WUNRN
McKinsey & Company
Direct Link to Full 16-Page 2012
Report:
REPORT SUMMARY
Since 2007, McKinsey has been researching intensively
the advancement of women in the workplace. The business benefits are clear: a
wider, deeper swath of talent to solve problems, spark innovation, and, in many
cases, mirror a company’s own customer base.
Yet the top circles of corporate America remain
stubbornly male—as in 2011, only 14 percent of women serve on executive
committees, and only 3 percent serve as CEOs.
But these numbers don’t tell the whole story. For
the second year in a row, we undertook an ambitious US-based research
project—this time, with the help of 60 Fortune 500 or similarly sized
companies. The research took a closer look at the progress these companies were
making in advancing their women.
Among the highlights of the research, included in
the full report, Unlocking the full potential of
women at work:
- McKinsey developed four
metrics that can serve as hallmarks of a truly gender-diverse company.
They include a starting position that reflects individual talent; the
number of women at the top of the organization; odds of promotion
equivalent to men; and the mix of women in line roles versus staff roles
(Exhibit).
- Of the companies whose
talent pipelines we reviewed, only 12 met three out of the four measures
for success. None fulfilled all four.
- Among the highest-achieving
companies, two archetypes of talent pipelines emerged: “fat” funnel
companies, which started with a remarkably high number of women (well over
50 percent in their pipelines) and then moved a still-impressive amount of
women (in some cases up to 40 percent) into senior roles; and “steady”
pipelines, companies that started with a smaller mix of women early on but
retained them as they progressed through the pipeline.
- Interviews with some 200
successful women yielded intriguing insights: despite their career
success, 59 percent of women said they did not aspire to the C-suite.