29 our target
  is to reach 36 by 2012
• Women are being fully developed and engaged, as
  vital leaders in the most important aspects of
  our business
• Merck Women Network (MWN) - one of Mercks
  largest and most active organizations is the with
  roughly 1,300 active members across the United
  States
• Women Global Constituency Group (WGCG) made
  global recommendations to Executive Committee in
  November 2007, on key areas of talent development
  and customer engagement

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Most relevant programs / initiatives in
attracting, developing and retaining women
Representation Focus on Senior Leadership
Positions
Global womensadvancement Formal and informal
mentoring programs for women Flexible Work
Options
Formal Mentoring to support development of women
leaders
Flexible Work Arrangements for all employees,
globally

• Not a new what,
• but a different how
• Multi-cultural
• Multi-dimensional
• Business Alignment
• Senior Sponsorship
• Voice of globally
• diverse leaders

IBM Global Work/Life Fund IBM Corporate Service
Corps 5-Minute Drills Global Jams/Surveys Globa
l Opportunity Marketplace
What is different?
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• PLEASE REMEMBER TO HAND IN YOUR EVALUATIONS!!!
• THANK YOU!