It is a rare company today that doesn’t want to be seen as an ‘equal opportunity employer’. But what does this mean? Is the goal of this workplace policy equality of opportunity, or identical treatment for males and females? Have you achieved the aim of gender equality if one woman is appointed to your Board of Directors, or do you need a minimum thirty percent or even fifty percent female representation on your Board?
To decipher what your employer really means when it talks of diversity, we recommend you discuss three simple questions:
- What motivates your employer to value diversity, inclusiveness and gender equality?
- What commitments does your employer make to these values?
- Are your employer’s actions consistent with that intention and commitment?
Look at your own workplace: Are there any expectation gaps between your company’s intentions and commitments? People commit to gender equality and diversity for many reasons. It is predictable that people will have different expectations when they hear a company say, “we endorse diversity”. And, are there any performance gaps between commitments and actions; does your employer walk its talk? When there is alignment in a company’s intentions, commitments and actions on equality, we call that “integrity”.