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ince 2003, WICT has measured gender diversity in the cable telecommunications industry

through its PAR employment survey. In addition to measuring the number of women employed

in the industry, WICT’s PAR survey tracks pay equity policies, career advancement opportunities

and resources for work/life integration. As part of the overall PAR Initiative, WICT also shares

best practices with cable telecommunications leaders in an effort to better educate and

enable companies to create stronger tactics and practices to recruit and retain women.

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The PAR survey is conducted biennially. During the gap year between surveys, WICT has created two primary by-products based on the survey data – PAR at Work webinars and the Path to PAR reports. The goal of these by-products is to help the industry absorb and enact the best practices, in an effort to improve results when the survey is next fielded.

The PAR at Work webinars are virtual educational sessions led by diversity and HR specialists. The presenters dive deeply into the PAR data and integrate their own professional experiences into the discussion to help participants build stronger diversity and inclusion tactics in their workplaces. The webinars are recorded and made available online to serve as on ongoing resource for the industry.

The Path to PAR report offers an opportunity to further explore key aspects of the survey and best practices from the PAR Best Companies for Women, while simultaneously identifying additional relevant research, including successful

tactics from companies outside of our industry. The reports have also further established the strong business case for enhanced gender diversity programs and policies. To complement WICT’s PAR Initiative research, we have previously brought together information from a variety of sources, including Harvard Business Review, the Center for Creative Leadership, the Wall Street Journal, Catalyst Research, Pepperdine University, the U.S. Departments of Labor and Education, and research by the Diversity Advisory Committee of the Federal Communications Commission, in addition to global studies by McKinsey & Company, the World Economic Forum, and Development Dimension International.

This year, the Path to PAR report will focus on the Internal Labor Market – or ILM – maps that are a key deliverable from our survey partner, Mercer. The ILM maps track the movement of the cable workforce – hiring rates, promotion rates and exit rates for men and women. It also provides aggregate data about the workforce in general. In fact, because the 2013 maps showed us an overall projection that was not favorable in certain areas of growth for women, specifically employee advancement and retention, we will delve deeper on these fronts as we identify some best practices and additional research.

The PAR Initiative is underwritten by the Walter Kaitz Foundation and supported by all of WICT’s local chapters.

While many benchmarks have resulted in positive returns for women, the 2013 PAR Survey, conducted by the human capital experts at Mercer, also revealed a troubling reality: the total number of female employees in the cable telecommunications industry has dropped in the last 10 years. And absent a course correction, our industry could see a decline in the representation of women at executive and management levels over the next five years. To be sure, there are few industries where high finance, high technology and entertainment collide to provide products and services that are coveted by millions of consumers around the world. The cable telecommunications industry has always been on the cutting edge of developing and deploying products that have dramatically changed the way people interact and are entertained. The industry was built by entrepreneurs who had few resources; but they had an unlimited amount of chutzpah and vision. It is little wonder cable telecom companies have attracted the best and brightest workforce since the first coaxial cable was strung from a pole in 1948.

So where does the industry stand in terms of gender and what does it need to do going forward to achieve success? As one of the leading experts working with clients to forecast talent needs, engage employees, mobilize workforces, gauge talent and develop skills,

Mercer was tasked with helping figure that out. Using its unique Internal Labor Market (ILM) maps, Mercer assessed where the industry is in terms of hiring, advancing and retaining women.

ILM maps allow HR executives to expand their reliance on employees’ and managers’ opinions by observing and measuring critical workforce events and behaviors over a specific period of time, according to Play to Your Strengths: Managing Your Internal Labor Markets for Lasting Competitive Advantage, which was written by the founders of Mercer’s workforce analytics practice. The consulting company created descriptive summaries of key aspects of the participating cable telecom companies’ workforce dynamics. The maps revealed where employees currently reside in the industry’s employment matrixes and provided a trajectory of how those staffers are progressing up the corporate ladder as well as where and when they are leaving the industry altogether.

or many years, the cable telecommunications industry has been actively creating programs

designed to attract, promote and retain women in our workforce. The result of this concerted

effort has led to positive returns, including an increase in the number of women in all executive

and senior management positions and an uptick in the number of women employed in the

digital media arena. In addition, policies and practices such as pay equity guidelines, flexible

work hours and paid maternity leave are now considered commonplace in the cable industry.

