Unlocking Female Leadership Potential: Hiring & Development Strategies for Talent Teams

At a glance

• The main takeaway: For the first time in 20 years, the number of women in C-suite positions fell in companies that comprise the S&P 500.
• Impact on your business: This article will give you tangible advice to combat gender inequality in the C-suite and better retain more women leaders.
• Next steps: Looking for top female talent? Aprio Talent Solutions offers an Executive Search Service that allows you to pinpoint the best leaders for C-suite positions.

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The full story:

Though we have made strides in achieving gender parity across industries in recent decades, studies show that we still have a long way to go — especially when it comes to C-suite positions.

According to 2023 data from the S&P Global Total Market Index, women held 11.8% of the 15,000 C-suite roles in the Index, down from 12.2% in 2022. This is the first time in almost 20 years that women have lost C-suite positions to their male counterparts.

How do we combat the shift?

Talent teams must help spearhead a culture that develops, retains, and attracts women leaders. It is essential to take a wide-ranging, holistic approach to fostering an equitable work environment, one that enables and empowers women to rise to the top rung of the ladder. This starts with internal reflection and being both self-aware and transparent about the areas in which your organization may be falling short.

Consider these questions as you brainstorm better ways to empower female leaders:

Do you put aspiring female leaders in the driver’s seat?

It is not enough to hire female talent, train them in duties related to their jobs, and then claim that you prioritize building women-led teams. Organizations need to collaborate with managers and directors to create guideposts and supports that not only develop female leaders but also allow them to choose the career path they envision for themselves:

• Let Women Lead the Narrative: Give your aspiring female leaders the agency to actively shape conversations around their own career path. Work with them to find professional development and advancement opportunities that align with where they want their careers to go.
• Offer Personalized Development: Create leadership development strategies and plans that are unique to the individual. If you have a talented female department director who has explicitly stated that she aspires to a C-level position, create SMART goals tailored to that objective and opportunities that allow her to refine the necessary skills.
• Honor Work-Life Balance, and Mean It: Everybody knows that C-level and executive leadership positions are a major professional investment — but they don’t have to be a personal burden. Many organizations say they prioritize work-life balance for employees at every level of the org chart, but their actions often say otherwise. Be the organization that challenges the narrative. Promote a culture that empowers women to approach their work and personal lives with equal strategic planning; and most importantly, do not penalize them for life choices and milestones (for instance, taking parental leave to care for a new baby or a family member).
• Identify Internal Champions: Are your existing executive team members mentoring and supporting female talent? What does gender representation look like in your company’s leadership team? Your executives should arguably play the most pivotal role in developing female talent and should make DEI a key component of the organization’s succession plan.

Are you creating the right networks for your female leaders to learn, grow, and thrive?

Relationship-building is essential to earning promotions, gaining advancement opportunities, and accessing the right information for leadership success. But it’s not enough to schedule a few lunch-and-learns and internal webinars. Take steps to set up your female talent with their powerhouse “growth team,” comprised of mentors, coaches, and other influential women in your organization.

It’s also important to pair female talent with individuals who they can identify with and have had similar experiences on their career journey. For instance, at Aprio we have developed an Employee Resource Group (ERG) exclusively comprised of other women across our firm, who provide an intentional space for female team members to share challenges, offer solutions, and network. Instead of thinking of networking as an activity that happens outside of work, make it a part of your employee experience.

The bottom line

To foster a more inclusive C-suite, gender equality needs to be more than just a line on your core values chart. With the right actions to back it up, you will be able to attract, hire, develop, and retain leaders who reflect the diversity of your workforce.

At Aprio Talent Solutions, we specialize in helping companies hire top finance, accounting, and IT talent through outsourced recruiting across the U.S. and Canada. We also offer an Executive Search Service that allows you to pinpoint the best leaders for C-suite positions.

To learn more, schedule a free consultation with our team today.

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