Q&A: AMA on How Hybrid Work Affects Career Advancement with Disparities Based on Gender and Age  

Lauren McNally of the American Management Association (AMA), a global leader in professional development, shares insights from their century-long mission to help professionals thrive in today’s dynamic workplace. AMA conducts quarterly research to stay ahead of emerging trends. Their recent survey of 1,000 U.S. knowledge workers explores how hybrid work models are shaping career advancement, with a particular focus on disparities based on gender and age. 

Addressing Gender Disparities in Hybrid Work 

The report highlights significant gender disparities in career advancement within hybrid work models. As a leader, what strategic initiatives can C-suite executives implement to bridge these gaps and ensure equitable career progression for all employees? 

Yes, we found that ambition is alive and robust in the age of hybrid work. So much so, 77% said they have a “strong desire” to advance their career. On average, men were somewhat more driven than women (85% vs. 72%), and the desire to advance declines with age.  

More to the point, we found that about 1 in 5 respondents (21%) who said they had a strong desire to advance were not receiving training and development. This amounts to a lost opportunity for organizations to get maximum productivity from their employees and could diminish loyalty towards their company. This also hinders the opportunity to advance with lack of development to work towards it. 

In an ideal state, everyone should have access to career development opportunities—especially for those that are looking to advance. Getting clear on what your future can look like and understanding how you can best get there will give you clarity and confidence in the value you bring to the organization. People like to know where they are going and where they stand, so getting aligned and simply having the conversation is important. Once there’s alignment, you can act on how to develop your skills, take on new projects that will support those goals and network with the right people to understand what it takes to get to where you wish to be. 

Ensuring Equal Advancement Opportunities 

Early-career women are experiencing fewer opportunities for advancement compared to their male peers in hybrid work settings. What specific policies or mentorship programs can executives champion to ensure women are equally positioned for leadership roles? 

That’s correct. We saw that early-career men widely believe that they are getting ahead by working in the office. 52% said it improved their ability to be coached and developed, compared to just 30% of women in the same age group.  

So why is there this 22% discrepancy? One possibility is that women don’t believe it’s vital to go to the office to advance, or some may argue that women favor the flexibility of being at home due to cultural family and domestic responsibilities or priorities, and others may have the opinion that historic biases may favor men in the office.  

Men generally feel more at ease in offices, more productive, more connected and are better able to advance their careers. Why is this? Is it still a man’s world in the office?  

Organizations should challenge assumptions and be intentional with creating equal opportunity environments. This applies to the access employees have to mentors, champions and overall senior leaders. Having someone to ask questions to get feedback from and learn from is critical for an employee’s development and confidence in their position. Having the policy or opportunity is step one, but having it utilized is a completely different challenge. Is leadership supporting it? Is it easy to access and follow? Is it structured as a two-way relationship where it’s viewed as a true partnership? Does everyone see the value in the program—what’s in it for me? These are questions that anyone leading a mentorship program should be asking themselves. And while mentorship programs are of great value, a lot of the items touched on are about the company’s culture and often, change starts with leadership. 

Maximizing the Benefits of In-Office Presence 

Given that young men report greater career benefits from in-office work, how can C-suite leaders ensure that employees working remotely or in hybrid settings have equal access to visibility, collaboration, and leadership development opportunities? 

Being intentional is key. And getting leadership on board to support the improvement in these areas is just as critical. Communicating why having access to visibility, collaborative environments and leadership development, is so important to the productivity of the organization and its success, is a step that can’t be overlooked when working towards improvement in these areas. Leaders need to step up just as much as the employees they lead. 

Each of these areas need to be looked at to see where and how positive change can happen. Is leadership really accessible? Are there organized formal and informal meetings with dialogue from leadership and peers? Are leaders checking in regularly? Can new technology be leveraged for better collaboration? Are meeting spaces equipped to have the most efficient and productive hybrid meetings? 

Creating the space for this gives people the opportunity to share their accomplishments, challenges and overall, have a voice.  

Closing Training and Development Gaps 

With 21% of ambitious employees not receiving adequate training, what role should executives play in reshaping their organization’s development programs to foster talent growth across hybrid and remote teams? 

Workers are clearly ready to get to the next level, yet slightly fewer than three-quarters of respondents (73%) said they were being provided with career-building training and development opportunities.  

This raises concerns for organizations that are not providing such opportunities: Can they remain competitive? Are employees prepared to fulfil the role they have? Is their talent ready for what’s coming next in their company and industry? And can they recruit the best talent without the important benefit of training and development? Without investing in training and development, most likely the answer to most of these questions is “no”. 

As an executive in an organization, it’s often suggested to create a culture of learning where developing yourself is part of your “everyday” and is engrained in the fabric of your organization. This welcomes curiosity, the ability to ask questions and raise your hand for training when you need it and when it’s offered.  

When thinking about providing meaningful learning and development opportunities across the entire organization, where you are located should not be a factor in whether you get access to being developed or not. It’s more important to focus on what your organization’s goals are and what skills are necessary to accomplish them. Link the learning to your people’s role and the organization’s goals, allowing your employees to see the value they bring to the organization and how their role impacts its success. 

Employees need to see their potential in an organization and a path to get there. Investing in your people through development not only shows your people that you’re committed to their growth at the company, but also enables them to see the vision for themselves.  

