Nowadays, one doesn’t hear the term “gender gap” very often because women have been in the workplace for so long. However, it’s still true that they get paid less for doing the same type of work as men. Plus, they’re often given a hard time in fields that are particularly male-dominated.
Women who are supervisors may have to fight for the respect they deserve. If you want to be a successful entrepreneur, you need to make sure that women in the workplace get the credit, the pay and the respect that is due to them. Here are a few tips:
Communicating with Female Employees
Communication is everything. As a small business owner, you must already know this to be true. Taking the time to speak to your clients can make all the difference between landing an account and losing it. Similarly, when it comes to your employees, you need to know what’s going on in their minds. When you ask your female employees for feedback, do you hear the same types of comments from all of them? Do they seem generally satisfied with the way that things are going? Or are there particular issues that are bothering them all?
Investigating Issues
If your female employees don’t seem to be particularly forthcoming, this could be because they are afraid of coming out into the open with regard to certain issues. In this case, an anonymous survey might be a good option, as long as you have enough female employees to make this possible. Just keep in mind that if you feel that something is wrong, it generally is. You may not be able to put your finger on that thing but you need to trust your gut and look into it further.
Setting Guidelines
It’s always a good idea to have written guidelines with regard to how certain situations should be handled. For example, if you’re getting a lot of complaints with regard to sexual harassment or insubordination, you need to have a set way of dealing with these complaints. Ideally, the situation needs to be brought before a neutral person and investigated further by that person. If you’re an entrepreneur, this responsibility is likely to fall on you. However, it’s also possible to delegate it to someone whose judgment you can trust.
Taking Action to Prevent Harassment
What do you do in cases where the same type of allegation is brought against a certain person again and again? It’s up to you to decide whether you want to fire someone who is known for harassing female colleagues or whether you want to penalize them in some other way. However, if it’s important for you to keep your female employees happy, keep in mind that it will be necessary to take a definitive step.
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