4 Effective Ways HR Can Support Women in their Professional Development
Women remain underrepresented in senior roles even though women’s roles in the labour force continue to grow. All companies that want to build lasting performance no longer have an option but to actively support women within the organisation. The role of human resources is crucial to achieving gender equality and constructing long-term professional careers. Based on recent studies by McKinsey & Company, only one of every four C-suite executives is female, and just one of every 20 is a female of colour. To redress such gaps, HR functions must act deliberately. Moving beyond compliance or diversity metrics, the task is to build an inclusive culture where women can flourish. Utilising tools such as Lucca Software, which many use to facilitate HR workload, is one method to address engagement and development objectives—a basic building block to structure individualised support.
1. Establish mentorship and sponsorship programs
A mentoring program not only offers guidance but also offers strategic visibility. HR can also set up introductions for emerging female talent to senior leaders, ensuring women gain mentoring and sponsorship value. Unlike mentors, sponsors advocate on behalf of someone for promotion or high-visibility assignments.
Research indicates that women with sponsors are 27% more likely to request increased pay and 22% more likely to search for challenging work, which is expected to secure better organisational jobs. Formal sponsorship schemes can compensate for casual networks that exclude women from valuable opportunities and top roles.
2. Prioritise career path transparency
A clear career path definition is one of the most effective ways of supporting women in the workplace. Unclear promotion standards serve to penalise women, particularly in traditionally male professions. The HR department should create promotion milestones and publicise them continuously.
Increased transparency of women’s leadership and lateral pathways provides them with choices based on informed decisions. Apart from creating higher levels of trust, it also reduces reliance on unofficial channels of feedback that could be subjective.
3. Encourage Work-Life balance through flexible policies
In Deloitte’s Women @ Work 2024 report, 95% of women expressed concerns that flexible working will discourage their promotion prospects. HR can help alleviate this by formalising hybrid models, flexible working hours, and balanced workloads as standard employment features. Such measures benefit women in the workforce, particularly women juggling work and caregiving.
While flexibility benefits all workers, it enables women to keep their careers uninterrupted. HR must also ensure that those who use flexible arrangements are not excluded from promotion or challenging assignments.
4. Create safe spaces to address bias
Bias, whether conscious or unconscious, is a huge hindrance to women’s career advancement. HR units must invest in formal feedback, inclusive training, and anonymised reporting mechanisms.
Internal surveys or focus groups can be used to determine current inequalities. Data collected using tools such as Lucca Software can be useful in measuring participation, leaders’ ratios, and performance judgments. The quantifiable data enables tailored interventions and prevents supposition from being made.
Conclusion
Support from HR is critical to creating inclusive workplaces where women can excel. Businesses can translate intention into tangible outcomes with structured mentoring, visibility of women’s talent, flexible work options, and combating bias.
Learning how to support women in the workplace requires ongoing effort and sustained attention, not just an equality issue but an imperative of outcomes. HR staff can make inclusion an actuality—integrating it into company culture to assist women in the workplace.