Want to know the secret to empowering and supporting women and helping them reach their full potential in their careers? If yes, you’ve come to the right place. Empowering women in the workplace is crucial to creating a diverse, equal, and inclusive workplace. Yet they often face many challenges and barriers that prevent them from advancing their careers or accessing the same opportunities as their male colleagues.

Therefore, to help you, our experts at Cochran, Cochran & Yale have shared multiple ways you can empower women at your workplace.

In this blog, we’ll discuss strategies you can implement to address gender inequality, retain diverse talent, foster creativity and innovation, and give women an equal seat at the table based on merit and equal opportunity.

So, without further ado, let’s dive in:

Develop And Encourage An Approachable Leadership Style

Women thrive when they have dependable relationships at work. If your top leaders and executives present themselves as approachable, they can publicly support and campaign for women’s rights. It increases the number of opportunities for women to thrive within the organization. As a leader, you must invest your time and energy to develop a career path for women, not just their current jobs or roles.

One of the best ways you can do that is to have an open-door policy and solicit feedback from the team about what’s working for them and what’s not. When you’re analyzing this feedback, focus on what the moms are saying. Moms can be an incredible asset to your team when they feel empowered and supported to pursue their careers. It’ll take the extra stress off their plate and allow them to balance their personal and professional life.

 

Address The Pay Gap

Did you know that men are four times more likely to ask for a raise than a woman? As a result, this pay gap persists, and women are paid less for the same roles as their male counterparts. This pay gap is even more apparent in moms of color and different ethnicities.

As a CEO, manager, or leader, check your compensation plans and analyze the pay gap issues. Also, try to ensure that salaries and raises are determined equitably. And if you need to make any adjustments to level the playing field for all your employees regardless of gender, race, and ethnicity, consult with your HR and propose a plan to standardize the pay structure.

Also, try to promote pay transparency. If employees openly discuss their salaries, they can hold you accountable to reward them based on merit.

 

Allow And Protect Flexibility For Work Moms

Did you know that 88 percent of women consider flexibility one of the most crucial factors in job satisfaction, even more than monetary compensation? As their staunch ally in the workplace, you can support them and advocate for multiple factors, like flexible working schedules and hybrid work arrangements.

You can also strategize and advocate for family-friendly benefits like tuition reimbursement programs, childcare stipends, health benefits, and parental leave policies. Also, coach women to take advantage of these flexibility factors to protect their mental health and improve their productivity.

However, if you offer flexible working schedules, remind your employees to communicate their availability and set a consistent schedule.

Push Less Experienced Women To Excel

If you’re a senior executive at your organization, you’re obligated to develop your junior employees. Focus on providing opportunities and uplifting the women in your team, especially those with less experience. Include these women in joint teams and assign them new projects to help them grow, excel, and network.

And when it’s appropriate, endorse these talented women as they seek a promotion or a raise. Women need to excel because companies that have three or more women on their boards outperform other companies in the same industry. As a senior manager and a mentor, your guidance in a women’s career can begin opening doors for them that’ll eventually lead to a board room.

Create Networking Opportunities

Create networking opportunities to help women connect with mentors and senior leaders, which might lead to new job opportunities and career advancement. You can organize networking events for your employees and employee resource groups to bring together a diverse group of employees to promote diversity and inclusion and empower women in the workplace.

Be A Mentor

Create a mentor mindset for your senior leadership and managers because engaging in conversations with a mentor can help women feel more comfortable expressing their career goals. It’ll also make it easier for them to speak their minds in meetings and advocate for a promotion.

Also, according to Harvard Business Review, women with a mentor and a close inner circle of female contacts as their supporters are more likely to excel and land an executive position with a higher pay scale and authority. Therefore, support and mentor your women and help them excel so they can contribute to the organization’s future and accelerate business growth.

 

Provide Constructive Feedback

You can help the women in your workforce improve their skills by pointing out what they’re doing well and what they can do differently to increase productivity and skills. Use feedback as a constructive tool to build your female workforce and help them feel more confident in their roles.

However, don’t try to play favorites. Oftentimes, the constant competitive drive to push through the glass ceiling can create negative energy in the workplace and set women against each other. When you support all the women as equally as you can and provide positive and constructive feedback, you switch the overall narrative and communicate that there is room for all of them to excel and succeed.

Giving A Seat Is Not Enough; Encourage Them To Speak!

Simply giving a seat to women at the table is not enough or worth it if they’re constantly overlooked in meetings. If you bring the women into the inner circle, allow them to share their views and thoughts on issues and challenges during the board meetings. If none of them volunteer, ask them specific questions directly.

The virtual work environment has also made it difficult for women to speak up, especially moms taking video calls and juggling childcare at home. Also, address the challenge of women being spoken over during the meetings.

During these situations, some women may not react at all or won’t know how to act. If they aren’t able to speak for themselves or react to being spoken over, become their ally by reopening space for them by saying that you noticed that they hadn’t finished talking and then asking about what they were sharing previously.

 

Reach Out To The Executive Recruiters In NY To Transformative Leaders

If you want to transform your organizational culture, empower women in the workplace, and promote diversity and inclusion, look no further than Cochran, Cochran & Yale. We’re one of the most reputable VP Finance recruiters NY, candidate assessment service, and New York Executive Headhunters NY that have helped hundreds of businesses and multiple companies and organizations find competent and transformative leaders to reconstruct their organizational culture.

Reach out to us today for information on our New York Executive recruitment firm.