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ILM maps can vary widely depending on how an organization is constructed and operated. As an example, corporations that build talent from within might have more entry points at certain lower levels and exit patterns that are more diffuse. Firms that buy talent likely have many touch points and diffused patterns of entry and exit. Companies that promote from within their ranks tend to have reward systems that result in employees generally being locked into the organization longer term. This creates a degree of insulation from outside labor market conditions, which creates more stability in the workforce and more opportunities to invest in people. On the other hand, the disadvantages of such a system include the loss of fl exibility and a “distancing from market realities,” the authors wrote. This can be risky at times of fundamental change in competitive conditions. (1)

Mercer’s research of the cable telecommunications industry, headed up by principals Gail Greenfi eld and Liz MacGillivray, found that if the industry remains on the same path it is currently following, the number of women in management positions will fall. The ILM maps showed that hiring and recruiting women isn’t the problem. The number

of women entering the industry remains strong. Rather, retaining and promoting female employees are the weak links in the industry employment chain with more women currently leaving their cable jobs than men at every level. At the same time, women are not being promoted at the same rate as men.

However, the trend is not set in stone. Mercer’s research also discovered that if promotion levels increase and exit levels are reduced, the number of women in management should rise in the next fi ve years. There are a variety of methods to accomplish this. This Path to PAR report looks at various efforts to increase the advancement and retention of women already being undertaken by companies within the cable telecom universe, additional research on the topic, as well as successful case studies and programs being carried out by corporations outside the sector.

The fi rst step with any workforce analysis is fi guring where the choke points exist, Greenfi eld said, and ILM maps are one of the best diagnostic tools used to pinpoint problem areas. ILM maps aren’t hard to create but they are one of the fi rst and often most crucial steps in crafting successful long-term policy

PROJECTED REPRESENTATION OF WOMEN AT EXECUTIVE AND MANAGEMENT LEVELS OVER THE NEXT FIVE YEARS

Percent of executives and managers that are women

40%

39%

38%

37%

36%

35%

34%

33%

32%

31%

30%

2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

With simultaneous adjustments

With adjusted promotions

With adjusted turnover

Baseline

“These ILM maps are designed to inspire change. We expect companies that undergo this analysis to proactively use it to eliminate problem areas and secure strong points in their workforce management policies.” - Gail Greenfi eld, Mercer

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“Overwhelmingly, the tech women whom we interviewed attributed their successes to having managers ‘who get it,’” authors wrote in Climbing the Technical Ladder: Obstacles and Solutions for Mid-Level Women in Technology. (3)

The Anita Borg Institute study found that women view their workplace environment more competitively than men and believe power and influence have more sway over their career advancement than merit. More women than men also believe extended hours are necessary to get ahead. The study concluded that investing in professional development is essential in helping retain and advance women in tech jobs. These development programs can also serve as networking opportunities to further propel technical staffers’ advancement.

Of course, mentoring programs continue to have positive impacts on women in the workplace and several studies have shown that formal mentoring programs are more successful than informal programs. According to a 2010 McKinsey study, formal mentoring programs provide women with an easier way to find a mentor. The McKinsey study showed that at companies with formal mentoring programs, half of all women in the organization have mentors compared to only 20% in companies with no formal mentoring programs. (4)

The study, “Women as Mentors: Does She or Doesn’t She?” found women aren’t seeking mentors for themselves. Although more than three-quarters of senior-level women surveyed served as formal mentors at one time or another, few of them had formal mentors of their own. Organizations should institutionalize their mentoring programs to encourage participation and create a culture of mentoring and sponsoring other employees, the study concluded. The more ingrained mentoring is in the organization, the more likely women are to be mentors and mentees. (5)