Once training is in motion, it’s important to have the same quality and consistency of training regardless of in-person or remote offices. So, if those that are in the office experience hands-on learning with a live facilitator, the same should be offered for those experiencing it virtually. Engaging with the right partner with those capabilities is key. 

Fostering Collaboration in Hybrid Teams 

The report indicates that remote work can hinder collaboration and rapport-building. What high-level strategies can C-suite leaders implement to foster strong, productive relationships across hybrid and remote teams? 

How we collaborate and build rapport has changed significantly, but these simple relationship-building skills are still integral to the success of a competitive organization. Employees are expected to have both team-building skills and self-direction to effectively collaborate from anywhere.  

AMA believes that collaborative success depends on four factors:

1. Developing trust, which in a hybrid environment needs to be achieved without face-to-face interaction
2. Leading with influence, to support teamwork with “soft power,” meaning by inspiring rather than directing
3. Working fluidly across boundaries, by learning colleagues’ approach to work, collaboration style, and cultural references
4. Demonstrating global awareness, so that an individual can be an active, informed teammate and leader. Our experience has shown that these skills can be developed with the proper training. 

Supporting Mid-Career Women in Leadership Pipelines 

Mid-career women benefit significantly from hybrid work due to its balance of personal and professional commitments. How can executive leaders further support this group to retain top talent and prevent burnout, while still driving career growth? 

If many people at your organization are burned out, then most likely it’s the culture in the organization. It’s not easy to change culture, but it starts with leadership. What examples are they setting to their teams and how are they prioritizing their own development and overall balance in their lives? Seeing your people as humans that have lives outside of work is always a good way to approach your team. Being empathetic to different lifestyles and priorities is important as well. 

Future-Proofing Hybrid Work Models 

With hybrid work potentially to remain a staple, what strategic adjustments should C-suite leaders focus on to ensure long-term success and employee engagement, while maintaining organizational productivity and culture? 

Often, we make assumptions about what challenges our people every day, but without asking the people who are rolling up their sleeves every day, how do you really know? What keeps you up at night most likely is completely different from what a front-line manager or customer service representative would say keeps them up. One actionable step to put in motion is to keep your finger on the pulse of your people at every level (and your customers)—with your leaders, managers and the people they lead. Understand what is working, what isn’t and how they can be best supported for success. This can be done through conversations, focus groups, surveys, and regular reviews. There may be easy-to-implement answers that can make a big impact while you work on the long-term strategic changes. And of course, seeing how these changes may or may not have affected your customer satisfaction rating is key to tap into as well.  

Upskilling Managers for Hybrid Leadership 

A third of employees feel their supervisors lack the skills to manage hybrid teams effectively. What role does the C-suite play in ensuring that managers are equipped with the right skills to lead in this new work paradigm? 

For many companies, making the switch to remote or hybrid work happened overnight—and while many don’t think it had a large impact on the organization, it absolutely did (if not managed properly.) Many factors come into play, such as technology, how to successfully run hybrid meetings, being intentional with visibility to management and leadership, trusting your employees to be productive when not physically with you, communication and one of the most important factors is being trained to manage hybrid teams. If you never did it before, how do you know you’re doing it effectively? It’s just like the many managers that have been put into management roles without formal management training. It typically doesn’t work because what makes you successful as an individual contributor is not what necessarily makes you successful at managing people. The same holds true with drastic changes to team dynamics and environments. 

Training managers has always been important. And that will remain a constant—regardless of changes in location or new technology. Managers are the lifeline to making sure your organization is productive, strategies are executed on, and that people are engaged and find meaning in their work—and ultimately responsible for the success of the organization. So, making such a big change from managing people in-office, to remote, or hybrid teams, is just another challenge managers will face—and will need the development support to help them do it well—so they can get the most out of their people. 

Mitigating the “Broken Rung” in Hybrid Environments 

The “broken rung” effect, where fewer women are promoted to leadership roles, persists. How can C-suite leaders leverage hybrid work to address this issue?  

Being aware of this as an overall business issue is important, and then do your due diligence to see if it’s an issue at your company. Looking at the company data is critical. Who is getting prepared for and promoted into management roles? Is there a discrepancy in access to opportunities? Are their development plans in place for those that want to and are showing strengths to move into management? Are women raising their hands for these opportunities less than men and how can we empower them to step up to these important roles? And has anything shifted in the hybrid work environment? These are just some of the questions to ask yourself to ensure women aren’t at a disadvantage early-on in their careers. If less women are promoted into the first level of management, then there are less women in your pipeline to move into leadership, senior leadership and executive positions for the company’s future—and that’s bad for business. 

Hybrid work could be an advantage to get more women into management roles by giving them the flexibility to take on more at work while saving time on commuting and the daily pressures of going into the office. But, as this research shows, that’s not enough. Organizations need to work on challenges like, visibility to leadership, collaboration and rapport building—because otherwise it will be increasingly more difficult to advance and break the cycle of the “broken rung” for women. 

Connect with AMA 

The American Management Association (AMA) has been at the forefront of redefining how business professionals think and work for more than 100 years, providing unparalleled development solutions that empower professionals to tackle business challenges with confidence and achieve exceptional performance.

If you found this article as insightful as we did and want to learn more about AMA and their quarterly research, you can visit their website or download their report, How Hybrid Work Affects Career Advancement with Disparities Based on Gender and Age. You can also follow AMA on Linkedin, Facebook, Instagram, or X.