This weekend both the New York Times and Wall Street Journal dedicated significant editorial real estate to women who work. Two of the stats mentioned worth noting:
- women in the US workforce has declined from 74% to 69% the past few years because corporate America doesn't provide enough flexibility compares to other countries
- woman-run companies perform significantly better than those run by men, yet female leaders are still in the minority
But as we all know, issues around balance and flexibility are no longer just a woman’s issue. A recent study shows a growing majority of men seeking flexible work/life balance benefits from companies. And as more workers start caring for elderly parents or family members, these are workforce challenges that companies are going to need to address. Yet so many companies are still afraid of the dreaded F word – flexibility.
When I started BuzzBack about 14 years ago, my vision wasn’t limited to just reinventing research. I was also driven to build a unique and flexible culture to attract great talent. After 15 years in a rigid corporate work environment I could see how technology disrupted, enabled and liberated paradigms. So at BuzzBack, in addition to pioneering research advancements, we have also championed what's called the Agile workforce. Besides being a diversity woman-owned business, we support a family culture. More than half of our employees are female, and about 40% of our team is referral based. One of our core values is flexibility and it's a key reason people work at our company -and they stay longer as a result (more than 35% have been with BuzzBack 5+ years). But it’s not just employees or our company who benefit from happy, loyal, productive employees who stick around – clients win too. They have access to a unique knowledge store and deep memory when it comes to our work, enriching their insights experience.
In fact, what we’ve found is that flexibility-enabled employees are more empowered and more responsive - just ask any of our clients! It’s the word most frequently used to describe our team.
