Utah's companies need more women in the workplace: what your company can do to make that happen.

• Author: McBaine, Neylan
• Position: SILICON SLOPES

There is so much to celebrate here in the Utah business community: routine placements at the top of the Forbes Best States for Business list, among other accolades and growth statistics. But one recent report placed Utah at the very bottom of the list. A Center for American Progress report entitled "The State of Women in America: A 50-State Analysis of How Women are Faring Across the Nation" placed Utah dead last out of all 50 states in terms of women holding positions of decision making and leadership.

Is this concerning or something to be proud of? A little of both, I propose.

When we're declared the "worst" at something, it may be hard to find anything to be proud of. But one of the metrics that makes us "worst" is that Utah ranks last in the nation for children with both parents in the labor force (52 percent, well below the national average of 65 percent). Having a parent dedicated to care instead of career is good for our children, but bad for reports like "The State of Women in America."

However, there's plenty still to be concerned about, especially for our business community. The report also reveals that Utah has the lowest number of women in private-sector management positions. That means there are very few women contributing to the decisions being made by our businesses. Why does this matter? Because research shows time and time again that when women are involved in decision making, companies make better decisions, are more in touch with their customers, have higher engagement and retention rates among employees and, at the end of the day, have higher profitability.

We should also be concerned because, even though mothers in two-parent households may be working at a lower rate than the national average, Utah mothers in general are actually working at almost the same rate as the national average (73 percent vs. 77 percent). So our women are working. And they need to work. A lot. But they are disproportionately occupying low-paying industries like retail and administration. Our female workforce is overall one of the lowest paid in the country.

So it would be good for our business community and for our women to have more female participation in tech and other higher-paying sectors. But how to do that? That's the multi-million dollar question.

TAKING CONCRETE STEPS

There are two key areas of focus for companies that want to increase the participation of women in their workforces: one is creating an environment of critical mass, and...