Research from Tiger Recruitment suggests female business leaders rely more heavily on the support of personal assistants (PAs) for reducing stress and managing work/life balance.
The study reveals that female leaders are more likely to have a PA than their male peers (52 per cent to 48 per cent), spend more time on average with their PA each week (26 vs 24 hours) and are more likely to say their PA helps to reduce their stress levels on the job (30 per cent vs 20 per cent). Female executives are also quicker to leverage PA support than their male counterparts, with over half (53 per cent) of women in leadership roles securing a PA within two years of starting their careers, compared to less than a third (31 per cent) of men.
The survey of over 600 UK business leaders sheds a light on the differing attitudes between genders when it comes to the importance of personal assistants, and how PAs can help female business leaders to juggle work and family responsibilities.
Recent research highlighted that women are more likely to suffer from stress than men, and that the issue peaks between the ages of 35 and 44, which is often the apex of juggling family responsibilities alongside a career. Another study showed that women who work long hours are more likely to suffer from depression than men, as a result of their dual role.
The findings also shine a spotlight on how PAs help women to manage their time and work-life balance, with 21 per cent of female bosses saying their PA saves them between 10 and 30 hours per week, compared to just 16 per cent of men. Female bosses are more likely to rely on their PA for reducing life admin (54 per cent vs 46 per cent), and ask their PA for advice (24 per cent vs 19 per cent).
“The proportion of women in senior leadership roles is still woefully low, in grand part due to the challenges of balancing a high-powered career with family and domestic responsibilities, which in too many cases, still fall to women,” commented Rebecca Siciliano, managing director, Tiger Recruitment. “While things are slowly improving, thanks to developments around flexible working and shared maternity leave, more still needs to be done by employers to support women in aspiring to and thriving in leadership positions. These findings suggest that the support of an experienced, skilled and dedicated assistant can go a long way to making the balancing act easier.”