When women see other women climbing the corporate ladder, they believe it’s possible for them to rise to senior positions as well, said executive coach Alisa Cohn. “When a company formally or informally encourages its senior leaders to mentor and sponsor women. The company becomes a better place to work for women overall, and more women are promoted into senior ranks,” Cohn said. “The result is more of a critical mass of women and a climate of comfort for women, which causes its own upward virtuous cycle.” (6)

promoted. Qualitative and quantitative data is collected to get an idea of what’s happening at each organization. Mercer has been creating ILM maps for companies for about a decade now but only recently has the firm been asked to focus on women and people of color. Today, a significant amount of the company’s time is dedicated to diversity issues, proving that companies inside and outside the cable telecom industry are interested in this matter, Greenfield said. The cable industry is ahead of the bell curve with WICT and NAMIC having focused on these issues for over a decade now, she noted.

Outside Research on Links Between Policies, Retention and Advancement

Female employees are also in search of more direction and mentoring. Several studies have shown that even younger female employees who currently don’t have children closely examine maternity and other family-centric benefits because they figure they might want to take advantage of them at some point. A 2011 study from the Business and Professional Women’s Foundation found that programs like maternity leave, on-site daycare and other work/life integration issues play a major role in whether a woman takes a job and whether she stays with the company long-term, regardless of whether she is taking advantage of those programs or not. (2)

A study by the Anita Borg Institute for Women & Technology found that formal professional development and mentoring programs are some of the most profitable steps a company can take to advance and retain technical talent. The Anita Borg study recommended creating a supportive work culture and environment by including mentoring assessments as part of an employee’s evaluation and promotion policies. This encourages men and women at all levels to participate in mentoring activities. It formalizes the process that has often been handled in a more voluntary manner at many companies, which research has shown to be less effective than formal mentoring programs. The study observed that women employees stay longer, thrive more, and move up the chain of command when their managers and bosses take long-term interest in their career aspirations and professional development.

and procedural changes in workforce dynamics. Mercer not only conducts deep-dive research and analysis for companies all over the globe, the company also offers an online tool organizations can use to individually map their own workforce trajectories. The ILM maps can be formatted to focus on a whole company, a specific division, a line of business, or specific demographic group, Greenfield said. Analyzing the data can help HR executives improve hiring, retention and promotion levels because workforce issues are more easily identified. Users can download templates to help them navigate the online survey which is then uploaded to Mercer. With its research for WICT, Mercer looked at the overall trends occurring at an industry level but also provided participating companies’ individual ILM maps they could use to assess and improve their particular situations.

The process of creating an ILM map can be simple or complex depending on the desired goals. The time periods for analysis can vary anywhere from one year to five years. The average, Greenfield said, is about three years. Mercer used data collected from 2012 for its PAR research. “It doesn’t make sense to go back too far and it doesn’t make sense to project too far into the future,” Greenfield said. “It all depends on the organization. One year made a lot of sense for the cable telecommunications industry in light of all the merger and acquisition activity the sector is experiencing of late.”

While Mercer extrapolates workforce predictions based on the ILM maps it generates for its clients, the data isn’t necessarily intended to serve as an ultimate reality, Greenfield said. “These ILM maps are designed to inspire change,” she said. “We expect companies that undergo this analysis to proactively use it to eliminate problem areas and secure strong points in their workforce management policies.”

ILM maps are just the beginning of the process. Once the employment picture takes shape, it’s time to figure out why the statistics are what they are. Big data analytics aren’t new to the cable telecommunications industry. Marketing, finance and operations have long used big data to ferret out who’s buying what; which services are being added or dropped; and to market those products and services more effectively. But that analytical approach to human resources is relatively new, Greenfield said. Examining data from various viewpoints and directions can not only help pinpoint hiccups in the makeup of a specific

workforce group, it can help define programs that will fix those problems. Much of the data necessary to create a complete workforce dynamic picture already exists in most HR departments, Greenfield said. Extracting it and using the data appropriately is the key to success.

