First-Of-Its-Kind Platform Designed to Fix the Broken Rung, Leveraging the Power of Peers to Help More Early-Career Women Advance and Thrive at Work
Aurora was created to address the “broken rung” for early-career women that was highlighted in the 2019 Women in the Workplace study from McKinsey and LeanIn.org. Despite entering the workforce at the same rate as men, professional women are not promoted at the same rate as men, and then continuously decline as a percentage of the management ladder. This gap equates to 1M qualified professional women who will fall behind men over the next five years.
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The first platform to answer the specific challenges early-career women experience, Aurora combines a unique mix of high-touch, personalized guidance with the power of peers for a powerful, holistic program that helps drive retention and advancement.
Each component of the Aurora platform provides a critical leadership building block for early-career women and addresses the biggest problem impacting the gender talent pipeline today: Women do not receive enough support early in their careers, especially in male-dominated environments.
According to research, women are 2.5 times more likely to become high performers if they have a tight-knit circle of supportive women at work. This is critical because research firm Gallup reports retention is a $30 billion annual drain on U.S. businesses. In addition, the Society for Human Resource Management estimates the cost of replacing a departing employee is as much as 2 times an annual salary.
“In order to improve the bottom line, companies must find a way to ensure professional women are set up to succeed,” said Addie Swartz, CEO of reacHIRE. “We all need to invest in women earlier in their careers in ways that resonate with Millennials and Gen Z populations. Aurora delivers the power of peers to early-career women and gives companies an innovative new way to retain the talent they work so hard to find.”
Aurora mirrors the way Millennials and Gen Z-ers already interact and live within virtual social networks and expands this connection across geographies and multi-site locations so companies can better support, engage and retain communities of women.
“We’ve created a platform and a program that will fundamentally change the trajectory for millions of early-career women, yield a dramatically increased number of qualified women in middle and upper management, and improve both the culture and bottom lines of every company that uses it,” added Swartz.
Aurora’s community-based approach to engagement and retention stems from reacHIRE’s deep expertise as an innovator in the return-to-work market. Through its partnerships with companies and focus on peer-to-peer networks, training and connection, reacHIRE revolutionized the return-to-work market and consistently achieves an industry-leading 80+% retention rate among returners.
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Perspectives from Companies using the Aurora Platform
Innovative companies utilizing Aurora’s power to create peer networks and support the career development of early-career women include Vertex Pharmaceuticals, iRobot, and Everbridge.
Vertex
“At Vertex, we need the best and brightest minds from all backgrounds to achieve our mission of bringing transformative medicines to patients with serious diseases,” said Erin Cowhig, Vice President, Diversity and Inclusion at Vertex. “Supporting the career development of women is a core part of our diversity & inclusion strategy. Aurora brings all the tools we need to empower our early-career women into one platform – peer-to-peer communities, leadership skill development training, 1:1 and team sessions with experienced Guides, goal setting, career mapping and an HR dashboard that surfaces trends and insights. We are thrilled to partner with reacHIRE to offer Aurora to our early-career women to help them as they navigate and grow their careers at Vertex.”
iRobot
“Gender equity, diversity in the workforce and investing in new talent is critical to iRobot’s global strategy,” said Russell Campanello, Executive Vice President, Human Resources and Corporate Communications at iRobot. “By implementing a scalable engagement and retention platform like Aurora, we are making an investment in accelerating the growth of our early-career women and retaining top talent. With Aurora, we can take a more active approach to supporting the immediate needs of our early-career women and better understand the skills, resources and environment necessary for their long-term success as engineering professionals and future industry leaders.”
Everbridge
“At Everbridge, we are always seeking innovative ways to develop women in technology and strengthen their leadership skills and potential,” said Cara Antonacci, VP Human Resources at Everbridge. “As a global software company, it is important to us that women across our organization have the opportunity to focus on their professional and personal development and expand their network. With the Aurora platform from reacHIRE, we are able to create peer-to-peer connections across multiple locations to foster belonging and increase engagement. Aurora is a game-changer for Everbridge in the way we empower our early-career women and grow the amazing talent we work so hard to attract and retain.”
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