The policies of human resource are constantly changing and it is required for the human resource department to implement appropriate policies to address the issues. The report will observe the issue of gender inequality suffered by female workers around the world and this report will be prepared by evaluating the news article posted by John Hilton. It has been found that it is the major issues in corporation as females are not getting same position and remuneration as compared to male employees. The issue of gender inequality has been proved by number of studies and news report in the business industry worldwide. It has been found that the female workers of Australia are facing the issue of gender inequality as they are paid lower remuneration in comparison of male workers (Lengnick-Hall, Lengnick-Hall, Andrade & Drake, 2009). The report will evaluate the role of the strategic human resource management in the context of improving the condition gender inequality. Moreover, recommendations will be given in the assignment in the context of gender inequality and unequal pay.
Gender inequality is a huge issue in the workplace where women are being treated unfairly in the way that they are paid and it involves workplace discrimination, pay gaps, domestic violence and financial issues.
Recognition of the problem
Gender inequality problem is the major issue which increase the demotivation in among employees. Female workers are facing issue of ‘gender pay gap’ for similar tasks. Discrimination is also the issue which is faced by the female workers as they are not allowed to promote at senior level position (Lips, 2013). It has been found from the released data by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) that various organizations are focused towards this issue and implement the strategy address the issue of gender pay imbalance. It has been stated by director of WGEA that more than 11,000 employees have become aware about the gender inequality issues and took initiative to bring the change in the organization by removing the gender inequality (WGEA, 2017).
Gender equality and women’s empowerment strategy has been focused by the Australian Government which brings the three priorities that will be helpful to guide on gender equality. These three priorities are enhancing, promoting and ending violence. Equal Employment Opportunity is defined as freedom from discrimination at the workplace based on colour, inequality in gender, racism, religion and age (Jackson, Schuler & Jiang, 2014). It has been analyzed that in Australia, the government has passed the bill of Equal Employment Opportunity to maintain the balance of work by providing equal opportunity to men and women which is able to promote the equal pay in the companies (Baird, Williamson & Heron, 2012). It is the responsibility of the HR department to manage the diversity at the workplace because diversity brings the new ideas for accomplishing the task of the company. Equal Employment Opportunity is liable to gather the data and implement the strategies to reduce the discrimination at the workplace. The issue of gender inequality has become the major issue and still woman are seen as the weaker sex who unable to handle workload and stress in a work environment as well as men. Various initiatives has been taken by the Australian Government but HR department of the company is unable to follow the policies which being the cause of maintaining the issue of gender inequality (Bertrand, Goldin & Katz, 2010).
Cause of the issues
Gender inequality is the key issue but another issue is that female employees are not given senior level position enough in the organization. Along with that there are number of issue such as lack of rights, workplace discrimination, pay gaps, financial issues and gender stereotypes. It has been found that financial opportunities are given to men commonly in comparison of women. Furthermore, the rights of women are generally influenced by men due to the gender inequality. Social issues is generally associated with gender inequality and women are considered to be weaker physically and psychology (Dorius & Firebaugh, 2010). As consequences, women have become the victims of domestic violence. The role of Corporate Social Responsibility is integral to spread the awareness about the issues between the companies. It is the belief of modern organization that HR department is liable to reduce the discrimination between the employees and provide equal opportunity and pay scale to men and women (Wilson & Tagg, 2010). It has been found that HR department did not give proper attention towards the development of female and ignored them to promote at high position because they consider them less competent than men. The position of women at managerial level is held not more than 24 percent throughout the world which is quiet lower (Broadbridge & Simpson, 2011).
There are number of causes of the gender pay gap such as bias in pay decision and hiring. Another cause can be deemed as the lack of workplace flexibility (Hook, 2010). For instance, it has been found that the female employees are getting less salary in comparison of male employees at most job levels within Google.
Figure 1: the pay disparity at Google
Source: (Wakabayashi, D., (2017).
It has been found that gender pay gap is done in all jobs and women are not getting what they deserve. However, they do similar work but they get less pay in comparison of men. Here, some examples of various occupations with male and female income are mentioned below which is quiet enough to describe the condition of the female’s income in various occupation in all over the world.
