In March 2018, the Women in Tech Employer Awards were launchedThe HR profession is dominated by women; however, some women working in HR are finding it difficult to provide effective support to other females within their organisation. Although HR professionals are generally happy in their work, they don’t always feel supported by company bosses and senior management. Here we look at what makes HR professionals happy in their job, the things that most irritate them, and how fixing the latter can help HR professionals to ensure that other employees are happy in their jobs.
The HR profession’s advantages for women
Recent research in the US found that two-thirds of women working in HR feel that they are experiencing gender equality in the workplace, which could have something to do with the fact that the majority of those who work in HR are women. It is also a department in which over 50% of leadership roles are held by women, meaning that employees at a more junior level – whether in HR or elsewhere within a business – have positive role models in female HR professionals working in more senior positions. Added to this is the fact that the average woman working in HR is earning almost double the national average salary, in the US at least, which is clearly one of the advantages of working in HR.
Difficulties faced by women working in HR
Despite the positive aspects of a role in HR, there are some negatives and it is these that some HR professionals believe are hindering their ability to effectively support other employees. Although many women working in HR feel that they are personally experiencing gender equality in the workplace, many find that they are unable to drive or influence diversity and gender equality within the organisation. This could be because women working in junior roles within HR struggle to have any sort of influence or because an HR department is mainly focussed on other workplace issues.
Even when women working in HR observe issues connected to diversity and equality within a company, many struggle to have a voice with senior management. This might be due to a culture of the men working in senior roles making it difficult for women who work in HR to penetrate the group and build effective working relationships with those in senior positions.
Women who work in HR need to feel supported by everyone working in senior management roles within their organisation to enable them to provide the support and assistance required by other employees.
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