The Importance of Working Strategically with Equality

We have a long way to go reaching gender equality and it’s with great importance that organizations work strategically to fill the gap. But how do you do that?

Equal workplace is an issue that is actively talked about around the world. According to the EU Gender Equality Survey 2021, Sweden became the most gender-equal country in the EU, followed by Denmark and the Netherlands, a place that Sweden has since 2005. In the area of money, Sweden ranks tenth place. The lower investment is due to income differences between women and men in Sweden and women's lower access to financial resources.

Working with gender equality is about utilizing all skills, regardless of gender, age, background, etc. It is both humanistic and favorable from a business economics perspective. In addition to being detrimental to the economy, homogeneous activities can also have structural problems. For example, some male-dominated activities have been characterized by a macho culture, which in turn has increased the risk of accidents and occupational injuries. Female-dominated workplaces have other problems such as lower wages and high long-term sick leave.

How do you measure gender equality in an organization?

To measure how equal an organization is, one should look at the differences between the queues and carry out a deeper analysis of the challenges before starting the change at work. Map gender equality with the help of computerized key figures, both in terms of the experience of employees and the working conditions within the organization. Here are three ways to measure gender equality in the organization:

1. Measure the experience

One way of measuring is to ask via surveys how employees experience the organization as a workplace from the perspective of equality between men and women.

2. Map actual working conditions

Another way of measuring is to map actual data that deals with working conditions, working environment, sickness rates and so on, divided into men and women. What is different? Do we take care of our employees on equal terms regardless of gender?

3. Combine the experience and actual working conditions

The third way to measure gender equality is to combine the experience and actual working conditions. What we ask about, we also measure in quantitative data, in the form of working conditions, employment conditions and more.

There are several ways to work actively with gender equality work. You as a manager can choose to only do what you must do to follow the law or expand the gender equality work to have a greater positive impact on your organization. Here you can read more about what you as an employer must do according to law and what you can also do to work with gender equality.

Let us Help your Organization Become more Equal

‍Having equal pay is one of our basic principles at Sysarb and we are constantly working to help organizations and companies achieve this. Since the start, we have carried out almost 4,000 salary surveys and annually help thousands of managers to put the right salary in the salary audit. Doing a salary survey is the very best way to find out if the salaries in your business are equal. We dream of changing the global view of pay and creating transparency, justice, and impact.

Source: Ledarna, EIGE