This Act states that people who work under similar conditions, bringing in the same skills and efforts, should be paid the same salary, whether male or female. It also states that businesses aren’t allowed to make changes or corrections by reducing unreasonably high salaries just to match those who have been unfairly paid low wages.

Despite the fact that the Equal Pay Act has been around since 1963, pay discrimination in the workplace still exists. It has been commonplace for women to earn less than their male counterparts as far back as we can remember, and this has taken a toll on many female workers. It doesn’t help that there are even wider disparities among minorities and the subpopulation.

This Act applies to just about everybody from executives, and administrative employees, to professional employees and external salespersons that have some exemptions such as overtime.

As A Business, How Do You Ensure Equal Pay?

• The first step is to be fully aware of the requirements established by federal and state laws. This will give you more information on what you need to do and what you need to avoid when it comes to hiring and pay practices. For instance, California, Massachusetts, and Hawaii have laws prohibiting the practice of employers asking candidates about their salary history.
• Though it’s easier to rely on senior leadership to ensure the culture in the organization is against pay discrimination, the effort of just one employee who manages to speak up can go a long way. The whole organization needs to be aware of this potential or existing issue and get on board to tackle it.

Often, pay discrimination happens when a company isn’t familiar with the Equal Pay Act. Once alerted, the business will need to implement preventive measures to stop this from happening.

When There’s An Equal Pay Issue Within Your Business – How Do You Fix It?

Start by running a full report on all salaries and positions within the company. Group jobs that are the same or similar and then compare employee salaries within the set.

Where do you see discrepancies? Do you see where females are paid lesser than males in these job groups? Are there legitimate causes for this such as more years of experience or a higher level of education, etc.?

Once you have a list of positions and salaries in question, the next step is to meet with C-suite executives and senior leaders from human resources, compliance, legal and administration.

During the meeting, make sure to address the following:

• Review the salary discrepancies.
• Mention the challenges facing the businesses and employees.
• Shift gears into allowing employees to voice their observations on pay discrimination, fears and ideas on improvement.
• Create immediate action steps for a more gender respectful workplace and eliminate any pay discrimination or inequity traces. Call it the ‘Equity Action Plan’ to make it official.

Learn more about the Equal Pay Act.

The EEOC is now of the opinion that employee self-identification is the preferred method of collecting this essential demographic information. However, employers can use existing employment records or their observation and discretion to make this call if an employee declines to share their gender identity.

Traditionally, it was a case of identifying as male or female, but times are changing. Today, it is becoming more common for there to be the inclusion of gender-neutral markers on documents. At the government level, some states and localities have even enacted laws that require state agencies to issue drivers’ licenses, state identification cards and birth certificates to have them for gender identity purposes.

This has led to ambiguity and complications regarding reporting employees who identify as gender-neutral to the federal government on form EEO-1. To ensure accurate gender identity reporting, employers can report employee counts and labor hours for gender-neutral employees by job category, pay band and racial group in the comment box on the Certification Page. However, they must remember not to forget to tag this as “Additional Employee Data.”

Consistency is key, as it could be identified as sex-based harassment if not handled correctly. Provide only the information that the agency has requested and use the instructions provided by the EEOC as a guide.

Promoting and growing inclusion in various ways is a process and one that should not be taken lightly. One big step you can take is to learn, understand and take gender pronouns seriously.

Why share pronouns at work? As we become more aware of gender fluidity and dismantle regular constructs of gender, the topic of gender pronouns is becoming more common. As a society, we are moving beyond the pronouns of ‘he, him, his’ and ‘she, her, hers.’ Instead, many people would like to be addressed based on how they personally identify — not on the gender they were assigned at birth.

Individuals are now more open about their identities like transgender, nonbinary or gender non-conforming, where the preferred pronouns are ‘they, them, theirs.’ For example, more and more workplaces are taking steps to eliminate gender identity, from creating gender-neutral washroom facilities to having other identity options in completing payroll and HR forms.

Making your organization familiar with the other pronouns will contribute to having an inclusive culture where everyone is heard. Here are some of the things to note in a quest to become more pronoun inclusive in your workplace:

Approach Pronouns As A Learning Opportunity

Before changing systems and payroll forms with more gender selection options, it’s best for the organization as a whole to learn and understand what gender pronouns are and how they have evolved over the years. This learning session can be a lunch and learn or a diversity and inclusion committee speaker that helps break down these topics and answer questions for others to learn in a safe environment.

