Preventing soft skill decay among early-career women in STEM during COVID-19: Evidence from a longitudinal intervention.

As the workforce shifts to being predominantly hybrid and remote, how can companies help employees-particularly early-career women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields-develop greater confidence in their soft skills, shown to improve organizational retention? We evaluate the effects of an online longitudinal intervention to develop soft skills among early-career women employees at a North American biotechnology company during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Controlling for baseline levels collected immediately prior to nationwide lockdowns, we find that a 6-month online intervention increased early-career women's assessments of their soft skills at work by an average of 9% (P < 0.001), compared with a decrease of about 3.5% for a matched control group (P < 0.05), resulting in an average treatment effect of nearly 13% on the treated group. Furthermore, we find evidence that the intervention led to an increase in manager-assessed performance for early-career women relative to employees not in the intervention, and that overall, increased self-assessments of soft skill competencies were associated with greater odds of retention. Results show how employee soft skill development was affected by the pandemic and provide insights for a feasible and cost-effective method to train and engage a hybrid or fully remote workforce.

Time is a network good.

Time is a network good: the value of time depends on whether others also have it. We can deepen our understanding of time from a comparison with other network goods like personal computers, Facebook, and communications technology that derive their value from widely shared usage. We review recent research on the importance of collective social time with family and friends, and the role that temporal coordination plays in enhancing community ties and subjective well-being. The standard workweek is one of the most taken-for-granted institutions that creates effortless social coordination of time. The weekend provides people with collective time off that facilitates social interaction and leads to remarkable gains in emotional well-being. A breakdown in the temporal coordination of the standard workweek can have a negative impact on individuals, families, and communities. Future directions for research emphasize the importance of recognizing the network properties of time and its implications for society at large.