4 Ways To Support Women In Your Workplace Regardless of industry, discrimination remains a widespread issue. Issues like unconscious biases,...

4 Ways To Support Women In Your Workplace

Regardless of industry, discrimination remains a widespread issue. Issues like unconscious biases, leadership roadblocks, and sexual harassment may arise. Whenever employees, especially women, feel like outsiders in the workplace, they feel excluded.

When the women in your organization feel like they don’t belong, they might not stay productive in the office. And when your workforce has low productivity, your company might face financial challenges in the future. So, as an employer, you must learn how to promote equality within your workplace.

In this article, you’ll learn how to develop strategies for empowering women in your organization.

Identify Sexual Harassment Behaviors

Building a safe place for women doesn’t just revolve around not being sexist yourself. You must actively take significant actions against workplace sexism. So, here are ways to identify sexual harassment in the workplace:

• Unwanted gestures include jokes, offensive phrases on clothing, and unnecessary comments.

• Any bodily contact includes patting a coworker’s back and grabbing an employee around the waist.

• Repeated requests such as one-on-one dates and unwanted flirting.

• Sending sexual messages includes sharing pictures or emails of any harassment-related nature.

• Displaying sexually suggestive materials such as pictures, objects, and posters.

• Playing sexually suggestive media such as music or movie.

After identifying some of the most common sexual harassment activities, you must provide regular and ongoing training for organizational leaders and employees. Then, as your staff goes through the development process, publish a workplace sexual harassment policy. This policy may include reporting procedures and clear whistleblowing.

Clear procedures should allow each concern to be raised effectively. So, any instance when a female employee shares an issue with you must be dealt with accordingly. Regardless of the job position of your employees, anyone who’s found guilty of sexually harassing a fellow member must deal with immediate consequences.

Conduct Pay Equity Audits

A pay equity audit happens when an organization is seeking differences in compensation. These aspects may include total cash compensation, base pay, benefits, and variable pay. By regularly conducting a pay equity audit, you can distinguish and act on the differences between the remuneration of male and female employees.

Here are seven tips to consider in complying with the pay equity audit procedure:

• Post a notice in the office.

• Develop a pay equity committee.

• Create a pay equity plan with organizational leaders.

• Share the pay equity plan with your employees and ask for their feedback.

• Communicate possible compensation increases.

• Submit your annual statement to the Pay Equity Commissioner.

• Monitor and update your pay equity plan.

As you go through this process, look for discrepancies between salary rates. Then, regardless of race and gender differences, ensure that every employee with similar experience in the same role is paid equally as their counterparts. This strategy will help you support both genders in the workplace.

Develop Objectives For Enhancing Gender Diversity

Organizational transformation doesn’t happen overnight. You must begin by assessing how you’re currently operating in gender diversity. Achieving gender diversity is vital for organizations because it’s the right thing to follow and because it connects to a company’s overall performance.

To enhance gender diversity, you should start by asking for recommendations your organization can follow. More so, you must practice active listening as your employees speak their minds about multiple suggestions. Then, from the collected information, develop business objectives for enhancing gender diversity in the office. These goals may include:

• Getting benchmark data on the niches relevant to your industry.

• Diving as deep as you can in the Engagement Survey information of your existing female talent.

• Regularly conducting a target setting based on facts.

After identifying gender diversity goals, ensure that the rest of the organization is fully aware of the recent initiatives. That said, you must educate and make sure you consistently implement all objectives across the workplace.

Seek Ways To Amplify The Female Voice

Another way to promote female empowerment in the office is by allowing women to speak up for themselves and their fellow employees. For instance, if a female employee has an excellent idea, focus the spotlight on her and ensure she deserves the recognition. Also, praise the deserving female employee rather than letting another employee take the credit for a job well done.

Provide internal and external public speaking opportunities for every female employee. You can follow this strategy by allowing women to join in meetings and conferences with your business partners to expand their networking skills. Before you know it, your female employee might be the one who can close a deal with a global business partner.

The best way to promote public speaking in your workplace is by inviting inspirational women. Regardless of gender, you must ensure that all your employees are around to watch these women thrive. Lastly, if your organization receives invites to participate in a panel, refuse the invitation if the event doesn’t allow female representatives.

Key Takeaway

Remember that you can’t just set goals and hope they all magically work to empower female employees. You must make your objectives a reality by educating all your employees to prevent workplace discrimination against women. That said, you may consider these four strategies to enhance feminine power in your workplace.