Recruiting Women in IT: A Conjoint-Analysis Approach

The war for talent in the fields of information systems (IS) and information technology (IT) has intensified over the last years. Especially the attraction of skilled women to compensate for higher demands and to bring in different perspectives and diverse expertise has become a challenging task for organizations. So far, literature suggested promoting special female programs and a balanced work-family culture to attract more women to IT omitting that women may also seek general career characteristics such as salary and benefits, career advancement and promotion opportunities, and challenging tasks. By using an experimental conjoint design with 101 female and 115 male IT-professionals, we simultaneously tested and compared the effects of these factors on the intention to apply for an IT-related position. The results suggest that both female and male IT-professionals value work-family balance as the most important characteristic followed by general career characteristics while mentoring programs for women appeared as least important.