Free checklist
Is your company built for women to lead?
6 questions to understand where your company is falling behind on equality
15 years in HR and employment law at Bird & Bird, Expedia, Typeform and New Relic. I've seen where women's careers stall: in review calibrations, return-from-leave plans and promotion criteria, not in confidence. This checklist shows you where your company stands.
The results speak for themselves.
- 9 months
- leadership program with Webedia
- 14 women
- through all 3 blocks
- 14 projects
- built by participants to apply inside the company
"What surprised me most was how practical and tangible it is. Each participant is building her own project that can become a real initiative inside the company. We grow professionally while working on proposals that add value to our teams and the company."
"The participants' change and enthusiasm is spreading naturally to other women in the company. Colleagues wanting to join after seeing our progress is, I think, the best indicator of success."
"My advice: don't overthink it. This program has enormous potential to create real, transformational impact on women's lives and careers. I'd recommend it 100%."
Listen, you don't need:
Another women's event on 8 March
Another policy nobody uses
Another engagement survey that confirms what you already suspected
You need to know where your structure is real and where it's only on paper. This checklist shows you that in six questions.
What's inside
- 1Does maternity or paternity leave lower a performance review score?
- 2Does the review process account for caregiving load outside work?
- 3Is there a structured plan for people returning from leave?
- 4Do you reward always-online, last-to-leave behavior over actual output?
- 5How many of your leaders use flexible schedule arrangements in reality, not just on paper?
- 6What % of your first-line managers are women, versus your director level?
Each question comes with a fix you can start this week.
I was in your same situation as HR
For 15 years I was on the other side of the table: as an employment lawyer at Bird & Bird, then as an HR Business Partner at Expedia, Typeform, New Relic and Mews. I know how review committees decide, how leave gets read as low ambition, and how a flexible policy can exist and still punish the people who use it.
Now I build leadership programs with companies to fix exactly that.
These questions aren't theory.
They're what I'd check first inside your company.
Questions HR leaders ask me
Where should HR start to close the gender gap?
Start with the processes that decide careers, not with awareness training. Look at how performance reviews are calibrated, what happens to people returning from leave and how promotion criteria are defined. That is where most gaps open.
What kind of programs can we use to address the gender gap?
Two kinds work best together: career leadership programs that help women take control of their careers, and leadership skills building. You can see my programs at sigealeadership.com.
See my programsHow long does the checklist take?
About 5 minutes to read. It has 6 questions, and each one comes with a fix you can start this week.
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