March 22, 2022

March is Women's History Month; a month to celebrate the achievement of women in the past, present and future. This year's theme is ‘providing healing, promoting hope’ and whilst the world is progressing, there are many barriers that women still have to face.

Some of the barriers that women face in the workplace include:

• Maternity/Pregnancy Discrimination
• Gender Pay Gap
• Sexism/Sexual Harassment

How can these barriers be tackled?

There are many ways companies can support their female colleagues. Here are some suggestions.

Pay and Progression

• Can you operate with transparent salary bands? People’s pay should reflect their role, responsibilities and performance in that role, not how hard they negotiated.
• Do you have a performance review process that can objectively compare performance and behaviours?
• Can you outline a progression path in your business and the criteria necessary for anyone to meet to achieve promotion?

Support flexible working

• Can you offer flexible working? It doesn’t have to be rigid, and it doesn’t have to be formalised, but there’s advantages to having a flexible working policy so employees are crystal clear on how they can work.
• For those companies who don’t feel they can create a policy at this stage, can you be clear on what flexible working culture and behaviour you would find acceptable? For example, if someone needed to take time off for a doctor's appointment or to deal with an emergency, would this be acceptable, and would employees still be paid for this time?
• Could you consider introducing family friendly policies such as:
• Investing in paid leave for all parents and guardians (paid maternity, paid paternity)
• Emergency back-up childcare
• Provide child benefits

Psychological Safety

• How can you create a culture where everyone can feel confident to speak up about their experiences? If anyone notices something that isn’t right, they need to be able to channel their feedback without fear of repercussion.
  • Create a mechanism to find out what the employee experience is like: anonymous surveys, suggestions boxes, slack channels, focus groups.
  • Consider and enact the behaviours required to design a culture where employee concerns can be raised and acted upon.
  • Identify someone who is interested, invested and competent to become a figurehead for your business’ psychological safety. This should be someone who can demonstrate the empathy and influence needed to engender trust and take action to raise and sort issues.

Psychological safety is the key to creating a safe and inclusive space for women.

A report by New York Times said that if “leaders can show vulnerability, take risks and model the behaviours that would have more women feeling psychologically safe.”

So, if you are a #leader and looking for methods to create a #safer working environment for all employees, drop us an email and we would be happy to help you!

#thecondorcollective