Survey findings released by LinkedIn reveal that Irish women lack confidence in telling their work story compared to their peers internationally.
When compared to females surveyed globally, Irish women are a lot less proud of their work achievements. The findings show that 19 per cent of Irish women, which is marginally ahead of UK at 18 per cent, say that they’re proud of their work achievements compared to 26 percent internationally. This lags far behind countries like India (30 per cent) Spain (38 per cent) and USA (38 per cent).
The study found that only 46 per cent of Irish women were confident that they could effectively describe their work achievements if they “stumbled across their dream employer” compared to 56 per cent of Irish men asked the same question. The survey also found that almost one in four (23 per cent) of women stated that they would “panic” if they were asked on the spot to describe their achievements compared to just 12 per cent of men.
When it comes to sharing professional achievements online, Irish women were less likely to talk about promotions than their male colleagues. Twenty per cent of males surveyed would happily post about promotions online compared to 13 per cent of females surveyed.
The findings also showed that women like to share their family’s work achievements ahead of their own. Less than one-in-five (19 per cent) feel pride in talking about their own work achievements but more than double (40 per cent) feel pride in sharing information about their family’s professional success. This compares to only 26 percent of males asked how proud they were about sharing details of family success in the workplace.
This lack of confidence and pride in communicating professional achievements may affect career progression as 63 per cent of those in hiring positions agree that it is important to let senior staff members know about professional achievements in order to get a pay rise or promotion.
“There is a real opportunity for women working in Ireland to consider how they tell their work story and showcase their professional achievements. Being comfortable communicating the fruits of your hard work is vital if you want to climb the career ladder,” said Wendy Murphy, Senior Director of HR for LinkedIn, EMEA. “Telling your work story online is of the utmost importance for career progression and advancement too, with 70 per cent of those in hiring positions agreeing that the impression you make online is just as important as the one you make in person.”