Off-ramps and On-ramps Keeping Talented Women on the Road to Success

How to Keep Your Talent On Track Legions of professional women step off the career fast track at least once to raise children, care for their elderly parents, or manage other family demands. But when they're ready to step back on track-just a short time later-they hit a wall On-ramps are few and far between, and the financial penalties for "time out" are punishing. Result? Many women are lost on reentry, and companies miss the chance to leverage this talent pool.With talent shortages looming over the next decade, companies must reverse this female brain drain if they hope to beat rivals. But how can companies attract and retain professional women?Off-Ramps and On-Ramps answers this critical question by documenting the successful efforts of the Hidden Brain Drain Task Force-a group of thirty-four leading edge global companies including General Electric, Johnson & Johnson, Lehman Brothers, and Time Warner. Spearheaded by Sylvia Ann Hewlett, over the past three years the task force has developed and driven eighteen best-practice models for companies seeking to recruit, retain and reattach talented women. In this book, you'll find strategies for: Providing arc-of-career flexibility that enables women to "ramp down" and then "ramp up" without losing traction? Combating the stigma that all too often undermines alternative work arrangements Helping women claim and sustain ambition Off-Ramps and On-Ramps is based on first hand experience with gold-standard companies and is grounded in extensive new data that provides the most comprehensive and nuanced picture of women's career paths to date. A vital resource, this book smashes a "male competitive model" that has too long insisted on smooth, cumulative lockstep careers as a prerequisite for success- to the detriment of ambitious women and talent hungry companies everywhere.Hewlett, Sylvia Ann is the author of 'Off-ramps and On-ramps Keeping Talented Women on the Road to Success', published 2007 under ISBN 9781422101025 and ISBN 1422101029.