The glass-ceiling-shattering law will forcibly move the needle towards greater gender parity by 2021, but what’s stopping the change from happening at companies today?

Thanks to new legislation signed into effect on Sunday by Governor Jerry Brown, California is now the first state in the country to mandate women on company boards. The law, known as SB 826, will require all publicly-held companies in California to have a minimum of one female director by 2019.

By 2021, the minimum number will increase to two or three female directors depending on the size of the board.

This pioneering decision emerges during a charged political climate in the US, particularly on the heels of of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s sexual assault allegations and the rapid momentum of the #MeToo movement across the country. Brown acknowledged this current state of affairs in a memo accompanying the new law, saying, “Recent events in Washington, DC—and beyond—make it crystal clear that many are not getting the message” about equal treatment of women.

Many in-state organizations are likely taking stock of their gender parity initiatives in the wake of this new legislation, which carries fines between $100,000 and $300,000 per violation. California-based companies have until December 2019 to comply, but equality activists are scratching their heads as to why—in the midst of the social justice movements sweeping the US—companies are just now reacting to the lack of female leadership at major corporations.

Of the 445 publicly-held companies headquartered in California listed on the Russell 3000 Index, more than one quarter (26.1 percent) had zero female board members in 2017. California, on average, has 1.65 female members per corporate board whereas the US as a whole averages 1.75 female members.

These discrepancies have raised concerns in recent years over the lack of female representation in sectors like the tech industry, with a major hub located in California’s Silicon Valley. According to the most recent diversity reports from SV’s biggest tech firms, women account for 24.5 percent of technical employees at Google, 23 percent at Apple, and 22 percent at Facebook.

These numbers are growing slowly, but not nearly fast enough for change advocates like California Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson, who authored SB 826, arguing that “gender diversity on corporate boards is associated with increased profitability, performance, governance, innovation, and opportunity.”

A number of European countries have already acknowledged the benefits of more female leadership roles. Norway lead the charge in 2008 by requiring companies to have at least 40 percent female directors or face possible dissolution. In the years that followed, France, Italy, Britain, Germany, and the Netherlands were among the dozens of countries that enforced similar quotas ranging between 30 and 40 percent female representation at the corporate level.

With the fifth largest economy in the world, and home to 53 companies on the Fortune 500 list, the Golden State is in a chief position to spearhead efforts of corporate board diversity in the US.

But why is the threat of financial penalties the strongest motivator for generating this change when the merits of female workers are well known? Not only are women often more qualified for leadership roles than their male counterparts, they often outperform their male colleagues over time because they continue to learn and develop their skills.

What’s more, a study from MIT found that evenly-split, gender-mixed teams brought “a greater spread of experience, which could add to the collective knowledge of a group of office workers and make the unit perform more effectively,” affecting everything from office morale to the company’s bottom line.

While the passing of SB 826 may present challenges for organizations that currently lack diverse hiring policies, here are some actionable tips that all HR and TA professionals should consider as more companies reevaluate their diversity and inclusion efforts.

• Get comfortable discussing difficult topics. Conversations around D&I are rife with uncomfortable truths, but the first step to implementing real change is approaching these conversations in an open and honest way.
• Identify what doesn’t work. Bärí Williams, legal counsel for companies like Marqeta, StubHub, and Facebook, argues that companies looking to improve their company diversity and inclusion should begin by asking the simple question: “How can we do better?”
• Examine your employer branding. Think about how your company’s employer branding also encompasses your impact on customers, employees, and society at large. It’s equally important to consider your organization’s candidate-facing image, from the company website to the tone of its messaging, the types of photos used on social media channels, and the language used in job descriptions.
• Reach out to underserved or underrepresented minorities. Proactively seeking out these talent pools gives companies a measurable advantage over others that exclude them. According to Greenhouse Senior Recruiter Ariana Moon, “We saw a huge impact on our pipeline once we began listing jobs on diversity recruiting sites such as NAACP and Ebony.” She continues, “When thinking about partnerships, align with different organizations that are key to building pools of diverse talent.”
• Reduce bias in the hiring process. One of the biggest D&I issues tackled by AI is recruiter bias. AI solutions like SmartRecruiters’ SmartAssistant automate the candidate screening process, evaluating applicants based on skills, allowing you to make better and faster hires backed by measurable data.
• Create a truly inclusive company culture. None of the efforts outlined above will work unless your company embraces and celebrates different cultures and values. Making employees feel valued and giving them a sense of belonging allows them to thrive at your organization, and directly affects your employer branding.

