The Encoreship: Workplace initiatives of the future

Getting recruitment right is about understanding your value as an employer and using this to create an emotional connection with people. Your employer brand isn’t actually about you as the employer. It’s about your people. Your people are the core of your employer brand.

To attract the right talent, you need to shift your focus from your business to your people. You must offer more value than the competition. That doesn't mean higher pay or more benefits. Recruitment is not about ‘buying’ talent, it’s about selling opportunities.

When you advertise a job position, you’re showing the value you offer as an employer. You’re selling growth, learning and purpose. You’re selling the opportunity to make an impact. You’re selling a future. 

Employers around the world are looking for new ways to provide opportunities that will attract the right talent to their organisation. There’s one particularly large demographic that has been highlighted as a group of people facing a tough challenge in the workforce. Mothers. 

According to a survey by Deloitte, Women @ Work 2023: A Global Outlook, a staggering 97% of women believe that asking for flexible work arrangements could adversely impact their chances of promotion at work. In addition, 95% feel their workloads won’t change.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

Encoreship

The term motherhood penalty was born from a stereotypical view that women are primary caregivers and must stay at home to raise their children. It relates to the idea that women who choose to work may be seen as less competent or committed to their jobs. This impacts their ability to get hired and career growth, not to mention their earnings. A study actually showed that having a baby negatively affects a mother’s employment earnings for up to 10 years. 

In the US, despite The Federal Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 prohibiting discrimination on the basis of pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions, Bloomberg Law revealed 200 lawsuits filed through the end of June 2021 by women who say they were discriminated against during their pregnancy. 

It’s evident there is work to be done to create a more inclusive and fair workforce across the board. Fortunately, there are initiatives being established designed to tackle this issue. 

The Encoreship was established in 2021 by the Australian-owned and global brand, Alpha-H. It’s the first of its kind and involves the collaboration of brand partners like Mamamia and Wittner. It offers employment opportunities to empower women who are facing challenges re-entering the workforce after an extended period away.

‘As a female-founded business comprised of 70% of employees who identify as women, we saw an opportunity to extend ourselves into the community, offering paid work placements and creating a network of women supporting women. Our goal is to create workplaces where it is the norm that businesses make space for women to re-enter.’ - Tina Randello, Alpha-H Chief Commercial Officer.

A woman may have a gaping hole in her CV due to leaving the workforce to have children, but that has no relevance to her potential as an employee. Dr Leonora Risse, Senior Lecturer in Economics at RMIT University and a Research Fellow with the Women’s Leadership Institute Australia has highlighted the need to stop using the argument that men have ‘more experience’ or ‘more training’ as the reason women are not being selected for roles. She believes the issue is not that men have higher capabilities, but that women’s capabilities are not being fully recognised and valued.

The Encorehip is proof that the way we hire is changing. Traditional methods can run side by side with modern-day initiatives which target specific groups. And like all hiring, recruitment is marketing. So as an employer, you can market these initiatives specifically to its audience. 

Final thoughts

The Federal Government’s 2023 Status of Women Report Card discovered that women are 62% less likely to participate in the workforce than men, and 43% more likely to work part-time than men. Let’s equal this out.

As an employer, shift your focus from your business to your people. As recruiters, we are not in the business of making hires. Our job is to create an emotional connection that leads to the best result for both employer and individual. To do this, we must think about recruitment as marketing.

You’re always recruiting, even when you’re not hiring. Offering incentives like The Encoreship opens up a wider talent pool, providing opportunities to access talent that might have otherwise gone under the radar. Initiatives that promote diversity and nurture inclusion will help build a stronger employer brand resulting in a better foundation to engage, retain and attract top talent.

Looking for more insights about talent attraction and engagement? Check out our employer resources.