Gender diversity in the workplace is becoming a major factor in many ways; not only does it help new employees determine whether or not they want to work for the organization in question, but there are several other positive effects that organizations can take advantage of if they make gender diversity in the workplace a priority.
Thinking outside of the box, gender diversity in the workplace can be addressed by unique and interesting tools, like Workplace from Meta, with automated bots, chat, and live video features.
In this blog, you will find:
đ What is gender diversity, and why is it necessary?
â 3 ways to be inclusive in the workplace
â¨7 benefits of focusing on gender diversity in the workplace
đ Workplace from Meta can change with Gender Diversity
Having trouble with gender diversity in your workplace? Not sure how Workplace from Meta can help solve this common problem? Read along to see how and why your organization should put an emphasis on gender diversity in your workplace today and how Workplace from Meta's unique features can help you take the first steps toward a more diverse workforce.
Simply put, gender diversity is the equitable or fair representation of people of different genders within your organization. But gender diversity in the workplace isnât just about having the right mix of males and females in your organization. You need to look at the bigger picture.
Below, letâs look at some key questions to ask yourself:
â Does your organization provide a safe environment for women, transgender, or non-binary individuals that you hire?
Simply hiring women, transgender, or non-binary people into your workplace isnât enough. To reap the many benefits of gender diversity, you need to empower those workers not only to reach but exceed their full potential!
Related blogs:
8 Gender Equality Initiatives that Can Make An Impact In Your Organization
5 Great Inclusive Initiatives for Frontline Workers - Blog Series #3
The Importance of Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion in the Workplace
So, letâs talk about three ways to ensure that your organization has enough gender diversity in the workplace:
It seems silly to think that men and women still arenât being treated equally. Yet, there are still stereotypes that are out there regarding how men and women should behave. For instance, one that we hear quite often is that certain behavior in men is seen as âassertive,â whereas that same behavior in women is seen as âbossy.â
This gender stereotyping needs to stop. To be a really inclusive organization, you need to take a look at what language could be perpetuating a gender stereotype. Especially consider your corporate literature and your corporate policies â do they encourage inclusiveness?
Itâs an unfortunate fact that gender stereotyping, as mentioned above, is still happening, but it's also happening in workplace communications, too! Consider this:
â In meetings, are your female, transgender, or non-binary employees treated the same way as your male employees?
These questions should make you stop and think about how the various voices in your organization are being heard.- and, if necessary, how to change your corporate culture and amplify and ensure those minority voices get their fair share of air time.
Here are some questions to ask yourself:
If you find it difficult to answer these questions, it might be time to take a look at how you promote people within your organization. A good place to start is to look at who makes up your hiring committee. Is it diverse enough? If your hiring committee is exclusively dominated by one gender over another, how can you ensure that itâs not biased towards one gender or another?
As mentioned before, there are several benefits to your organization when you make gender diversity in the workplace a priority. Below, weâve briefly outlined seven of them:
It should be obvious, but organizations still donât understand that by not placing an emphasis on gender diversity, they are actually limiting how much talent is coming into their organization. By ensuring that you have a healthy mix of women, men, transgender, and non-binary people on your team, you can benefit from these different points of view and increase the level of creativity and innovation of your team.
Women, men, trans, and nonbinary people all have different point of view, which comes from different life experiences. For instance, there isnât a person in the world that could dispute the fact that women experience buying a car differently than men do! By ensuring that you have gender diversity on your team, you can benefit from these different points of view and increase the creativity and innovation of your team. Plus, it helps your organization to challenge gender stereotypes, which can, in turn, promote your corporate brand as gender-inclusive!
There isnât a person out there who hasnât been in a meeting where they feel like they canât get a word in edgewise. But research has concluded that groups with more women in it are actually better at taking turns in the conversation, which, in turn, helps them to share knowledge and skills with each other. And collaborating face-to-face on projects becomes much easier when your organization can open such an important line of communication.
What organization doesnât want to have a significantly lower employee turnover rate? When you can retain your employees, you save big in terms of time and money spent on recruiting new candidates and training them to get up to speed, too! By emphasizing having an inclusive culture and recognition, you can boost morale and increase opportunities for employees, which will, in turn, lead to higher employee retention rates and save your business time and money in the long run.
Unless you have a product or service aimed at a specific gender, your customers are most likely coming from all backgrounds. So, by ensuring that your employee base reflects your customers, itâs far more likely that youâll be able to communicate effectively with them and improve your understanding of what your customers need. By diversifying your teams, and bringing together a mix of genders, backgrounds, and ethnicity, think of all the buying power youâre able to tap into!
As mentioned in point five, having an inclusive culture can be a real hook for employing new people in your organization. Once your organization gains a reputation for having a more diverse workforce, you have a powerful recruiting tool at your disposal.
According to McKinsey, companies that have more gender diversity are 21% more likely to experience above-average profitability, and companies with more culturally and ethnically diverse executive teams were 33% more likely to see better-than-average profits. So, diversity is a great benefit for your organization â it has a positive impact on your bottom line.
So, now that you know why gender diversity in the workplace should be a priority for you, and the benefits of making it a priority, letâs talk about a technology that can help you bring it to the forefront of your organization.
Workplace from Meta is a communication and collaboration platform designed to help organizations build a strong corporate culture. Workplace has many ways to help you build a corporate culture of gender diversity in your workplace. Below are just a few features of Workplace that can help you to address gender diversity in your organization:
Contact us today to learn how LineZero can help your organization foster a culture of inclusion and equality using Workplace from Meta as your communication and collaboration.