From Life Inc. on Today
Many employers end up scratching their heads when women who are seemingly on the fast track to the corner office end up leaving their companies.
Google managers decided to use their expertise deciphering data to figure out why it was happening within their ranks.
A story in the New York Times titled “In Google’s Inner Circle, A Falling Number of Women” discusses how the search engine giant used its own internal data to figure out why some women leave the firm. One of the best nuggets was buried in the next-to-last paragraph of the story.
“Another time Google was losing women was after they had babies. The attrition rate for postpartum women was twice that for other employees. In response, Google lengthened maternity leave to five months from three and changed it from partial pay to full pay. Attrition decreased by 50 percent.”
Bingo!
Read more from Google’s formula to retain women: Longer maternity leave
Washington Work and Family Coalition 