20. January 2021

Diverse Career Paths – Wishful Thinking of Reality?

It is obvious that career paths do not lead to the same place for everyone. It is key that companies create framework conditions that make a variety of careers possible, such as mosaic careers, arc careers, vertical changes and re-entry, etc. On the other hand, employees need to be willing and curious to develop themselves further, to try out different paths and to remain mobile agile. If these two elements are missing, we run the risk of dissatisfaction, of no longer being fit for the modern labour market, and of demographic change and increased life expectancy becoming a burden rather than an opportunity to benefit both employees and company.

by Nicole Niedermann

Does everyone, regardless of age, background, gender, have the same prospects for a versatile, enriching career?

Our analyses as part of the Diversity Benchmarking suggest that we are not yet ready to speak of truly equal opportunities in terms of mobility and career advancement. Anyone under 40 is in demand and has a good chance of getting a new job or a promotion. Does this apply equally to men and women? Year after year, our analyses show us that traditional role expectations combined with corresponding framework conditions (e.g. expensive childcare, short maternity leave) have a detrimental effect on the career development of many women. A reduction in employment percentage has been shown to have a negative impact on promotion opportunities. But what about the fundamental fairness of promotion practices? What are the elements that determine a person’s promotion to a higher level in the hierarchy? With our current study “Promotions to Management Position” we want to create transparency and understand correlations – share your experience with us as well and take part in our survey.

The results will be published in the Advance & HSG Gender Intelligence Report in September 2021.

This year’s Diversity Benchmarking with a focus on “Gender plus” will provide us with further insights: What were the (divergent) career paths of men and women last year? Is our assumption correct that women advance via external recruitment while men get ahead via internal promotions? At what age do men and women take the relevant career steps? And what influence does the Corona crisis have for the careers of the two genders?

If you would like to learn more about this topic for yourself and your company, take part in our benchmarking study and register here!

 

 

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About the author
Nicole Niedermann Nicole Niedermann hält einen Master in Arbeits- und Organisationspsychologie und Betriebswirtschaftslehre der Universität Fribourg. Sie arbeitete die vergangenen zehn Jahre in der Finanz- und Versicherungsbranche und hielt bei der Swiss Re verschiedene Funktionen im Bereich Human Resources inne. Die letzten sieben Jahre war sie für die Entwicklung und Umsetzung einer globalen Diversity & Inclusion Strategie verantwortlich und hat insbesondere in den Bereichen Frauenförderung, Unconscious Bias, Lohn- und Chancengleichheit verschiedene Programme geleitet. Sie ist Mitbegründerin von unternehmensinternen D&I Netzwerken und war beteiligt an der Gründung von Advance Women Schweiz. Mit ihrer Praxis- und Kundenerfahrung unterstützt sie das CCDI bei der Leitung von Firmenprojekten, bei HR Prozess Datenanalysen und beim Neu- und Weiterentwickeln von Dienstleistungen.
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