Some (sort of) good news

With the holiday season approaching quickly I've been looking for a "good" topic to blog about. With various economists making wildly varying predictions for Canada's growth in 2011 and the ongoing problems in Europe it's been hard but a story in yesterday's Globe and Mail caught my eye.

The story in question reports that according to Statistics Canada Women's income has been growing faster than men's in Canada since 2000. The story goes on to report that between 2000 and 2008 average income for women rose 13% versus 7% for men which is a good thing. There is still though a wide gap in average incomes between men and women that see women make 71 cents for every dollar men make.

So while there is still a gap and thus room for improvement it's good to see that the gap in pay equity is shrinking. But it reminds me of a question I sometimes get on what TalentOyster can do for companies looking to shrink their own gender pay gap and the answer to that is truthfully not much.

Certainly we can help drive female candidates to your roles but addressing diversity related issues generally, and gender ones specifically in any organization starts with changing the culture of your organization. I previously wrote on how the compensation gap starts with the negotiation and hiring process and it's still a good example of where "everyday" biases, the kind of which we are not always aware of, contribute to the equity gap.

I often talk about the need to "make sure you are looking at everyone" but part of that means to be looking at everyone fairly. Do all the processes regarding hiring, compensation and career advancement at your organization really treat people equitably? Sometimes it's hard to recognize, mainly because a process "works" and has been in place for a long time that it's not actually fair. That the process "works" better for people who fit a certain image or in this case gender. I believe that a process that "works" but isn't looking at everyone makes for a process that actually doesn't work very well at all. When diversity in an organization works it works because it is an essential part of the organizations culture, not just a box we ticked off to make us feel better.

Stories like the one in the Globe show us that we are all making some progress and that is good, but they also show us we have a ways to go. As we approach a new year it would be my wish to see the progress continue so that the same story in December 2020 reports on how the pay equity gap in Canada has been closed. I don't know if that makes me too idealistic or not, but I think we can get there and I hope we will.

Recruiter frustrations with candidates - not what you think

I have spent much of the last ten years working in the job board industry and working with recruiters and hiring managers. During that time I've heard just about every recruiting and hiring story there is. Good and bad, about candidates, interviews and hires, there's not much I haven't heard before. But a recent chat I had with a female recruiter made me stop and think.

During the course of our conversation she expressed the frustration she felt in hiring women and men into the same roles. Her company would go through the normal talent selection process and come out with great candidates of both sexes. She indicated that one off the most frustrating aspects of her job is the disparity she sees when it comes time to make candidates final offers.

Time after time when the final offers are made she watches as the men negotiate more money and into management training - and the women do not. More often then not, the women take the first offer and are just happy to get the job they wanted with a top employer.

This recruiter was torn between her loyalty to her employer (who was strategically putting a lesser offer in front of candidates in anticipation of negotiation) and her inner voice which was telling her she should advise the women to negotiate - just as the males offered the same role were doing.

It seems to me that in some cases equity in the workplace is hamstrung right from the very first step. And I wonder how much this negotiation gap between gender holds up for other sets of candidates. Like newcomers, or aboriginals, or persons with disabilities. Do all these groups tend to suffer from over-eagerness in accepting positions with top employers?

I also wonder what can be done to help resolve the issue. It would seem that it would take both candidate education but also progressive employers, being, well, progressive in how the process of negotiation and hiring works with diverse candidates, or at the very least the women of their workforce. Food for thought at least.