For instance, a company may have trouble keeping employees from defecting to other firms or industry sectors. The first thought that most often comes to mind are salary levels, Greenfield said. However, demographics, tenure, age, gender, job title, duties, and direct supervisors can all play a role in employment turnover, Greenfield said. Understanding who is leaving a company and when they are leaving play significant roles in crafting the right initiatives that will keep employees in the fold. Understanding why employees are leaving takes on another dimension in the process.

“Drivers of turnover will be different at each level of hierarchy, in each division and in each line of business,” Greenfield said.

For instance, while the number of women in the industry overall has declined in the last decade, the percentage of women at the senior executive level has risen slightly. Entry-level positions are heavily held by women: 33% of entry- and mid-level MSO positions and 49% of those positions at programming companies are filled with women. At the same time, 15% of board members of MSO companies are women while 16% of board members at programming firms are female. Currently, a third of digital media jobs are held by female staffers, according to the latest PAR Report. But more women are leaving the industry at every organizational level (except the most senior level) and fewer women are being promoted through the ranks. The ILM maps can help companies identify their choke points and create programs and initiatives to turn the tide, Greenfield said. Mercer regularly undertakes turnover analysis to identify key drivers in determining why people are leaving an organization or why they aren’t being

“The ILM maps can help companies identify their choke points and create programs and initiatives to turn the tide.” -Gail Greenfield, Mercer

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A Case Study on Advancement and Retention

Kimberly-Clark relies on attracting female customers for its bottom line. After all, the company’s product lines include Kotex and Huggies diapers, and research showed that 89% of the people who bought its products were women. Yet Kimberly-Clark was struggling to retain and promote female employees. Executives knew this disconnect was going to hurt the company’s bottom line, so in 2009 it began a laser-focused effort to look, think and behave like its main customer base. The company hired Mercer to conduct an analysis of the worldwide conglomerate’s entire labor force. It turned out that there were two workforce bottlenecks that prevented women from being promoted, which led to high turnover rates, according to the April 2014 issue of AgendaWeek.com, a Financial Times service. (7)

The first logjam was just below the mid-level, the point at which employees take their first big team leadership opportunity, Kimberly-Clark’s global diversity officer Sue Dodsworth told AgendaWeek. The second blockage came just beneath the director level. When promotion rates plummet to around 5% per year, up-and-coming employees tend to get frustrated and leave, according to Mercer principal Haig Nalbantian. This problem also exists at many cable telecommunications companies as the industry continues to consolidate. There are fewer companies and fewer jobs at the top, Mercer’s Greenfield noted.

HR executives at Kimberly-Clark determined many women weren’t applying for higher level jobs because they didn’t believe they were qualified even when they were. And they weren’t being sponsored by men, which turned out to be a major factor in their not moving up the chain of command, Dodsworth told AgendaWeek. Studies have shown sponsorships – mentoring on steroids – are gaining momentum in the business community. Sponsors serve as mentors as well as advocates. Mentorships may help hone a woman’s personal development in the workplace, but sponsorships can have a significant impact on a woman’s professional advancement.

At Kimberly-Clark, sponsorships ended up being the “missing link” for women at the company, Dodsworth said. She asked male executives to think about which female employees they’d want to sponsor and when some men came back with no suggestions, she asked them to explain their reasons why. She had the male execs write down who had been influential in their careers and who took a chance on them early on. It seemed to work and it wasn’t long before many of Kimberly-Clark’s top male executives were sponsoring women in their ranks. One of the company’s presidents in its Asia-Pacific region is now sponsoring 20 women. Kimberly-Clark also revamped the company’s workday policies by creating compressed workweeks, flextime and telecommuting programs. At this point, there are just as many male employees taking advantage of these programs as female workers, and younger employees have come to demand these programs, Dodsworth told AgendaWeek.