Figure 2: Gender Pay Gap
Source: (Irvine, 2016).
It shows that not even in business industry, gender inequality issues can be found in every sector where women are getting less income. It can be concluded that the HR department of large organization are failed to maintain the gender equality within the organization and it is required for them to implement the strategic human resource policy within the organization to reduce the discrimination at workplace (Purce, 2014).
Inability of the HR department towards the issues
It is the responsibility of the HR department to maintain the gender equality within the organization and to ensure that every employee should be treated in same manner. The employee relation are not maintained by the HR executives in the organization which being the cause of discrimination and gender inequality (Cania, 2014). Gender inequality brings the so many issues in the company such as racism, lack of safety at workplace, discrimination, sexual harassment and unequal pay. These issues are liable to reduce the productivity of the employee and increase the attrition rates in the company which impact the image of the company in front of outsiders (Klasen & Lamanna, 2009). The financial situation of the company can be affected adversely due to huge range of employee turnover which may enhance the recruitment cost of the company. Along with that discrimination is the foremost cause of decreasing the productivity of the female employee who face this issue. Strategic HRM policies should be implemented in the organization to not get affected due to discrimination. Many reputed companies have taken initiative towards reducing the discrimination such as Apple, Google and Toyota. These companies are focused towards making positive environment at workplace by implementing the strategic HRM polices (Cascio, 2018).
HRM polices have the integral role in the success of the organization as it develops the equality between employees and due to lack of it many employees have to face the serious issues such as discrimination, inequality, unsafe workplace and negative working environment. It has been found that HR department of the company are ignoring women to get promoted in senior level due to fear that women cannot continue the job due to household responsibilities even when they outperform their male colleagues. There are number of female workers who have reached at top level in different companies such as Ginny Rometty (CEO of IBM), Lynn Good (Chief Executive Officer of Duke Energy), Beth E. Mooney (CEO of KeyBank) and Susan Wojcicki (CEO of YouTube). These examples are shown that after having the responsibilities of family, women can approach the higher position in the company and handle the every situation if she gets opportunity to prove herself (Lagerberg, 2016).
There are some recommendations which would be helpful for the HR department to address the issue of inequality unequal pay of female workers. Female employees are also eligible to attain the growth in the company and it can be easy if they get effective assurance from HR department.
- HR department need to implement the strategic HR polices for creating the positive environment at the workplace so that the female workers of the company can enhance their productivity towards accomplishing the task.
- Motivation is the key of success and motivated employees are more enthusiastic than unmotivated people and can do perform in well manner. HR department of the company should conduct the rewards and recognition program to motivate the female employees. This strategy will be helpful to reduce the attrition rate in the business.
- Training and development program should be arranged by HR department for employees and make sure that in training there should not discrimination regarding gender equality. Training and development program will assist female employees to understand the working scenario and increase their confidence towards working.
- The strategy of Equal Pay Act should be involved in the company so that the issue of unequal pay can be reduced. HR department should be substantially similar and maintain the policy of equal pay act for them who are working in similar position at same place otherwise it will reduce the productivity of the employee and increase the rate of female workers attrition which enhances the recruitment cost.
- Strategic HRM policies are helpful to create the firm boding between female workers. HR of the companies should provide the various communication channel to the female workers where they can say about the issues from which they are suffering and resolve the issues of them as soon as possible. HR should encourage the female employees by analyzing their activity on daily basis and asking them about the problems while performing the task.
In the limelight of above discussion, it has been concluded that the role of human resource management in the company is vital as it increase the productivity of the employees and reduce the gender inequality by providing them equal opportunity for growth. It has been analyzed that the gender inequality issue is the biggest issue in all over the world and the awareness about this concern is constantly spreading. HR department has become more aware about this concern and provide the equal opportunity to the male and females. There are numerous successful ladies in all over the world who have spouse and children but they are very ambitious and dedicated towards their work and get the position of CEO. Gender inequality can be reduced by implementing the strategic HRM policies such as reward and recognition program, training and development program and efficient employee relationship with female employees
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