Three New Year’s Resolutions you really should keep

Whether you find New Year’s resolutions tokenistic or are a firm believer – the end of the year is a great opportunity to gauge your goals for the coming year. You do not have to confine this kind of reflection to your personal life either. It is important to take this time to create impactful resolutions for what you want to achieve in your organisation. Here are three things that you should consider as you approach 2019.

Resolution 1: Conduct a pay gap analysis

  • “CEOs make decisions based on fact. Before you dismiss pay equity as not being a problem in your organisation, you have to look at the data,” Andrew Stevens, former CEO, IBM.

Unintended gender biases in hiring, promotion, performance and pay decisions can lead to pay inequality in almost every organisation.

Our data shows that pay equity analysis is on the rise, with 41.6% of organisations analysing pay data. Don’t let your organisation fall behind the trend. Your organisation won’t know of any potential pay equity issues if they are not measured in the first instance.

Resolution 2: Report pay equity metrics to the Executive and Board

  • “Pay equity is not something leaders can set and forget – it requires an understanding of the data and a willingness to investigate and address the gaps every time pay outcomes are determined,” Christine Christian, former President, Chief Executive Women.

Only 29.4% of organisations report their pay equity metrics to the executive. Reporting gender pay gap metrics to leaders is a critical step to addressing gender pay gaps. Actions your organisation may take to correct like-for-like gender pay gaps are three times as effective in reducing overall pay inequalities if you also report the metrics to Executive and Board.

Resolution 3: Take action on the results

  • "It’s up to every leader to call out gender equality as a key priority for their organisation. It takes more than just words, you need a clear plan with measurable outcomes. It starts with the CEO and everyone needs to work together to drive change,” Gail Kelly, former CEO, Westpac.
Our data has revealed an action gap when it comes to addressing gender equality. For example, of those employers that conducted a gender pay gap analysis, over half of those organisations took no action to fix the gaps. It is important to prioritise the issues of your organisation, set measureable goals around pay equity and develop an action plan for your organisation.