Just last month, the whole world celebrated the International Women’s Day. But, don’t limit your efforts to empower women in your organization to only one month. Empowering women in the workplace need continuous efforts. Here are some tips on how to empower women at work!
How to Empower Women at Work?
Amplify the Female Voice
Listen to what the women in your company say. This is especially crucial when your office is male-dominated. Give them equal opportunities to speak as much as their male counterparts. If they have a great idea, champion them and recognize them. And then make sure that they’re given due credit. Don’t let someone else take that away from them.
Diversify Your Workforce
To empower women at work, you first have to diversify your workforce. How will the women in your workplace feel empowered if they feel alone? In fact, an old saying goes like this, “There is strength in numbers”. Your female employees will feel more enabled when they know that there are people who are the same as them and can relate to them.
It’s no doubt that there are some jobs that have great gender discrepancy. But, that doesn’t mean that you can’t hire for diversity. And it’s not just your general workforce that should be diversified, but also your leadership positions. Empowering women means that you also have to provide them with the right models to follow. Having female leaders show that they are valued as much as men, that you’re also invested in their growth, and that you see their potential.
Ensure Equality
Did you know that according to PayScale’s Gender Pay Gap Report for 2020, for every dollar earned by men, women only earn 81 cents? And this is already the result of a narrowed pay gap between genders through the years. What does this report tell you? That while not easily noticeable, the gender pay gap still exists.
Salary and wages are important. And to ensure that the women in your workplace are empowered, you have to have an efficient pay structure that gives them equal compensation like their male counterparts. You can do this by conducting pay audits, where you examine where discrepancies lie and fix them.
It’s also not just in salaries and wages where you should ensure equality. In 2018, the #MeToo movement voiced the hidden pains of women from all walks of life. Some testimonies also include the harassments and other forms of abuse women experience in the workplace. To empower the women in your organization, you have to guarantee and protect them from experiencing these kinds of situations. Encourage open communication as part of your culture so that whenever there are issues—especially sensitive ones like workplace harassment—your employees, not just women, know that they could count on you.
Stay on Top of Policies
The world is constantly changing. And your organization has to keep up. This includes your company policies. Are your company policies still applicable in today’s workforce? Or do you need to revise it already to ensure better performance for your business? Remember that not only governments experience the problems of bureaucracy, but also organizations.
It’s time to revisit your policies and rethink those that don’t work anymore. For those that still work, you need to consider if you could make it even better. Having better policies also contribute to the empowering of your female employees. Employees—of all genders—abide and embody policies when they know that they are designed to make their work better.
The road to empowering women at work is full of challenges. But that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t do it. Give equal chances to all genders in your company!
