It’s irrefutable that Utah has a questionable reputation for gender pay parity.  It’s a known and debated issue in business circles. According to WalletHub, the state has ranked the worst for gender equality for several years in a row.  Utah businesses are growing at 1.9 percent, which should mean that we see more women in leadership roles here, especially considering there’s been a 24 percent uptick in the representation of women at the C-suite nationwide. But that’s not the case.

Our lack of women in leadership is bad for diversifying Utah business growth and external sustainability. As a Utah-based HR leader, I champion making comprehensive changes in how we attract and retain the top tier female talent. The delta in understanding the extent of the situation is huge. 

Recently, I attended a roundtable of prominent local businesses and the conversation trended towards gender in the workplace. Others at my table considered themselves progressive for implementing mentorships, resource groups, and daycare support. I support these actions, but I would argue these actions trend closer to baseline expectations than progressive change agents. We have to think beyond the basics.

These kinds of programs are launched with the best intentions, but consider the message you’re sending: is offering daycare the best way to tell a professional woman you value her…or might she read into it that you think her primary role is to have kids? Where’s the appeal to all the women who don’t have children? How are you showing you value them as professionals with an aspiring career? What about men? So often women get more parental leave than men; how are you helping men show up at home to connect more to their families?

The fact is: wherever we are in gender balance and equality in Utah workplaces…there’s still room for growth. To move the needle, you have to push boundaries that aren’t traditionally pushed. 

Push boundaries

 Showing a true commitment to pay parity is more difficult than it seems. Often, companies say that pay is equal and that they audit it, but then they lack the courage to show their employees the audited information. It’s important that the women in your workplace know that their salary is on par with a male colleagues. Trust and transparency go hand in hand when you are trying to make significant and long-lasting changes in the workplace.   

Making bias an organic, company-wide conversation is key—but it’s not an easy task. Force it and you risk getting the opposite of what you intend. Open and honest two-way communication, along with an environment that is psychologically safe and encourages feedback and openness, will create relationships where inadvertent slips can be handled with understanding.

It’s important to be visible in your commitment. Make your company mimic your customer demographics to ensure that you deliberately go after talent that is missing from your company. Too often in this state, a company says that it is promoting women, but then every picture it posts is of an all-male leadership team, sales force, and engineering department. You have to have female representation at every level of the organization.

No one wants to join an organization where they are the first of their kind, responsible for forging a path for others. They want to look around and know that they are surrounded by others like them. 

Ensure your benefit offerings reflect the needs of men as well as women. One way to do that is to offer equal parental leave, and be willing to bend the rules around traditional work schedules.  

We’re moving in the right direction

Times have changed, and I encourage all of us to really consider how women are treated compared to men in our organizations. In fact, men need to have a voice in this, too. Though many may have come to fear opening their mouths in this #MeToo era, keeping quiet only spreads the divide. If men at your company have questions, answer them, even if they’re difficult, they may want to know how your effort to equalize the genders impacts them and their teams. Have answers.

Get the buy-in of your leadership team because if they’re on board, others will follow. Get involved in what’s going on outside of your company. We’ve got some great organizations and events that are trying to draw awareness to this subject. If Utah companies don’t start working together to combat Utah’s bad reputation in the gender parity space, we are never going to win as a community.