Verify Preferred Pronouns

When making introductions or breaking the ice at work, welcome statements should include ‘Tell us your name, your role, and if you’re comfortable, your gender pronoun.’ Also, in your welcome, don’t forget to include what your pronouns are as well. Adding this into your everyday language will make it easier for future conversations, and this question will become second nature.

It’s Ok To Make Mistakes

Honest mistakes happen, and most people are very understanding when it comes to incorrectly addressing someone. A best practice if this happens, is to apologize and correct yourself.

Ensure you’re not dwelling too much on the error so that the encounter doesn’t become awkward. Ultimately, the best apology is remembering and respecting employees’ gender pronouns.

Promote Inclusion Through Sharing Pronouns

Email signatures have to be the most cost-effective and easiest way to include gender pronouns as this serves as a reminder and builds awareness internally and externally. As most people have not been questioned about their gender identity, this gives a good impression that the company is concerned and respects gender identity.

Including them in company email signatures is a good way to bring awareness to something that many people might not have thought about before. This would also serve as a catalyst for in-depth discussions that further enlighten people on why pronouns are an essential part of a person’s identity that should be respected and not overlooked.

Social media is another promising avenue to communicate preference — in fact, several platforms including LinkedIn and Facebook now provide space for you to add these to your public profile.

Take Baby Steps For Giant Strides

We need to crawl before we can walk, especially in the areas of inclusivity. As a new change in your company, you want to ensure you’re taking the proper steps to understand this concept so that the adjustments are made in the right ways.

From lunch-and-learns to adding our preferred pronouns to our email signatures, utilizing pronouns is a process, and the biggest part is getting started. Creating an inclusive culture is an ongoing journey, so creating a strategy or roadmap to ensure you are meeting key milestones and goals will be a great advantage as you transform your workplace culture.

Gender pronouns are a key topic in the workplace and will not be going away anytime soon. It’s safe to say having a singular and visible gender identity is a privilege, and this is not a luxury everyone can afford. We now live in a time where we can’t always tell what someone’s gender pronouns are by just looking at them. Referring to individuals with the wrong pronoun can leave your staff feeling disrespected, invalidated and alienated, which is the opposite of what we are trying to achieve. As you use more inclusive language, ensure you ask, remember, and use employees’ correct pronouns to build the best supportive workplace possible.

• Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI)
• Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (DEIB) or
• Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Access (IDEA)

When it comes to learning, diversity and inclusion (D+I) training is not the same as learning the new iOS on your iPhone; there are many layers to this topic, and ensuring you are focused on the right areas for where your business is at in their D+I journey is key.

Diversity and inclusion training acknowledges the attributes of employees that make them different, which encompasses ethnicity, nationality, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, race, color, socio-economic status, physical or mental abilities, and age.

As this affects how employees work together, it goes past being diplomatic and emphasizes the need to accept employees’ uniqueness. When the core of the training is focused on inclusivity and considers the essence of your employees and their perspectives, you know you are on the right track.

Knowing all of this, how do you identify the proper diversity and inclusion training for your organization?

Work With Common Goals

When it comes to any objective, having the end goal in mind is key to ensuring you stay on pace towards your target. The same goes for D+I training. Think about the fundamental learnings you want your employees to have, and then work backward when identifying courses, facilitators, and topics. Again, don’t get too overwhelmed. Working with a consultant can help create a training plan to learn in stages by grasping the foundations of D+I first.

Challenge Unconscious Biases

Unconscious bias is the cornerstone of understanding the value of diversity and inclusion. Unconscious biases are social stereotypes about certain groups of people that individuals form outside their conscious awareness. When we have bias, we are casting judgments on people without knowing who they truly are, leading to incorrect conclusions and ideologies on that person. To tackle this, you need unconscious bias training to learn about the impact and origins of this topic on a deeper level. You need the tools to overcome and not let it affect your D+I roadmap.

Don’t Forget About Inclusion In The Process

Hiring more diverse talent is an excellent step in your D+I goals, but your efforts don’t stop there. You also need to ensure you are thinking of ways those employees can be more included and have a sense of belonging in the organization. Inclusion accepts and celebrates different ways of thinking, approaches to solving problems, and mindsets.