Although California’s recent legislation represents a major step towards greater gender diversity in the boardroom, whether or not this new law will be challenged in court remains to be seen. In the meantime, however, it appears promising for women everywhere, offering them an opportunity to step into more executive roles and the chance to undo the male definition of leadership that has dominated the corporate world for generations.

Technology has made it easier than ever to source high-quality candidates, here’s what you need to do next to make your selection process doesn’t fall prey to inherent bias.

Recruiting strategies are ever-evolving. With the advents of email, social media, networking profiles, and even specialized recruiting websites, many of the challenges of finding great talent have been significantly rectified.

Specialists are no longer scratching their heads, wondering where to look for their next great recruit. Talent is abundantly present. But with the latest evolutions in the talent search come the responsibility and obligation for recruiters to ask if they’re searching fairly, doing everything in their power to create an inclusive workforce.

Recruiters are the gatekeepers of any organization, deciding whose voices are allowed to come in and shape the future of your mission. In order to ensure that mission is not lacking in a variety of perspectives and experience, consider the following tips on how to recruit with inclusion intentionally in mind.

Language in job descriptions

Did you know you can create a more inclusive workforce even before a candidate comes in to interview? Do this by considering the way language plays a role in which candidates apply.

Whether intentionally or not, certain job descriptions can turn away applicants with the implications of their verbiage. While it’s illegal to discriminate against candidates for factors such as their gender or age, some job descriptions will inadvertently steer candidates away because they sound too “young” or “male-centric.”

According to job listing site Indeed.com, the use of the word “ninja” in job descriptions increased 400 percent from January 2012 to October 2016. “Rockstar” is another buzzword in hiring these days. Recruiters may have thought they were cracking a code by using a gender neutral term to increase interest, but is that really the case?

For one, ninjas are rarely portrayed as women in popular media. Also, what age do you think the word “ninja” is going to attract? Typically, it’s a word applied in job listings for tech startups, or other organizations looking for young hires. Don’t say you want customer success rockstars, say you want candidates who are naturally skilled at communication. In general, avoid cliches.

Ad location for job listings

According to Inc, 79 percent of job seekers use social media in their search. But where are the other 21 percent?

If your recruiting process focuses on one channel or method, you’re missing a lot of talent elsewhere. To attract diverse applicants, use diverse methods. It’s possible your perfect candidate is still passing out resumes when you only accept applications online.

This isn’t to say you should revert to outdated processes. Rather, hiring teams should look to e-recruiting and make your company and roles accessible on a number of platforms. If you’re looking for candidates with 15+ years of experience, you shouldn’t post that ad solely on the same platforms where you’re asking for entry-level candidates.

Focusing on talent vs experience

Resources suggest that in order to be more inclusive, hiring managers and recruiters should focus less on exact experience and more on what the candidate could, and would need to accomplish. Give them opportunities to paint their talents as it pertains to the job.

Entrepreneur provides a helpful guide on Why, and How, to Hire for Potential Over Experience. This article encourages you to use the interview as an opportunity to speak beyond the resume, asking industry-related questions, as well as querying personal experience.

Canned questions

One way to reduce unconscious bias in your hiring and recruiting process is to have a list of canned questions you ask across the board. At their core, interviews are a conversation, and no two will be the same. As you meet different candidates, their experience may spur the conversation in another direction. This is okay! The idea with canned questions isn’t to kill the natural flow of an interview. It’s to send you into interviews with similar expectations of what each candidate needs to live up to. There’s no reason to make one jump through hoops, while another has a smooth-sailing, easy-going conversation.

Use specialized agencies or networks

Maybe you’re trying all of these tips, and are still having a hard time diversifying your candidates and prioritizing inclusion. Your current network is often so good at providing top quality candidates it’s easy to overlook the need to expand beyond that inner circle.

But the benefits of a diversified workplace are numerous: not only for your company, but also for everyone who works there.

According to an article published by Bentley University, “Research has shown that having a diverse workforce increases a company’s profits. Diverse companies also have more success in attracting talented employees, keeping their workforce engaged, and driving innovation.”

That’s not all. The article goes on to provide exact statistics as to how diversity affects workplace success.

“Companies with the most gender-diverse executive teams are 21 percent more likely to experience above-average profitability than companies with the least gender-diverse executive teams, according to a 2018 report from McKinsey & Company. When it comes to ethnic and cultural diversity, companies with the most diverse executive teams are 33 percent more likely to outperform companies with the least diverse executive teams, the report found. ”

If your network is producing one type of candidate, leverage other resources. There are agencies that exist to help you expand beyond the same pool of candidates you’ve been swimming in for years. Make working with agencies for people with disabilities, or people of disenfranchised ethnicities, a key part in your recruiting processes.  

