Strategies for Improving Workplace Gender Equity
Putting good intention to work advancing gender equity in the workplace.
Congratulations! As a business leader, you’ve educated yourself and your employees about major forms of gender inequity. After assessing how this plays out in your own company, you’ve resolved to improve gender equality in the workplace. This is assuredly half the battle, but now you’re wondering: how to go about the other half? Here are some strategies to help your company grow in gender equity and overall success.
Ways to Make Your Company More Equitable
In general, you can use many of the same strategies and tools for the improvement of gender equality that you would for improving other aspects of your company culture and financial success. Here are some examples:
Collect and use data. Gather data about policies that can be impacted by gender (pay, performance assessment, sexual harassment, promotions, and parental supports) and assess how these can be improved to remove inequities. Collect employee feedback on related matters. Then use qualitative and quantitative data to measure company successes and failures and to adjust goals as needed.
Set short- and long-term priorities. Determine which kinds of workplace improvements are most pressing and frame each short-term goal in the larger context of how it helps to achieve long-term goals.
Rethink your approach to recruiting and hiring. Some industries and sectors are inherently gender-inequitable, but you can help to change this by recruiting and considering applications from marginalized genders. Don’t let industry stereotypes get in the way of hiring exceptional talent.
Remove the causes of the gender pay gap. As of 2020, women earned only 81 cents for each dollar men earned globally. Make your pay scales transparent and start all genders at the same base pay rather than negotiating salaries on an individual basis. Use skills-based assessments to hire and promote employees in ways that remove gender bias in these processes.
Have women lead and mentor men. Ask non-males of various gender identities, abilities, sexual orientations, races, and religions to guide cisgender men in employee onboarding and continued skills training. This will help to encourage the perception of women and non-cisgender people as natural leaders and expose employees to different leadership styles. It also serves to recognize and highlight the individual talents of historically under-appreciated genders.
Prioritize flexibility and work/life balance. Statistically, women are burdened with greater child-rearing responsibilities than men. This means that offering some flexibility with regard to where and when women work as well as providing other parental supports can go a long way toward increasing women’s participation and success in the workforce.
Achieve Workforce Gender Equality with Gender IDEAL
Gender IDEAL helps companies to make their workplaces inclusive, diverse, and equal in access and leadership for all genders, particularly for women of color, women of different sexual orientations, gender identities, religions, economic backgrounds, and abilities.
We have tools to help your company through the whole improvement life cycle. This includes diagnostic assessments, benchmark and recommendation reports with a custom action plan designed for your company, and the resources and support you need to put those recommendations into action—including a plan for reproductive health protection.
Contact us today to learn more about beginning our 3-step journey to improved gender equity performance!