No Room at the Top

80 Percent of Healthcare Workers Are Women, but Few Make It to Leadership Roles: Korn Ferry Executive Survey Examines Reasons behind Gap

According to a recent Korn Ferry (NYSE: KFY) survey of CEOs, CHROs and other C-suite healthcare executives, greater gender parity in leadership would have a positive effect on healthcare systems and hospitals. And while the vast majority of healthcare workers are women, more needs to be done to advance women to the top.

Nearly two-thirds (63 percent) of respondents say that compared to 5 years ago, there is more opportunity for advancement for women to senior positions in their organization. However, more than half (55 percent) believe women in their organization have been passed over for a promotion on the basis of their gender.

“According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, nearly 80 percent of healthcare workers are women, yet they hold fewer than 20 percent of key leadership roles,” said Katie Bell, Korn Ferry global account lead for the Healthcare Sector. “There is a clear business imperative to creating an environment that is conducive to helping women advance in the healthcare industry.”

Fifty-nine percent of respondents say their organizations would be more profitable with greater gender parity in leadership, and 64 percent say greater parity would result in less employee turnover.

Despite the potential positive impact of gender parity in healthcare leadership, the survey reveals a lack of focus on helping women advance in their careers. Nearly two-thirds (64 percent) rank women development programs in their organization as fair, poor or non-existent, and 76 percent say their organizations do not have sponsorship programs to help women advance.

The majority of respondents (54 percent) believe that women do not self-promote as strongly as men do with the purpose of advancing their own careers, and 62 percent say that women get promoted by working hard and being recognized for their efforts, instead of asking their boss for a promotion.

“To move the needle in having more women in leadership positions in healthcare, there must be a shared responsibility between professional women and their organization,” said Bell. “Key to this is engaging organizational leaders to become more agile and adaptive in how they recognize, support and develop female leaders at all levels of the organization.”

Editor’s Note: For a detailed report on women in healthcare, click here

About the Survey – The Korn Ferry survey was conducted in April 2019 and garnered responses from nearly 200 CEOs, CHROs and other members of the C-suite at healthcare systems and hospitals across the United States.