What are the possibilities for women in the workforce in a post-COVID world?
The flexibility that remote working brings will allow women to balance their work and life better.
The global spread of the coronavirus, the consequent lockdown in many countries, and adherence to norms like self-isolation and social distancing have seen a large number of organisations move to a work-from-home format. The mental bias towards working from home is long gone, with startups and organisations realising it can be the new efficient as well. This has created an added opportunity for women who had quit the workforce owing to household responsibilities. The flexibility that remote working brings will allow women to balance their work and life better.
Several tech companies are also leaning to hire remote workers on full-time payroll, which was not the case even a year ago. In fact, in the present scenario, WFH is proving to be more productive and a lot of companies are planning to adopt a wider use of this model even after COVID-19. This opens up the market for diverse tech talent, where companies look for talent in locations where they don’t have a physical office. Considering all of this, let’s talk about ways in which women can take advantage of this situation.
Rejoining workforce
The coronavirus pandemic has hit women worldwide with job losses and closures of childcare centres. Yet a surprising bright spot is emerging: India’s $200 billion technology services industry, where new rules are expected to provide female workers with a broad swath of flexible work arrangements and fresh employment opportunities. As per the report by online career platform JobsForHer, work-for-home jobs posted on its platform saw 30 per cent rise in March 2020 as compared to the same month last year. The number of women looking to start or restart their careers has also risen dramatically in recent times. Women today are highly motivated and despite the world almost coming to a halt, they are still pursuing opportunities. The work-from-home comes as a blessing for those women who had to leave their jobs owing to prior familial commitments.
Reskilling/Upskilling
COVID-19 has brought light to the ever changing and shape-shifting nature of the economy. Upskilling is the order of the day whether it’s because industries have been pivoting or people are being laid off. And the new normal means that certain skills are and will be highly sought in the post COVID-19 world, given that many of our usual ways of living have changed. Employees all over the world are being compelled to adjust to digital infrastructure and work remotely.
This means acquiring new skills – not just technical but also soft skills to make a smooth transition into the new way of working. According to LinkedIn’s Workforce Confidence Index survey, nearly 64 percent corporate respondents are planning to focus on learning new skills with a focus toward tech skills with courses on Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Data Science & Analytics & Data Engineering gaining traction. With the dynamics of the changing world, it is the perfect time for women to reskill themselves and get out there and make the most of the work from home opportunity.
Switch your career trajectory
If COVID has thrown your job, company or career for a toss, this might be the moment to think about not just a next move, but a larger career change. Instead of struggling to retain status quo, embrace the chaos. Technology can help address some of the obstacles in making a mid-career shift - especially right now, when so much of the professional world has moved entirely online out of necessity.
In the present circumstances, coding is proving to be the new career choice for many women and rightfully so. Education platforms are helping women learn to code and start a career from their homes thus allowing them to cross financial and location barriers to achieve their dream of becoming great software developers.
Apart from this, teaching is also becoming one of the most sought-after job roles for women. Teaching in its online avatar helps address women specific concerns, like care-giving responsibilities, lack of safe public and workspaces, and the inability to move to cities.
(Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of YourStory.)
Edited by Rekha Balakrishnan