Set Training Priorities

The more tailormade the training is, the better. It would be nice to take on every available training known to man, which would lead to information overload and analysis paralysis. Do a training needs assessment to set the right training priorities, which will help you pick valuable topics.

Don’t Be Restrictive With Your Language

Your employees are grown adults, and as you can guess, they wouldn’t like to be told what to do. Instead of communicating that they will need to be more open and accepting of diversity, help them understand the importance of creating a diverse workplace. It’s tricky but can be achieved by listening to their viewpoints and understanding of diversity, creating learning plans they can be a part of, and being open to feedback during training.

In addition to identifying what type of training you should start with, it’s also good to look at how training can be executed. Long gone are the days where training needed to be done classroom style. Training has now been modernized to the following:

Microlearning: It sounds like a buzzword, but it’s actually a very effective method as it gives room for immediate consumption. Here, materials are broken down into bits and communicated as their needs arise.

Video games: Any successful training should involve problem-solving sessions. Through simulations in gamification, employees can interact, learn and apply what is being taught.

M-learning: The current global pandemic only further alerted the need for mobile learning as it has dramatically increased in popularity. This has to be the ultimate convenience as any day, anytime on any device; employees can access diversity and inclusion training materials. Learning is usually quicker and more accessible through this method.

Diversity and inclusion training are paramount to your organization’s well-being as it makes diverse employees feel like a part of a common goal. Not only will this lead to better employee engagement with employees putting in their best, but there will also be a higher retention rate and lower turnover. Creating a culture of belonging and inclusion is crucial as we continue building organizations and working with vendors and clients worldwide.

With more data and statistics being shared on the significance of D+I and how it can create a more engaging and inclusive work culture, you might be thinking about how you and your management team can begin this journey. You might be asking yourself questions like:

• How well do I understand the organization’s present employee composition?
• What does inclusive mean?
• How can our workplace culture be revamped to suit everyone in the organization?

If you are asking yourself those questions, you are on the right track!

The ideal definition of a positive and inclusive organizational culture supports employees regardless of their gender, ethnicity, race, or socio-economic status, making them a part of the organization, rather than feeling like they are just working for it. Not only will they feel physiologically safe and have a sense of belonging within the organization, but they will feel confident at having a seat at the table and an opportunity for their voices to be heard and valued.

The culture of your business is not to be underestimated when it comes to driving diversity and forming a truly inclusive environment.

Here are some tips on building an inclusive workplace culture:

1. Be All Ears

Creating an inclusive culture starts with creating a space where all thoughts, opinions and perspectives of employees can be shared and heard. This is fundamental — if your employees aren’t given the freedom to contribute in meaningful ways, it can lead to disengagement really fast.

And listening should not be limited to informal or formal meetings. Creating meaningful opportunities for thought sharing can be done through workshops, employee surveys and crowd-sourcing.

Encourage as much transparency as possible, no matter how uncomfortable. Involve employees at all levels, from entry-level to C-suite executives, and show you genuinely empathize with them when they bring forward concerning matters.

2. Act After Listening

Nothing feels worse than feeling like you’ve been heard, but nothing changes, and your words have fallen on deaf ears. It’s essential when creating inclusivity within your team that you show and appreciate their openness by taking action.

One great idea can be investing in resource groups that help employees interact with people with whom they share similarities. This will create space and support for those employees who want to participate, and further, it helps build a sense of belonging within your organization and culture.

Your employees don’t need to be limited to just what is created internally with resource groups. You can partner with many external organizations that advocate and support individuals from marginalized groups in ways of events, coaching, mentorship and training.

3. Value All Contributions

With creating an inclusive culture, everyone brings unique perspectives to the table that help others see the whole picture from different vantage points. Ensuring you are not caught up in just one viewpoint while hearing what everyone has to say is very important.

For example, contributions at the higher level will give executive insight in the same way inputs at the junior level will help you understand what the current culture depicts. No matter the offering, reinforcing positive behaviors and actions will build a sense of belonging and togetherness within your business, yielding increased employee engagement and job satisfaction.

4. Connectivity With Senior Leadership

Breaking down the “them vs. us” mentality is key to creating a culture of inclusion and belonging at your workplace. It’s important that your leadership team not be seen as superior beings who are not to be talked to or disturbed. This mentality creates invisible barriers among the rest of the team and cuts off any chance of vulnerability and sharing from staff to management.

