The New Talent Strategy: Helping Women Thrive

If your talent strategy doesn’t account for how women actually thrive, it’s incomplete.

For decades, workplace systems were built on incomplete research. Women were excluded from NIH-funded clinical trials until 1993. That means many of our assumptions about performance were formed without half the workforce represented.

Meanwhile, most workplace performance systems were built around a linear model of output. Assuming that all employees should work with the same energy, expectations, and pace.

Real life doesn’t work that way.

But if you actually design systems to help women thrive in the workplace, your talent acquisition strategy, retention efforts, and long-term productivity will all thrive in the long run.

Let’s unpack why.

Women’s Performance Is About the Whole Human

When organizations try to support women, they often start with fertility benefits or expanded parental leave.

Those benefits matter. But they’re only part of the story.

Women’s performance is dynamic by design. Natural processes perimenopause and the menstrual cycle all influence energy, focus, and productivity. Meanwhile, U.S. women in the U.S. still spend significantly more time on unpaid household labor than men.

That cumulative load doesn’t disappear at 9 a.m.

It shows up as fatigue. As stress. As mental bandwidth that’s already partially spent before the workday begins.

But here’s the nuance leaders often miss:

Women are not stepping away because they lack ambition. Many are pushing through substantial symptoms and stress, which leads to presenteeism and higher rates of burnout.

In Exos’ Female Physiology Questionnaire research, more than 75% of participants reported experiencing at least 17 menstrual symptoms in their most recent cycle, yet only 13% reported missing work due to their cycle in the last six months.

And there’s another side leaders rarely consider.

In our women’s performance research, women didn’t only report weeks where perceived work productivity dipped. They also reported weeks where they felt much sharper, more focused, and more capable: times where their cycle positively influenced how “on” they felt.

That’s a real performance opportunity to design around, rather than a risk to manage.

To quote Dr. Danielle Raves, Exos’ Sr. Director of Research:

When you design for physiological reality, you do more than support women. You create a more adaptive, productive workplace for everyone.

What This Means for Talent Acquisition Strategy

Picture a senior director navigating hot flashes, sleep disruption, and a full executive workload — without having a cultural framework that acknowledges any of it.

Mid-career women often sit at the intersection of expertise, institutional knowledge, and leadership readiness. Yet many pull back during perimenopause or high-pressure life stages.

And when experienced women turn over at peak expertise, organizations lose more than headcount. They lose institutional memory, leadership continuity, and years of developmental investment. Replacing senior talent can cost up to 2x their salary. Losing them quietly costs even more.

At the same time, the future workforce is shifting. Women now occupy 42% of management roles and counting, and women now earn the majority of bachelor’s and master’s degrees in the United States.

So your talent acquisition strategy has to answer a simple question:

Will high-performing women see your organization as a place they can sustain a career?

Candidates today evaluate culture as much as compensation, with employee well-being strongly correlating with engagement and retention.

If performance expectations never flex, if leaders don’t model recovery, and if women’s health remains a taboo topic, candidates notice. Your employer brand becomes defined by rigidity rather than sustainability.

And in a transparent labor market, that reputation moves quickly.

Designing for Women Improves Performance for Everyone

This goes beyond just supporting women. Building smarter systems supports performance and collaboration for everyone.

When you design systems to help women thrive, you don’t weaken standards. You strengthen sustainability.

Here are five shifts that make an immediate difference:

Design flexibility into the system itself, not as a case-by-case exception.

Autonomy should be embedded in how work operates, not granted through disclosure. Women shouldn’t have to explain their life stage or symptoms to access flexibility.

Shift performance conversations from time spent to value created.

Measure outcomes. Clarify impact. Reduce fixation on visible busyness and seat time.

Strengthen leaders’ physiological literacy.

Leaders don’t need to (and shouldn’t) be frequently talking to female employees about their cycles. But when leaders understand that energy and cognition fluctuate naturally, they can improve planning and alignment instead of questioning commitment. Variability reflects human biology, not inconsistency.

Track belonging and burnout with the same rigor as other performance indicators.

If engagement, recovery, and psychological safety influence output and retention, they deserve to be measured accordingly.

When employees feel supported, they engage. When they engage, they stay. And when they stay, your talent strategy thrives.

Reexamine your talent strategy with expert support.

Modernizing your talent strategy can feel like a big undertaking. If you’re serious about helping the women of your workforce thrive, Exos can help you translate real women’s performance research into practical systems that drive retention, engagement, and long-term talent attraction.

Women’s Performance and the Future of Talent Attraction

The future of work isn’t about squeezing more output from people already running on empty.

It’s about sustainable human performance.

Women’s experience highlights three truths leaders can’t ignore:

• Performance is not linear.
• Recovery is not optional.
• Culture determines whether benefits are usable.

If you want your organization to win in talent attraction and retention, you have to design environments where all of your high performers can thrive across life stages.

When it comes to talent strategy, supporting women’s performance is a true competitive advantage. Take it from Amanda Phillips, Exos’ President of Performance:

"Five years ago, we embarked on a mission to redefine what it means for high-performing women to thrive in work, sport and life. Our goal was twofold: to help women embrace their unique physiology as a competitive advantage, and to rebuild the corporate infrastructure that supports them. We believe that respecting physiological reality and prioritizing recovery are more than just “perks” — they are essential to sustained performance. At Exos, we use data-driven solutions to ensure that a woman’s most demanding life stages are not hurdles to survive, but seasons in which she can truly excel."

The Leadership Shift

This conversation isn’t about adding one more benefit.

It’s about correcting a design flaw.

The organizations that design for physiological reality will attract and retain the next generation of leaders. The ones that don’t will keep wondering why their pipeline keeps thinning.

At Exos, we translate research on energy, belonging, recovery, and flow into systems leaders can actually implement.

Because when you align work with human reality, performance improves.

Want to help your entire workforce thrive? Get in touch with us today so we can strengthen energy, focus, and resilience at your organization.

About the Expert

Amanda Phillips is the President of Performance at Exos and a 22-year Exos veteran. She’s responsible for leading the performance innovation team to evolve Exos products, services, and practitioners while establishing Exos’ long term innovation strategy. Before taking her senior leadership role, Amanda established Exos' nutrition, research & business insights function and played a leadership role in strategic partnerships along with industry relations.