Leveraging Talent Intelligence and Professional Development to Fix the Broken Rung

Women in the workplace have made an incredible amount of progress since the first International Women’s Day was celebrated in 1911. In honor of that advancement, we now celebrate Women’s History Month every March. But there’s still quite a lot of progress that needs to be made. 

One of the biggest areas for improvement is the percentage of women in senior and executive leadership roles, which remains far below parity with men. This is in large part due to the broken rung theory, but fortunately, there are solutions to this problem for organizations committed to equity and diversity. Here’s what you need to know.  

What is the Broken Rung Theory? 

The broken rung theory states that the lack of women in executive leadership roles comes from a “broken rung” on the corporate ladder, stemming from the initial promotion from individual contributor to manager. In 2024, for every 100 men who were promoted to a manager role for the first time, just 81 women were, according to McKinsey’s Women in the Workplace 2024 report. 

This rung is the first step up the corporate ladder, and it’s broken for women, making it even more difficult to make real progress on gaining parity with men in more senior positions (just 29% of C-suite leaders are women). And depressingly, it’s only improved 2% since 2018. If companies don’t continue to direct effort into fixing this broken rung, talented and ambitious women will struggle to reach the career levels where they will excel, and will leave to work at companies that allow them to reach their full potential. 

Strategies to Fix the Broken Rung 

So how can organizations work to fix this broken rung? First, they need to continue the work they’ve put in to ensure equity and fairness for everyone. While progress is slow, progress has been made and will continue to be made with thoughtful and sustained strategies. Two of the most impactful of those strategies are using talent intelligence and professional development programs to mend that broken rung and get more women in leadership roles. 

Talent Intelligence 

Talent intelligence lets organizations bring data to the forefront of their talent management. It’s the practice of collecting and analyzing data about talent within, and outside of, an organization to make smarter, more informed hiring and workforce management decisions. 

The benefits of talent intelligence are making it a must-have for organizations, not the least of which is boosting diversity and inclusion by removing unconscious bias from the hiring and promotion processes. For instance, talent intelligence tools can anonymize candidate information so recruiters can focus on skills, experience, and qualifications instead of demographics like gender, age, or ethnicity.

Talent intelligence tools also allow companies to pinpoint skill gaps and current and future talent needs so they can upskill and nurture high-potential employees to ready them for management and leadership roles. And they can help create clear paths for advancement so smart, skilled women know what the path ahead of them looks like.  

Professional Development Programs 

The second most powerful avenue for creating more leadership pathways and potential for women is by enhancing your professional development programs. Formalizing these programs can be beneficial, as it makes it clear that your leadership is truly dedicated to helping women achieve their full potential. 

These development programs can include mentoring programs, upskilling and reskilling programs, and management training programs to prepare more women for the next step in their careers. To decide what to focus on here, it’s best to first investigate your organization’s own gaps in professional development programs for women. It’s also helpful to ask the women in your organization themselves what they want and need from your company to succeed. 

Building Leadership Opportunities for Women 

Fixing the broken rung unlocks the full potential of female employees to become leaders, executives, and drivers of future change. But it requires hard work, organizational change, and a cultural shift that can be challenging. With the right talent intelligence tool, like Cangrade, you can make meaningful progress and help everyone in your organization succeed.