Creating transparency and openness throughout all levels of the organization breaks down any cliques and facilitates transparency, empathy and better communication. When leaders take the step to connect with their staff, those awkward and uncomfortable conversations become a thing of the past, and authentic relationships begin to form. This is when the real magic happens.

Having an inclusive culture is not about being politically correct, fulfilling a ‘quota’, or holding hands in a trust circle (insert another cheesy team-building exercise here); it’s about being strategic with your business.

The benefits that come with having an inclusive culture are immense, from creating more space for creativity and innovative ideas to better collaboration within your teams and, most importantly, higher engagement from your staff at all levels. It’s safe to say the most progressive businesses take inclusion seriously, and if you want to remain competitive, you will want to as well.

What Is Undue Hardship?

The de minimis standard in undue hardship refers to the legal requirement that must be considered as an employee’s religious accommodation request is made. As in all aspects of employee relations, employers can go beyond the requirements of the law, and should be flexible in evaluating whether or not an accommodation is feasible for their company.

Providing Reasonable Accommodation of Religious Beliefs and Practices

To support employees’ religious beliefs and practices, accommodations to support them should be made using these recommended guidelines:

• Train managers and supervisors on how to recognize and respond to religious accommodation requests from employees.
• Develop internal procedures for processing religious accommodation requests.
• Assess each request individually, avoiding assumptions or stereotypes about what constitutes a religious belief or practice or what type of accommodation is appropriate.
• Meet with the employee requesting religious accommodation to define how much (if any) information needs to be provided to other employees.
• Train managers and supervisors to consider alternative available accommodations if the particular accommodation requested would pose an undue hardship.
• Finally, when a religious accommodation cannot be promptly implemented, consider offering alternative temporary options, while a permanent solution is explored.

Seniority Systems and Collective-Bargaining Agreements

Check your seniority system and/or collective-bargaining agreements to ensure that a religious accommodation will not conflict with the terms or infringe on other employees’ legitimate expectations.

Employers should not automatically reject a request for religious accommodation just because the accommodation will interfere with the existing seniority system or terms of a collective-bargaining agreement. If the requested accommodation would violate the collective-bargaining agreement or seniority system, confer with the employee to determine if an alternative accommodation is available.

Finally, communicate to leadership any accommodation agreements made that may require making exceptions to policies or procedures that are not part of a collective-bargaining agreement or seniority system.

Schedule Changes, Substitutions Or Swaps

An area where undue hardship rules may apply could be in a request for a schedule change due to religious beliefs. Employers should work with employees who would like to adjust their work schedules for this purpose.

One way to eliminate the possibility of religious discrimination where scheduling is concerned is to adopt flexible leave, policies and procedures. This allows employees to meet religious and other personal needs and can reduce individual requests for exceptions.

For example, some employers have policies allowing alternative work schedules and/or a certain number of “floating” holidays for each employee. These policies may not cover everything, and some individual requests may still be needed, but the number of individual accommodations may be greatly reduced.

An employer may also simplify and encourage voluntary substitutions and swaps between employees with substantially similar qualifications. This will also promote an atmosphere in which substitutes are seen as a positive. Providing a central file, bulletin board, group email or other means to help employees resolve a scheduling issue will further facilitate this.

Change of Job Assignments and Lateral Transfers

Change in job assignments and lateral transfers may be viable options for a reasonable religious accommodation. Employers should consider a lateral transfer when no accommodation that would keep the employee in his or her position is possible without undue hardship.

However, an employer should only resort to transfer, whether lateral or otherwise, after fully exploring accommodations that would permit the employee to remain in his position.

When a lateral transfer is unavailable, do not assume that an employee would not be interested in a lower-paying position. If no transfer opportunity is available within the employee’s current job level, offer the lower available position and let the employee decide whether or not to take it.

Balancing Religious Expression

Train managers to gauge the actual disruption posed by religious expression in the workplace, rather than merely speculating that disruption may result. Managers should be empowered to identify alternative accommodations that might be offered to avoid actual disruption. An example would be to designate an unused or private location in the workplace where a prayer session or a Bible study meeting can occur.

In any anti-harassment training provided to managers and employees, include information regarding religious expression and the need for all employees to be sensitive to the beliefs or non-beliefs of others.

