Four Ways To Improve Gender Equality In Your Business

Today, it is the duty of business owners to ensure they are doing their part to further equality across all industries. They can do this by focusing on their own company and setting an example for others. Increasing the opportunities for women and trans employees to be more in line with male employees can set your business in better stead with your customers, potential employees, and clients too. Knowing where to start with this can be difficult, however. So to help, we’ve put together four simple ways in which you can improve gender equality within your business.

Tackle Your Gender Pay Gap

Each business owner is responsible for the salaries of their workers. It’s no longer acceptable to use excuses to pay certain people more than others of the same skill level. Instead, you have the power to ensure that everyone in your company is paid fairly no matter their gender. Have a set salary bracket for every position and be generous with it.

Alongside this, be transparent about which roles get which salaries. This gives each employee an honest idea of what they can aim for during salary negotiations. Being transparent about these salaries will help in showing that men aren’t paid more than women in the same roles, and the brackets will encourage women in your business and those applying for a role to negotiate more confidently.

Assess Employees Based On Skill

While this seems like an obvious decision, you should strive to assess each candidate for a role on their skills alone, rather than who they are as a person. Of course, there are certain traits you may be looking for in an employee, such as confidence and people skills, but a skills-based assessment is the best option in the pursuit of fairness. All tests and interviews should be structured fairly and standardized to avoid the risk of any unconscious bias that your interviewers may otherwise experience.

Offer Training Opportunities To All

As an employer, you’ll want to improve your employees’ skills as this will benefit your business in the long run. Not only will it mean you have more talented individuals working for your company, but you’ll also improve morale by offering your employees opportunities to further their careers.

One such way you can do this while improving the gender equality of your business is by offering management training via a women’s leadership program. This will encourage female employees to put themselves forward for this training and will ultimately see your business with an influx of potential female candidates for managerial roles rather than having predominantly men in leadership positions within your business.

Use Female Mentors For Your Employees

Similar to having female workers trained for leadership, you can also encourage women in your business to become mentors for others, imparting their experience and knowledge to junior team members. Female junior employees can benefit significantly from a strong female role model within your company, encouraging confident behavior to help them break down any perceived barriers in the workplace.

As well as this, having women mentors for men can help break down biases and further encourage improved empathy and teamwork between all team members, no matter their gender.