Empowering women in your organization

It's international Women’s Day today, and it’s a great time to recognize and appreciate the role of women in your organization. Organizations that don’t value women in the workplace will suffer from low productivity and a poor employer reputation. According to Fortune, companies that have a higher number of women on their staff outperform companies that have few or none. Recently, women have progressed a lot in the business world. For example, more than 70% of HR managers are women. However, the percentage of women in the global workforce still needs to be improved. It’s important to empower women in the workplace to increase their participation in all industries. According to Global Citizen, increasing gender equality and empowering women in organizations can add $12 trillion to the global economy. Here are some tips to empower women in your organization:

• Break down gender stereotypes

Enforcing gender stereotypes can shatter your employees’ confidence and make them unmotivated. Defining something as a man’s job or woman’s job is not appropriate. These preconceived notions can give you a bias when hiring candidates, affecting the career advancement of women. Here are some tips to avoiding gender stereotypes:

1. Educate your employees about gender stereotypes
2. Ensure that there is gender diversity at every level
3. Have a clear policy to prevent discrimination
4. Be mindful of your language

• Set clear goals to improve gender diversity

Gender diversity is crucial to your organization’s success. It helps all of your employees, regardless of their gender identity, to be happier, more innovative, and more engaged. The first step to improve gender diversity is to set clear, achievable, and time-based goals. If you are starting with very little or no diversity in your organization, it’s a good idea to take small steps in that direction. If your organization has a diverse workforce already, goals should be set to maintain those standards. It’s also important to ensure that diversity goals are aligned with your overall business objectives. Conduct surveys to collect feedback from employees. This will help you identify the areas that need to be strengthened to improve gender diversity.

Also read: Tips to manage a diverse workforce

•  Implement equal pay for equal work

Men and women who do the same work should be paid equally. According to a report by the World Economic Forum, it will take another 257 years for men and women to get an equal salary. In some of organizations, women are still paid less than men for the same amount of work. Many factors including the motherhood gap, implicit bias, and social assumptions lead to this inequality. If candidates know this is the case for your organization, it will demotivate them. Your turnover rate might increase, or you may miss out on the best candidates. Here are some tips to implement equal pay for equal work:

1. Analyze your pay policy and identify the pay gap
2. Hire candidates based on their qualifications
3. Implement pay transparency
4. Conduct regular performance reviews
5. Provide work-life balance to help women advance in their career

• Encourage unity

When female employees work together and uplift each other, gender inequality can be reduced to a great extent and women will feel empowered automatically. This culture will help them prevent unfair treatment. Different issues can crop up when there is no unity among your female employees, especially when your organization is male-dominated. Empowering the women in your company is difficult when there is bullying and harassment amongst them.

• Conduct mentoring sessions

Regular mentoring sessions are essential for employees to achieve growth and development in your organization. Having mentoring programs can help women to gain self-confidence and foster perspectives that support their career advancement. Mentor advice can help your female employees overcome the challenges related to gender inequality. Here are some tips to develop a mentoring program:

1. Keep the goals of the session clear

2. Create a proper structure for the program

3. Select the right mentors

4. Encourage your employees to open up with their mentors

5. Receive feedback from your employees

Gender diversity in the workplace helps women across the globe participate equally in the labor force. It improves the image of your organization and gives you access to a wider talent pool, increasing the profitability of your organization. Increasing the number of women in your workforce can also improve the global economy. We hope these tips gave you insight on how to empower your female employees. In time, more companies will implement policies to reduce gender discrimination in the workplace, giving women the confidence to strive for more career advancement and equality in their professional lives!