Becker's Hospital Review

WOMEN'S LEADERSHIP 99 Ms. Schiro said this involves considering areas of the organization where there are women who can be successors for higher roles, then establishing development plans for those individuals. "at's part of our diversity and inclusion initiatives to really help grow those women leaders into executive level and vice president and above positions," she said. "We added inclusivity as a core value. We live it and believe it." Ochsner also has a mentoring program called Momentum, which is focused on developing diverse leaders at the manager and director levels and helping them prepare to be at higher level leadership roles, including vice president. "We do that by pairing them with executive leaders as a mentor and having a very programmatic approach to mentoring over a 12-month period of time," Ms. Schiro said. "ose leaders are … getting feedback and then working with their mentor on the development plan and getting advice on how they can develop their own skills and talent." Additionally, Ochsner has more than 2,000 members in its Women Empowering Women resource group, which focuses in part on supporting women through professional development. "at group is geared toward supporting not only our internal women that make up over 75 percent of our employee population, but also supporting community events for women and helping women in the community," Ms. Schiro said. She cited examples of women's health fairs and Dress for Success, a nonprofit organization that helps support low-income women with attire during their job search and interview process. "e members of the Women Empowering Women resource group offer mentoring internally to each other, and they bring in internal and external speakers to share their career journey so that women interested in leadership can ask questions and get advice from others who have advanced their career," she said. Ms. Schiro said Ochsner also has a fellowship program designed to hire people coming out of master of health administration or master of business administration programs. "at's another way for women to get their foot in the door in those fellowship programs and grow their career," she said. Barriers to closing the gender gap Although Ochsner and other health systems have initiatives in place, Ms. Schiro said women continue to face barriers to promotions. In healthcare, women are twice as likely as men to cite parenthood and increased home responsibilities as reasons for missing out on promotion opportunities, according the McKinsey report. at is one reason organizations must consider work-life balance, according to Ms. Schiro. "It's an important piece to helping women understand that they can balance the professional and the personal responsibilities that they traditionally take on," she said. e COVID-19 pandemic has significantly affected the U.S. female workforce. In early 2021, 2.5 million women had le the job market since the beginning of the pandemic, compared with 1.8 million men, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A Feb. 18, 2021, report in e New York Times cited demands of child care, as well as layoffs and furloughs during the pandemic, as contributing factors for many women leaving the job market. Ms. Schiro said healthcare executives should think about how to help women who le the workforce reenter it. And she sees remote work as part of those efforts. "What types of things do we need to put in place to support them? e options around remote and hybrid work give us an opportunity to help individuals who maybe had stepped out of the workplace or had to dial back, to get back in and get back on their career path," Ms. Schiro said. She said remote work and providing flexibility options for workers are important pieces in replenishing workforce talent while focusing on developing other individuals for leadership roles. "At Ochsner, we have very robust workforce development programs that actually support not only our internal staff, but also those members of our community who are looking for careers in healthcare," she said. "And we've done a lot to help individuals grow their careers — and it also helps us to develop the pipeline we need." Ms. Schiro advised her peers at other health systems to consider the flexibility piece as well as how they can support women in their career growth, education opportunities to advance those who want to improve their skill set to advance their certification. "I think that those are really important pieces in terms of getting the workforce we need," she said. "We really need everyone to be part of getting the workforce back to where we need it to be — not just in healthcare, but in the United States." n Unpredictable schedules widen the gender pay gap By Georgina Gonzalez S ome of the gender pay gap between men and women is driven by how unpredictable their schedules are, according to research published July 1 in The Harvard Business Review. The gender pay gap means that in 2022 women still earn 17 percent less than men. Even when many common explanations for the gap are eliminated, like women being overrepresented in lower-paid professions and managers holding unconscious or conscious bias, the gap still exists with women earning 89 cents for every dollar a man earns. The researchers found that when they controlled for all common explanations of the gender gap, that prevailing 11 cent gap was being driven by unpredictable schedules. The more uncontrollable and unconventional a worker's schedule was, the greater the gender gap. Women were more likely than men to have such schedules as they more often had to fulfill domestic duties like arranging appointments and caring for children or the elderly. n

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