So, how do you break the bias?

To break the bias, we should accept that there is bias. If you have a brain, you have bias. As simple as that. Let’s start from there.

So now, how do we break gender bias, particularly the biases against women in the workplace? Here is my list of checkpoints on this. Can be a good reference or refresher for managers and leaders committed to the D&I cause. I ended up with exactly 22 items. The 2022 effect perhaps. Check them out. Take in what resonates with you and ignore the rest.

1. When a woman employee leaves office earlier than the majority, don’t raise eyebrows or assume she is taking her career easy. Remind yourself to assess performance purely based on outcomes and not on time-spent at work. This one is hopefully an outdated bias in the post-Covid world.??
2. When a new mother returns to work, don’t assume she cannot take up a challenging assignment and default her into a “light” role.
3. If one does ask for a light role for a brief period, ensure you pull the candidate out of the role once the personal situation has improved. Common pattern is talented women going into support roles hoping that eases the time demand et al and getting lost there for far too long to make a comeback to get ahead in their careers.?
4. When you’re planning annual raises, don’t under-compensate a woman employee who did a great job through the assessment year and went on maternity leave before the pay-rise season.
5. Check how rewards are being distributed across genders in your team. Not asking for reserving a quota for women, but check how the distribution is. If your hiring mechanism is great, the rewards distribution should be representative of the underlying population in the team
6. Check how your competence development budget is allocated across genders.?
7. Check who receives plum opportunities - challenging projects, travel, customer demonstrations, industry events, speaking engagements et al. Is there a fair distribution across genders?
8. Do you explicitly tell your reports while they leave your team that they can reach out to you for career or workplace questions they may encounter further down the line? Do you offer this to promising women candidates in particular?
9. Do you act as a sponsor for both men and women equally? When you hear of a plum opportunity opening up and you know a woman employee who could be a good fit there, do you propose her as the candidate?
10. When you see a high potential woman employee in a role that offers limited growth potential, do you work with her in getting her into a more challenging role with better growth potential ?
11. When you share critical feedback with a woman employee, do you also offer guidance and support on how she can work out of that limitation ?
12. Don’t default housekeeping activities - minuting, tracking actions, coordinating, organising team events, dinners, offsite et al - to the women in the team. Explicitly make it a rotational responsibility if there is no exec admin in the team.
13. Competent women leaving the workforce for personal or family reasons is passé. Talented women leave the workforce out of boredom that builds up over a period of time - lack of challenging opportunities at every step on the way.
14. Have a structured approach towards developing women into impactful roles - P&L ownership, people leadership functions et al. Present day pattern is mostly higher-density of women in supporting roles and much lesser share in revenue roles.
15. Build a community of women in the workplace
16. Consciously avoid hiring people who are like you. This is the greatest trap a hiring manager can fall into. Every team needs a diverse talent mix.
17. Have women role models at all levels in the organisation. This goes a long way in attracting and retaining competent women
18. Check the share of promotions across genders - again not recommending a quota or reservation here.?
19. Be conscious of how you address your team. Replace “guys” with “folks”.
20. Offer paid new-born leaves to all genders. This goes a long way in making it an equal society.
21. Offer role flexibility when needed
22. Hire women on career-breaks, train, develop.

How are you keeping gender bias at bay in your day-to-day work-life? Do leave a comment. ??