You Don’t Have a Retention Problem. You Have a Promotion Problem.

What is the top reason employees leave associations? Better opportunities elsewhere. 

But look closer at who is leaving and why. Women aren’t leaving just because they found better opportunities. They are leaving because they’re being skipped over for promotions and the only way to advance is to leave. 

The evidence? When 75% of your workforce is women but women hold only 1 in 5 C-suite positions, you don’t have a retention problem. You have a promotion problem. 

Research shows that men in female-dominated professions are promoted at more than double the rate of women (12.7% vs 5.6%), even when women have the same or better qualifications. This is the glass escalator. 

No wonder women leave for growth opportunities. And when they leave, it costs you between 50% to 200% of their annual salary to replace them. Plus, donor relationships walk out the door, institutional knowledge evaporates, remaining staff burn out from covering the gaps and the domino effect of more departures begins. 

Here’s how the glass escalator operates in organizations and what actually works to stop it. 

Lack of Growth Conversations

In most organizations, growth conversations fall flat. People are given the standard answer for the career they are in and generic advice on how to move toward the next promotion. And that’s where things fail for women. Men are more prone to find themselves in the natural career conversations that come from a casual mention instead of an intentional sit-down.

Instead of letting things be organic, make it intentional. Dive deep into people’s careers the same way you would dive into a customer’s needs. Ask questions like: Where do you want to take your career? What skills do you want to build? Then help them get there through regular meetings, funding conferences, making introductions, and creating visibility.

No Stretch Assignments

Women catch the plates falling around them and find themselves stuck on projects that do not stretch them. They just keep everything moving forward. When the exciting project comes up, they are too swamped to take it on and get passed over. 

During those intentional growth conversations ask: What plates did you take on that you saw falling? Redistribute those to their true owners. Then fill her plate with a stretch project. One aligned with her goals and the organization’s goals. Then step back and let her shine. 

Exceeding Expectations ≠ Promotions

Women leave after years of exceeding expectations without advancement. They realize the truth: they are too valuable where they are to ever be promoted. 

What do you need to do? Check yourself. Are you blocking a woman from promotion because you’re afraid no one will do her current job as well as she does? That fear is costing you talent. Promote her and figure out the backfill. If she’s exceeding expectations for two years without advancement, either promote her or have an honest conversation with yourself about why not. 

Caregiving Leads To Career Ceiling

Women with caregiving responsibilities can absolutely do their jobs brilliantly – IF you make it logistically possible, not exhausting. And here’s the part most leaders miss: challenge men to use flexibility benefits too. When only women take advantage of flexibility, it reinforces bias. When men are actively encouraged to manage school pickups and parent care, it normalizes caregiving as everyone’s responsibility.

Don’t just offer flexibility. Model it and actively encourage men to use it. Ask fathers directly about their caregiving responsibilities. Make it clear that using flexibility will not hurt anyone’s advancement. Then actually promote people who use it to showcase that flexibility and doing amazing work are not mutually exclusive. 

The Invisible Labor Tax

Women instinctively catch work that is falling. When an organization runs lean and someone leaves or someone is not doing their job effectively enough, a woman catches it. She sees what needs to be done and cannot watch it crash. She knows that someone must ensure that it gets done. 

But here is what leaders miss: this is not generosity. Its survival mode – For the whole organization and it is unsustainable. 

Want to make sure that women do not burn out catching work of others? If someone leaves and the coverage extends beyond 90 days, compensate whoever is covering. Extra PTO. Bonus. Reduced other responsibilities. And pay attention to who is catching all the dropping projects across your organization. If it is always the same few women, you have a problem. 

What are you going to do this week that shows your employees you value them? Set-up those recurring growth conversations. 

The organizations that retain women are not doing anything radical. They are treating talent like it’s actually valuable.