How to close the gender pay gap within your organization
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/SHR-04-2020-180 |
| Published date | 01 April 2020 |
| Pages | 91-92 |
| Date | 01 April 2020 |
| Author | Tanya Jansen |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour,Employee behaviour |
How to
How to close the gender pay gap within your
organization
Tanya Jansen
One of the most discussed HR topics
of 2019 has been the gender pay gap
and how to close it. We have seen
organizations like the US Women’s
Soccer Team, Intel, andCiti take
strong, public initiatives in thefight for
pay equity. However, despitethis
attention, the gender pay gap issue
continues to persist. In fact, nearly
half of employees report that the
gender pay gap has not changedat
their place of work in the last 12-
18 months,and 51 per cent do not
believe their employers or managers
take closing the gender pay gap
seriously. These numbers
overwhelmingly demonstratethat
companies need to openly take
action. As an HR professional, these
are five steps you can take to help
close the gender pay gap at your
organization:
1. Listen to employees.
While this may sound extraneous, it
is imperative that companies take
the time to solicit feedback from
their employees about their
happiness at the company,
perception of the pay gap, and
areas where the employees see
room for improvement. At the most
basic level, this practice will show
employees that you care about their
happiness and that their voices
matter. Opening your ears to listen
to their questions, thoughts and
concerns is important to them and
for the success of your organization.
2. Makea commitment.
Once you have taken the timeto listen
to your employees, openly make a
plan to address their pay gap
concerns and commit to it. If you are
unsure of where to start, consider
investing in compensation
management solutions that expose
where pay gap issues persist. These
solutions are able to omit factors that
are often rooted in bias like age, race
and gender when determining an
employee’s total compensation.
Removing these factors allowsyou to
make fair compensation decisions
based on an employee’s
qualifications and experience.
3. Startat the recruiting stage.
The reality is that pay gaps continue to
persist due to unconscious biases. To
combat this, expand recruiting pools to
not go back to the same homogeneous
sources again and again, and price a
job to its value and market rate rather
than to the salary history of the
candidate. From there, you can level
the playing field from the recruitment
stage to the retention stage.
4. Betransparent.
Consider reporting on pay gap
figures internally or publicly to
establish a culture of trust and
transparency around compensation
within your organization. By the way, if
you have not already done this,
chances are your employees have
Business, Nottingham, UK.
DOI 10.1108/SHR-04-2020-180 VOL. 19 NO. 2 2020, pp. 91-92, ©Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 1475-4398 jSTRATEGIC HR REVIEW jPAGE 91
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