Sheconomy – 22.10.2021
Salary Coach: DEI, equal pay and fairness – how are they all connected?
DEI (Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion) is on everyone’s lips – and rightly so. It is now clear diverse companies that not only throw together a wide variety of employee groups, but that strive for a common corporate culture, a true sense of belonging, an acceptance of each employee in their diversity, those companies live inclusion and are not only more popular employers, but also more successful in terms of ROI (return on investment).
A recent McKinsey study about inclusion states that employees want to be accepted as diverse as they are, they need a sense of belonging and they want meaningful work.
McKinsey shows what these employee wishes would mean for employers: companies should embrace employees in all their diversity, offer a real sense of community and belonging and a culture of fairness!
A survey by Karriere.at from 2019 underpins the trend towards fairness, because the respondents want a fair salary above all and the latest Gen-Z study by Zenjob goes one better: values such as honesty, openness to communication, ideas and concepts are the top desires at Gen-Z – closely followed by good pay as the second most important criterion.
Conclusion: Employees want fairness, meaning, a sense of belonging (inclusion!) AND a good salary. They think less about diversity, but one thing is clear: each one is different and each one wants to be part of a community, be accepted and paid fairly despite their differences – and of course get paid equally, i.e., equal pay for equal jobs and comparable performance is the least what one expects from a good employer nowadays.
Ultimately, “fair & equal pay” is about corporate culture. Those who only pay well will neither be able to get nor keep the right employees in the long run.
And in today’s employee market, where baby boomers are retiring and the generations X, Y, Z are numerically smaller, employers must take the studies cited above much more to heart than they did when there was an excess of employees.
The probability of recruiting a more homogeneous workforce is – apart from the usefulness with a mostly global customer base – very low.
Anyone who believes fairness, diversity and inclusion are only orchid or marginal issues will be taught better by the online recruiting trends triggered by the pandemic at the latest. According to the US recruiting portal Indeed, 61% of employers who have expanded their recruitment policy to remote talent through online interviews recognize the opportunity for a diverse talent pool. There is still room for improvement, but only 18% of SMEs and 24% of corporations report that the pandemic has no impact on their efforts to recruit equally and diversely.
The more diverse the workforce in the company, the more important it will be for employers to create the above-mentioned sense of belonging for everyone, i.e., a culture of inclusion, because corporate goals can only be successfully implemented when all employees, as diverse as they might be, work closely together. And it goes without saying that this culture must serve the values of fairness and equality.
Salary Coach: DEI, equal pay and fairness – how are they all connected? – Sheconomy 22.10.2021
