In this brief video, Michael MorrisOpens a new window , co-founder, CEO, and board member for Torc, speaks about building anonymity in the workplace. Kelli JordanOpens a new window , the director of career, skills, and performance at IBM, reinforces the need for diversity and inclusion training. Sue BergamoOpens a new window , the vice president of global security at ActiveCampaign, highlights the issue of substandard wages.
Key Highlights
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- Are There Ways to Boost Women’s Participation in the Tech Workforce?
- Can a Hybrid Work Model Help Build a Diverse, Gender-agnostic Workplace?Â
- What Needs to be Done to Close the Gender Pay Gap in the IT Industry?
Read the full transcript of our conversation with Michael Morris, Kelli Jordan, and Sue Bergamo here:
TOOLBOX: The Great Resignation is causing havoc on the employment market, and no group has been affected more than women. Data from Gusto says more women are quitting their jobs, resulting in a wider gender disparity. According to McKinsey, in Corporate America, more women than men are overworked and exhausted. Meanwhile, HBR coined the term “Shecession†and found that by January 2021, 3 million women left the workforce.
All of this begs the question – can women in IT help close the skills gap? If so, what initiatives should companies take to enhance women’s participation in the IT workforce? What type of gender-neutral policies should organizations use, in addition to increasing initiatives to close the gender pay gap in the IT industry? Let’s hear from experts.
PLATE: Are There Ways to Boost Women’s Participation in the Tech Workforce?
MICHAEL MORRIS: Companies are starting to take measures, not just necessarily applicable to one gender or geography. The measures are taken across the workforce making it easier to implement and help women ultimately. Things like adopting a remote working philosophy and policies allow people a lot more flexibility with their day-to-day work like structuring meetings and availability. Besides, there’s a big opportunity to build anonymity into the hiring process. Basically, you can take out any sort of bias if you can build anonymity in the recruiting process thereby attracting new talent. There’s a lot of room for people to be able to take out biases.Â
The key thing, though, at the end of the day, is that this isn’t just an HR problem but an entire company’s, be it the CEO, hiring manager, or employee. People just have to embrace new ways of recruiting and structuring the onboarding of people and attracting new talent. If that’s done in an organization, it becomes cultural, ultimately having a big effect.
PLATE: Can a Hybrid Work Model Help Build a Diverse, Gender-agnostic Workplace?Â
KELLI JORDAN: The pandemic has turned out to be a great equalizer for people who have previously worked remotely. We have all been in the same situation working from our homes or a coffee shop. Everybody is on the screen becoming a lot more flexible and understanding when it comes to dealing with work-life interruptions, for example – a child or a pet making an appearance on a conference call. It has also helped to level the playing field when it comes to career opportunities. Companies should focus on the skills that people have and the outcomes that they can get delivered. Focus on managers and train them to become much more empowered to create a culture of diversity and inclusion. They should go through training on empathy and mental health awareness, and what this has led to has been an overall diverse and inclusive culture for women and for all the members. Â
SUE BERGAMO: The one good thing that came out of the pandemic is that companies have realized that employees can work from anywhere in the world, which opens up the talent pool to geographic areas that are rich in skill sets. Having the ability to meet both family and work commitments and decrease stress levels by reducing commute times work in the favor of both companies and employees. Hopefully, companies will continue to support the hybrid model as the world reopens from the pandemic.
PLATE: What Needs to be Done to Close the Gender Pay Gap in the IT Industry?
MICHAEL MORRIS: Paying people based on productivity or more importantly, valuing people based on the impact they have in an organization is how somebody should be compensated. And if a company doesn’t have the means to be able to measure that impact or performance of an individual, then it should start focusing on it. The productivity of an individual is important.
SUE BERGAMO: If a company doesn’t want to pay their employees as per industry standards, someone else will be happy to take their talents away. With the opportunities in the industry today, employees will no longer sit back and be happy with substandard wages.Â
KELLI JORDAN: It starts with hiring where we focus on the value of the job and not the applicant’s salary. Raises are determined by skills and pay competitiveness and are driven by data. Pay equity is a huge part of our inclusive culture, and that culture also includes our commitment to continue to improve the representation of women in leadership roles. This has always been part of who we are, and we know our work is never done.
Does your company follow a gender-neutral policy? Tell us on LinkedInOpens a new window , TwitterOpens a new window , or FacebookOpens a new window . We would love to hear from you!