Two essential ways to approach gender data that can accelerate inclusion in any workplace.
Gender data in the workplace means any data – about a process, dynamic, or policy, related to gender identity. Wherever we gather demographic data on gender identity in relation to some organizational area – like recruitment, salary, employee experience, etc – we have gender data. Many organizations are missing opportunities to make their existing data work for equity in the workplace because trends at their workplace are hidden in data sets that cannot be compared or are ineffectively combined. Here are two ideas on how you can make these trends visible in your workplace:
1. Pay, performance, progression
To ensure people of marginalized genders – Women, Transgender folks, Nonbinary and Gender Fluid people – are:
1. paid in parity with Men
2. evaluated fairly based on their performance alone and
3. given equitable access to career progress
You first need to understand where the barriers lie with more precision by aligning your HR data with your payroll data.
Overlapping these data sets allows you to see the trends in gender disparities in your workplace more clearly than mandatory gender pay gap reporting allows for. T Combining these data sets might reveal that the Women in a certain team are paid less for their work AND are promoted less than Men in that team AND are also much less likely to participate in that leadership program you offer employees for career progression.
2. Employee experience
The numbers will only tell you part of the story though. To really accelerate gender equity in an organization, we need to know how the workplace culture is experienced by employees of different gender identities. To gain a fuller picture of the barriers and opportunities for gender equity in the workplace, employee engagement survey data can be aggregated with wider HR data (on teams, processes, functions) and payroll data. Perhaps you find that women report being overlooked for career-advancing opportunities because they are undervalued by their managers compared with Men.
Bringing these data sets together allows workplaces to not only assess the landscape of gender equity but also to have the evidence base you need to form strategic action plans that can drive change towards gender equity in your workplace.
Looking for expert consultancy on your DEI data solutions? Get in touch with Fearless Futures to speak to one of our experts.