Addressing these topics ensures that your workplace will be a place where everyone feels valued, and therefore comfortable performing their job to the best of their ability. You’ll also be positioning your company for less risk when it comes to religious discrimination.

There are a number of best practices you can take in order to prevent discrimination based on religion or culture, some of which include:

Preventing Discrimination

• Establish written criteria for evaluating candidates based on their experience and job performance and apply them to all candidates for hire or promotion.
• During interviews, ask the same questions of all applicants and stick to matters directly related to the position available.
• Carefully and accurately record business reasons for any employee disciplinary or performance-related actions.
• When management decisions require the exercise of subjective judgment, reduce the risk of discriminatory decisions by providing thorough training.
• If confronted with customer biases, such as an adverse reaction to being served by an employee wearing religious garments, consider engaging with and educating the customers regarding any misperceptions they may have and/or the equal employment opportunity laws.

Creating An Inclusive Workplace

There are many ways in which your company can build and modify practices to create a climate of understanding and goodwill.

Religious Dress

Make efforts to allow an employee’s desire to wear a yarmulke, hijab or other religious attire. If there is concern about workplace safety or uniform appearance in a position involving interaction with the public, it may be appropriate to consider whether the employee’s religious views would permit him or her from making an adjustment such as wearing the religious item in the company uniform color(s).

Managers and employees should be trained not to engage in stereotyping based on religious dress and grooming practices and should not assume that atypical dress will create an undue hardship.

Social Gatherings

Be sensitive to the risk of unintentionally pressuring or coercing employees into attending social gatherings when an he or she indicates a religious objection to attending.

Addressing Complaints

Make sure that your company has a well-publicized and consistently applied anti-harassment policy that:

• Outlines conduct that is prohibited
• Describes procedures for reporting harassment
• Contains an assurance that complainants will be protected against retaliation

Likewise, make sure your company has a clearly outlined process for handling complaints which includes prompt, thorough and impartial investigations and corrective actions. To prevent conflicts from escalating to the level of a Title VII violation, employers should immediately intervene when they become aware of objectively abusive or insulting conduct.

If an employee communicates objections to religious conduct that has been directed at them, the employer should take steps to end the conduct even if the employer does not regard it as abusive. When the source of harassment is from a non-employee assigned by a contractor, a supervisor or other appropriate individual in the chain of command should meet with the contractor to demand that it cease, that appropriate disciplinary action be taken if it continues, and/or that a different individual be assigned to the work.

Retaliation

It is hoped that by putting safeguards against religious discrimination in place, that everyone in the workplace can feel protected and represented. However, in some cases, there may be worst-case scenarios that occur. In the event of these situations, employers can reduce the risk of retaliation claims by:

• Training managers and supervisors to be aware of their anti-retaliation obligations under Title VII, including specific actions that may constitute retaliation.
• Carefully and timely recording the accurate business reasons for disciplinary or performance-related actions and sharing these reasons with the employee.

1. First, be sure to follow all applicable local, state and federal laws in regard to diversity and ensure all workplace policies are applied consistently and without discrimination.
2. Next, define the term “diversity” in relation to your workforce and company culture. Consider what your definition means and how it relates to obtaining the best and most qualified workers, as well as how this definition of diversity can be linked to business strategies and goals. Reflect on the background of the workplace, the organizational structure, and look for areas where diversity can positively impact the business.
3. Then, define key stakeholders and work together to establish a clear and concise strategy which identifies any needed and/or desired changes to the current structure along with potential barriers that could prevent it from being successful.
4. Next, outline processes for implementing your new diversity plan, which can include:
   1. Identifying clear goals and spelling out steps needed to obtain them
   2. Explaining how the steps will be applied and tested
   3. Noting potential employee involvement
   4. Defining how you will measure success (efficiency, benefits, retention)
   5. Identifying resources that will be needed
   6. Creating key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure effectiveness
5. Involve all employees in the creation and implementation strategies, to help determine how the diversity will impact the organization. Clearly outline participation and expectations, along with training and cooperation at all levels. Every individual should have a sense of accountability in supporting your business’ diversity strategies.
6. Finally, set measurable future goals, analyze results of all diversity efforts, and consider ongoing areas for improvement to ensure continued development and consistent successes.