Yahoo Finance What women really want (hint: money talks)
Who doesn’t love a good nap pod, free lunch, all-expense-paid workcation and free gym membership? Perks are well and good, but they’re not the most important factor for women looking for a job.
Fairygodboss, a site that reviews companies for women, conducted a survey of 100 college educated-women between 22 and 45, and found that fancy amenities didn’t even make it to the top 10 factors that women consider when choosing a job.
The No. 1 criterion across the board: money. But age differences do have an impact on priorities. For women under 30, good company performance is the second-most important factor when choosing a new job. Flexible hours and the ability to work part time were also near the top of the list, though – perhaps not surprisingly – slightly more important for women over 30, more of whom are likely to be at the stage in their careers when they have to juggle families and a job.
“In order to attract the best talent, companies will need to harness technology to give their employees flexibility in their schedule,” says Romy Newman, co-founder and president of Fairygodboss. “The focus should be on results rather than face-time.”
Since launching in 2015, Fairygodboss has aggregated 22,000 anonymous employee reviews about company culture and benefits submitted by women – think of it like Glassdoor.com with a special focus on how companies fare on parental leave, the ability to work remotely, the ability to work part time, and generally how equally women and men are treated. On Tuesday, the company created a new employer portal that helps companies communicate with and recruit the best female talent possible. Accenture (ACN), Dow Jones, General Electric (GE), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), OnDeck (ONDK), Salesforce (CRM), and Square (SQ) will pay $10,000 a year to have an official presence on the site. The pages will allow companies to share content, highlight their female leadership, showcase benefits like parental leave policies and post job openings (women can apply to jobs directly on the site). The service is free for consumers.
Site users can see that Salesforce, for example, offers 12 weeks of paid maternity leave at 80% of your total target earnings, and that employees who have been working at Square for six months can request a flexible work arrangement to assist with caring for a child, elderly parent or an ill family member. “Exact details like these aren’t easy to find. We hope this will be a crucial resource for job seekers,” says Newman.
With gender equality “on the brink of becoming a powerful driver of reputation,” Fairygodboss says it’s becoming vital for employers to implement what women want in a job.
Newman says she secured launch partners by connecting with executives like Julie Sweet, Accenture CEO of North America. “We believe that transparency creates trust,” says Sweet. “We are excited to be part of a new level of collaboration and connection among women in the workplace.”
Newman anticipates Fairygodboss will use data and surveys to advise partner companies on where they should be focusing their efforts. The site has seven partners now, but has ambitious goals to team up with 10,000 companies: “We want to be the destination for women thinking about jobs and careers.”
