Cascading Gender Biases, Compounding Effects: An Assessment of Talent Management Systems (Report)

As companies strive to tackle the shortage of executive talent, maximize human capital with fewer resources, and maintain business success, it is essential that they understand the vulnerability of talent management systems to gender biases and stereotypes.

This report reveals that core components of talent management are linked in ways that disadvantage women, creating a vicious cycle in which men continually dominate executive positions. Based on an assessment of 110 talent management systems representing 19 industries, the data demonstrate that the flow of information from senior leaders to individual contributors perpetuates gender gaps in senior leadership. The data revealed:

• Senior leaders’ influence on the talent management process can yield new senior leaders who mirror the traits and biases of the senior leadership team that promoted them—a vicious cycle.
• Gender bias in tools and procedures can inhibit the establishment of inclusive and effective talent management programs.
• When organizations fail to integrate checks and balances that guard against the introduction of gender bias into talent management systems, they make the process vulnerable to gender stereotyping and hinder opportunities for women’s advancement.

To combat these problems, the report provides organizational approaches for identifying, developing, and leveraging top talent.

Partnering Sponsors: Dickstein Shapiro LLP, Ernst & Young