Let's create change every day

On March 8th, the world marked International Women’s Day (IWD). You've probably seen some posts about it on your LinkedIn or other social media feeds over the past couple of weeks.

Those posts might have been celebrating women of note, celebrating women close to the person who posted the story, or talking about how far we have come (or still need to go) when it comes to women’s rights.

You might also have seen posts….

• Highlighting the difficulties in knowing how to support IWD. Did you know for example that the UN had an official theme for this year’s IWD - For ALL Women and Girls: Rights. Equality. Empowerment, But there was also another hashtag doing the rounds #AccelerateAction which was created by a different organisation not associated with the UN.

• Highlighting the fact that many organisations asked women to speak at their IWD event for free, despite the gender pay gap and inequality being one of the key issues highlighted by IWD.

• Bemoaning the fact that there isn’t an International Men’s Day - actually, there is. It’s on November 19th. But it’s not officially recognised by the UN.

This range of posts highlights the difficulty with days like IWD. Yes, special days are good and we are right to celebrate them - doing so can highlight issues and bring them to the forefront of people's thinking. But the real hard mahi is in creating enduring systemic change. And that doesn't happen on just one day. For that, we need to work every day.

Four ways organisations can work for change all year round

#1 Embrace diversity in your hiring processes

Making change starts at the beginning by making sure your recruitment processes aren’t excluding candidates either deliberately or accidentally.

Some things you can do:

• Check your job ads for language that may be biased or put off some candidates. For example, asking for high-level qualifications when the job may not really require them.?
• Consider where biases might lie in your recruitment processes and look to eliminate them. Using candidate selection systems that remove identifiers like names, gender or ethnicity from CVs can help here.
• Offer flexibility in interviews to make them accessible for a wider range of candidates?

such as allowing video interviews rather than making them in-person.

Read more about recruiting an age-diverse workforce

Read more about recruiting and employing people with health issues

Read more about recruiting people from different backgrounds

#2 Get your salaries straight

The gender pay gap in New Zealand is closing. Figures from June 2024 put the gender pay gap at 8.2% compared to 14% a decade ago. But there is still more work to do and the gap is wider when you consider different ethnic groups such as Māori and Pasifika women.

The first step is to make sure that you are offering a fair salary for the role. Not sure whether your salaries stack up against similar roles? Benchmark them. Use an independent tool to compare your salaries to other organisations, roles or similar sectors. The Ministry for Women also has a toolkit to help you determine your organisation’s gender pay gap.

The next step is to show those salaries so that people know what they are getting paid for the role before they apply. Research shows that women in particular are less likely to apply for a role if the salary isn’t listed and don’t negotiate pay as highly as men do.

We strongly encourage all our employers to show the salary or a salary range for each role they post. Jobseekers can filter roles to show only those which have a salary listed when they are searching our job board.

#3 Ensure your policies and culture prioritise employee well-being and development

For your team already in place, you can make change by reviewing your policies with a lens of employee well-being and development. Consider:

• Implementing and supporting programmes to improve physical or mental health
• Creating clear career development pathways and opportunities for professional development
• Adding extra leave options such as extended parental leave or extra holiday or well-being leave
• Building in volunteering time either as a team or individually
• Flexible work arrangements
• Policies that help women return to work after having children

Beyond your policies, work to bake employee well-being into your organisation’s culture. Work towards a culture where employees feel comfortable to speak out whether it’s in a positive way or raising an issue.

Read more about how flexible work can benefit your organisation and your team

Read more about how you can do professional development even on a small budget

Read more about creating a great culture within your organisation

#4 Embark on a sustainability journey

Beyond your people, your organisation can help to make positive changes for our world by aiming to be more sustainable.

Set realistic goals and start with small steps. Things like reconsidering corporate gifts or reducing paper or energy use.

Side note - potential employees and customers (especially younger generations) are placing more and more emphasis on an organisation’s ethics and values, so this type of thing can also make your organisation more attractive.

Read more about getting started with sustainability

How to create change as an individual

Creating change as an individual might feel harder but there are lots of things you can do that, done consistently and often, can make a big difference in the long run. You could

• Be brave - seen a job ad but don’t quite tick all the boxes? Apply anyway. You’ll likely find that the employer is flexible on some things.
• Be even braver - seen a job with no salary or a salary range lower than you’d like? Don’t be afraid to ask the question or negotiate either a better salary or some extra benefits. Read more about negotiating benefits here.
• Don’t be afraid to speak up for yourself or a colleague if you see behaviour that isn’t right.
• Be kind in the way you treat people.
• Look for small ways you can become more sustainable. Things like turning off the tap while brushing your teeth to conserve water, switching from car journeys to walking or cycling or reducing food waste are all small changes that can add up to big differences when we all do them.

When we all work together, we can make changes that stick - not just for a day but across days, weeks, years and generations. At Do Good Jobs, we’re proud to help organisations that are making a difference in our communities, country and the world connect with Kiwis who want to do that too.

By the way, did you know there are over 200 UN International Days??You can find the complete list of days and dates (including International Potato Day!) here.