Three years after focusing on the problem and creating specific programs and initiatives designed to improve its retention and promotion statistics, internal promotions of women at Kimberly-Clark to director-level jobs or higher increased 44%, up from 19%, and the board now is 25% women, up from 16.7% in 2009.

of protégés are 11% more satisfied with their own rate of advancement over leaders who haven’t invested in up-and-coming executives. (2)

Of course, it’s not easy finding a sponsor, Hewlett pointed out in her NYT op-ed. But they can make a big difference in how a woman moves up the chain of command. CTI research found that 85% of women need help navigating their careers. Mentors can help women understand the unwritten rules and provide maps for the “uncharted corridors of power,” Hewlett told Forbes. Mentors help define the dream. Sponsors help realize the dream. “They make you visible to leaders within the company – and to top people outside as well,” she said. “They connect you to career opportunities and provide air cover when you encounter trouble. When it comes to opening doors, they don’t stop with one promotion: They’ll see you to the threshold of power.”

Sources (1) Hewlett, Sylvia Ann. “Mentors Are Good Sponsors Are Better.” The New York Times.The New York Times, 13 Apr. 2013. Web. 21 Oct. 2014.

(2) Schwabel, Dan. “Sylvia Ann Hewlett: Find ASponsor Instead Of A Mentor.” Forbes. ForbesMagazine, 10 Sept. 2013. Web. 20 Oct. 2014.

In 2011, The Center for Talent Innovation studied 12,000 men and women in white collar jobs in the U.S. and U.K. and found that workplace sponsors beat mentorships when it came to career progression – especially for women struggling to climb beyond middle management.

The difference between a mentor and sponsor can often be confusing. In short, mentors advise; sponsors act. CTI president Sylvia Ann Hewlett put it this way in an op-ed article for the New York Times in 2013: “Mentors act as a sounding board or a shoulder to cry on, offering advice as needed and support and guidance as requested; they expect very little in return. Sponsors, in contrast, are much more vested in their protégés, offering guidance and critical feedback because they believe in them.” (1)

CTI research found that 70% of women resist asking for a raise; however, with a sponsor in their corner, 38% of women will ask for – and receive – a raise. The research also found that when it comes to snagging a coveted or high-visibility project, 36% of females will approach their manager and make the request. With a sponsor, that number rises to 44%. CTI’s study found that 68% of women with sponsors feel they are progressing through the ranks at a satisfactory pace compared with 57% of their unsponsored peers.

The best sponsors go beyond mentoring. In addition to offering guidance, sponsors also serve as advocates. They provide protégés with vision and the tactical means of realizing their vision. They place bets on outstanding junior colleagues and call in favors for them.

The most successful protégés, for their part, recognize that sponsorship must be earned with performance and loyalty—not just once but continually. In other words, sponsorships are two-way streets where both sponsor and protégé can benefit. Indeed, in a Q&A with Forbes in 2013, Hewlett said protégés can have positive impacts on sponsors as well. CTI research found that male leaders with a number

A Key to Advancement SPONSORSHIP:

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Cable’s Advancement and Retention Focus

To be sure, several cable companies have extensive programs in place to help propel women up the corporate ladder. The 2013 PAR Report found that 61% of all cable telecommunications companies have leadership development programs designed to increase the diversity of the highest positions in their organizations. The majority (57%) has mentoring programs and 39% have sponsorship programs for both women and people of color. Comcast Corporation’s Executive Leadership Career Advancement Program (ELCAP) is designed to accelerate participants’ career growth through executive sponsorship, individual development plans, and group learning events; the majority of current ELCAP participants are women. The Walt Disney Company and Scripps Networks Interactive both have formal mentoring programs to help women develop the skills and confidence they need to move ahead in their careers. Both firms are also exploring formal sponsorship programs that would take the mentoring programs up a notch. Bright House Networks has created an internal training department to better prepare its employees for advancement. Programs focus on leadership, management and supervisory themes. Every annual performance includes a personal development plan so employees can position themselves for maximum performance today as well as in the future. Bright House Networks’ Women’s Leadership Circle offers leadership development skills and tips via monthly meetings and mentoring matchups. Bright House Networks monitors the career trajectories of participants to gauge the program’s success and effectiveness.

