The @Work Experience Framework: A Guide For Retaining Women In Technology

High tech is a sector where job opportunities exist but go unfilled. Moreover studies find that diverse teams aid both innovation and the bottom line. For over 40 years we've been encouraging women to choose technology careers but even with extensive recruiting women continue to be underrepresented compared to other professions. More importantly, once hired, women leave the field mid-career twice as often as men. Complaints of aggressive and inhospitible corporate cultures abound. Techniques like awareness workshops, networking events, parental leave and job sharing tried since the 80's have only limited impact. Pipeline efforts alone will not solve the problem of retention.Recognizing this void, Karen Holtzblatt, launched The WIT Retention Project while at Stanford. Starting with in-depth field interviews her team talked with successful women in high tech, ages late 20s to 50s. Through a 360 degrees inquiry into the daily lives of successful women developers, product managers, UX professionals, and managers she identified critical factors that affect retention - the @Work Experience Framework that has been validated in a survey with over 1000 people. Using this data Karen and her collaborators have developed interventions for industry teams, managers and policy as well as the Career Power board game which facilitates serious conversations while having fun.The factors of the Framework include a dynamic, valuing team; stimulating impactful work; a "Push" into new challenges with support to succeed; local role models and coaches; non-judgmental flexibility supporting home committments; and a sense of personal power that increases with positive feedback, helpful critique and clear work expectations.In this talk Karen will introduce the @Work Experience Framework, share some of the findings from the measure, and touch upon intervention techniques everyone can try.