This year the International Women’s Day invites Individuals and organizations to Choose to Challenge. In a 2021 TINYPulse survey of over 400 human resources managers, over 50% rated DE&I as a top priority for their organizations, still 67% more females than men reported feeling that their organization has a threatening work environment.
Communication can be challenging in a diverse team, especially when so many teams are distributed, but different people with different profiles, points of view and knowledge are the fuel that can take a company above and beyond as diversity is always enriching.
Companies can get the best out of the teams by practicing empathy and actively listening. Women in particular, can provide feedback on how to improve their organization’s diversity, equity, and inclusion a study confirms.
According to the survey, when asked to provide suggestions on how to improve their corporation’s DE&I, women provided suggestions at a 27% higher rate than men, while men provided an astounding 573% more “unsure” responses compared to women when asked how to improve DE&I.
Initiatives at the workplace, especially those related to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion are most successful when they are supported by employees, so why not ask women what they want?
This is what women choose to challenge as per the report:
Improve the Selection and hiring process
Policies around diversity and selection should be fair and transparent. Patricia Pomies, Globant Chief Delivery Officer / Chief People Officer says that it is important to “promote recruitment policies that follow our principles of diversity and inclusion and design metrics to measure how policies are working, the policies alone are not enough.”
She also recommends to “support organizations to have a better flow of gender minorities in their recruitment channels.” Patricia highlights that women need to be hired and supported with mentoring to help them overcome barriers. Having more women in leadership positions is key to help identify and work on different strategies across the organization, and provide equal possibilities both in the hiring and the development of women at work.
Laura Sapp, IAC’s VP of Talent, recommends being more adaptable and flexible during the candidate’s journey in the recruiting process, for her “flexibility is key”. For example, a kid may show up when doing a remote interview with a mother, which doesn’t make her less professional, on the contrary, those human moments should be embraced as a way to respect the personal and professional balance.
Increase Communication
As per the TINYPulse report, Human resources and managers should survey employees to determine which diversity initiatives would garner the most support from employees. Surveys, feedback, and diversity committees provide a voice for employees. Technology can also help to provide more information on what employee needs. Globant, for example, uses AI to track if employees are not able to work or connect to the network so that leaders can offer help.
Many organizations are forming equality groups so that like-minded people can openly discuss issues that concern them. Overly communicating what is works best for you and your team is also critical for Laura Sapp. She recommends to women “say yes to any conversation and try to reach out, and find someone especially early in your career to give you time to just ask questions. Ask a lot of questions, be incredibly curious and not be afraid to make mistakes”.
Provide Diversity Training
Diversity training can lead to positive changes in thinking and skills needed for interacting with diverse employees. People tend to be blind to their biases, thus favoring people that look or behaves like them. We all do that no matter our ethnicity, training and coaching the workforce is vital to reduce these biases.
Women face more barriers to advancement than most other employees due to these biases, in particular, Black women and Latinas are even more impacted. For every 100 men promoted to manager, only 58 Black women and 71 Latinas were promoted as per McKinsey research. Women are often held to higher performance standards than men, and they may be more likely to take the blame for failure, especially during times of crisis.
Promote Inclusive Collaboration and Celebration
Many organizations have taken important steps to support employees, especially during the COVID-19 crisis. To aid in overcoming the challenges faced by women in the workplace, organizations can organize events recognizing different cultures while encouraging collaboration and multidisciplinary teams.
Salesforce organized on March 2nd their third annual Gender Equality Summit, Trailblazing Women, reimagined this year as a virtual event designed to inspire and empower women on the path to Gender Equality.
Globant organized the Globant Awards – Women that Build Edition to recognize women who have made their careers in technology, who manage innovation and collaboration and promote diversity and inclusion. Our of 12k nominations, 40 scholarships were offered to the winners.
Women have to put themselves out there in situations that can make you grow. It’s time that we all raise our hands and commit to choose to challenge and call out inequality.