Midcontinent Communications offers tuition reimbursement to employees who undertake additional education and training related to their jobs and careers. Rather than wait for employees’ exit interviews to gauge satisfaction and gather suggestions, Midcontinent conducts “stay interviews” designed to retain staffers by requesting feedback before an employee heads for the door. This allows the company to stay ahead of any perceived problems and fix them before attrition and defections set in. Scripps Networks Interactive has long encouraged and helped its female employees attend and participate

in outside development programs including the Betsy Magness Leadership Institute and WICT Executive Development Series. To augment and complement those programs, the company is rolling out an internal learning and development program female staffers can take advantage of as well.

In organizations where upward movement is limited due to low turnover in the C-Suite, creative ways to advance have been deployed with some success. Time Warner Inc. has a lot of talented and well-regarded female employees within its ranks but they weren’t moving upward due to low turnover, Jonathan Beane, executive director, workforce diversity and inclusion, told Diversity Inc. Rather than lose up-and-coming staffers that might be recruited away with more apparent advancement opportunities, Time Warner has created a development system that includes more lateral moves within the company’s various divisions. (8)

“There are a ton of really talented people who would be good at other businesses,” he told Diversity Inc. “Not only does it help retain talent, it makes sense from a bottom line standpoint by creating well-rounded and challenged employees that are always learning new skills and building a wide-ranging knowledge base of the company and industry in general.”

The cable industry has long been an advocate of integrating life inside and outside the office and several studies have shown employees at every level – particularly younger staffers – place high value on this issue. The vast majority of cable companies offer flex time, child and elder care referral services, and telecommuting options. Integrating work and family is an age-old issue that has existed since women began joining the workforce in earnest following World War II. And the conundrum continues to this day. Long commutes, volunteering at school, attending extra-curricular activities and other obligations can hamper a woman’s desire and ability to move up the ladder. Creating initiatives that meet employees’ needs is crucial in keeping them happy and productive. Discovery Communications has long been addressing the personal needs of its employees with the introduction of on-site daycare and wellness centers, elder care options, and other services that allow employees to combine their personal and professional lives more seamlessly and successfully.

It is clear the cable telecommunications industry has made significant efforts to integrate women into every facet of the business, and many successes can be attributed to policies and procedures companies have worked hard to put in place. There is more work to be done. However, Mercer’s ILM maps prove that if retention and promotion rates are improved, the number of women in the cable telecommunications industry will improve substantially. Kimberly-Clark’s experience over the last few years proves that when companies identify their weak spots in the workforce chain and take concrete steps to fix the problems, significant improvements in retention and promotion can be experienced. With some time and attention, there is little reason to assume cable telecommunications organizations can’t replicate those results.

C onclusion

Sources

(1) Nalbantain, Haig, R. Play to Your Strengths: Managing Your Internal Labor Markets for Lasting Competitive Advantage. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2004, Print. (2) “Gen Y Women in the Workplace Focus Group Summary Report.” Thorax 65.Suppl 4 (2010): A197-198. Apr. 2011. Web.

(3) Simard, Caroline, Shannon Gilmartin, Andrea Davies Henderson, Londa Schiebinger, and Telley Whitney. “Climbing the Technical Ladder: Obstacles and Solutions for Mid-Level Women in Technology. Anita Borg Institute, 2013. Web.

(4) Borisova, Darya, and Olga Sterkhova. Women as a Valuable Asset. Rep. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.

(5) Neal, Stephanie, Jazmine Boatman, and Linda Miller. Women as Mentors: Does She or Doesn’t She? Trend Research Report (n.d.): n. pag. Web.

(6) Fontinelle, Amy. “How Companies Can Attract Top Female Employees.”Investopedia. N.p., 2013. Web. 04 Sept. 2014.

(7) Gerut, Amanda. “Choke Points Keep Women From Advancing. Agendaweek (21 Apr. 2014): n.pag. Print.

(8) Storrie, Mindy, and Website. The New Business Imperative: Recruiting, Developing and Retaining Women in the Workplace (2012): n. pag. UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School, 2012. Web.

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www.wict.org2000 K Street, NW, Suite 350, Washington, DC 20006

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andSupported by WICT Chapters Nationwide