Good luck!

Recruiters have the privilege of meeting all kinds of people and learning about their backgrounds and varied histories. It’s a privilege to be able to hear about the lives of others and to be a part of offering them the opportunity to grow at your organization. But even more so, it’s a privilege to your organization to be able to learn from others.

Follow these tips for recruiting inclusively and your workplace is bound to be better for it.

Sexist algorithms, Saudi women takeover ride-sharing, #metoo hurts women, the New Zealand PM makes history, and much-much more from Women in Work this year.

When it comes to gender equality in the workplace, is 2018 just riding 2017’s coattails? Last year was all like, “#metoo! Highest number of female CEOs in fortune 500 companies ever! Women’s March!” This year is all like –  Men afraid to work with women… Number of female CEOs dips by 25 percent… Oh, and by the way, Facebook is sexist.”

2018 is not without its charms. The recent lift on the female driving ban in Saudi Arabia and New Zealand’s PM making history by taking maternity leave are all hopeful signs that good things are happening, but did last year’s sprint tire us out for the marathon? Read on and decide for yourself.

Sexist Algorithms

When three economists used Facebook to advertise STEM jobs, they found the posts were more likely to be shown t o men, but why? It’s actually because women are more valuable. Think about it, women tend to control more of the household budget so companies will pay more to target them. The algorithm working on the normally sound principle of maximizing return on investment will then opt for surfacing these job posts to men.

The trio of researchers: Ajay Agrawal, Joshua Gans and Avi Goldfarb of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, explain to companies like Facebook that this behavior is an unfortunate consequence of the “black box,” but hard to correct lest the algorithm become as discriminatory as implicit human bias, a concept from which companies are now trying to distance themselves.

New Zealand’s PM Makes History

Thirty-seven-year-old PM Jacinda Ardern makes history as the second world leader to give birth while in power, after Pakistan’s Benazir Bhutto in 1990, and the first head of state to take maternity leave. Though Arden will only be taking six weeks to be with her newborn daughter, Neve Te Aroha Ardern Gayford, (about the same time President Barack Obama took off yearly while in office, and less time than George W Bush), she was not immune to criticism online.

Mixing and Matching Gender on Surgical Teams

World’s leading behavioral expert for animals turns attention to humans and finds mixed gender teams perform better.

Frans de Waal had a crazy thought: could the same methods used to documents and analyze chimpanzee behavior be applied to humans to evaluate and improve surgical teams?

Waal’s researchers – including colleague Laura K Jones from Emory University, Atlanta Georgia, who carried out the field work – studied the interactions of 400 doctors, nurses, and technicians over the span of 200 surgeries. They recorded the communications as either “cooperative” or “conflictive,” the former leading to better surgical outcomes and the latter likely to jeopardize the patient.

What they found was that predominantly male teams, with a male lead, were twice as likely to experience conflictive behavior than those lead by a woman – 21.3 percent likelihood on women-lead teams to 50.6 percent on male-lead teams.

For majority female teams, the gender of the leader didn’t affect the percentage of conflictive behavior, but most intriguing, collaborative interactions on teams were always higher where the gender of the leader differed from the bulk of the underlings.

That’s important when you consider 70-80 percent of surgical mishaps are directly caused by the interactions of the team going awry. The solution? In the the long term it’s recruiting more women into the now male-dominated profession; for now, hospitals will have to make due with shuffling personnel.

Read full study: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

India’s Women Are Out of Work, Is this Progress?

Some reasons for this drop in female workers are actually harbingers of progress, like girls staying in school longer, while other explanations belie the faulty structure of India’s precarious economy.  For instance, India never went through a manufacturing stage like its neighbor Bangladesh, which has increased their female employment rate to 50 percent since 2005. Without clothing factories, “unskilled” women’s main place in the economy is agricultural, but with the rise of mechanization, that is disappearing as well.

As for educated women, well, they face a different challenge in the form of persistent social mores that prize marriage and childbearing. More schooling below university level, ironically, decreases the likelihood a woman will work. As education makes for a more desirable bride, and a stay at home partner brings prestige to the family unit, higher education often ends up just being a heftier scorecard for being a rich housewife. Wealthier women, as such, are pressured by their husbands to drop out of the workforce, to show how much money the man is really making. Not working is a prestige thing.

The last piece of the puzzle is job scarcity. India has very few jobs in ratio to its population. Government posts routinely receive upwards of one-thousand applicants, and there is a general agreement that men should have the first pick over women, especially in traditionally male-dominated fields like engineering.

In industries like media and publishing, there has been a female incursion, with top newsroom and editorial positions held by women. Keep an eye to the communication sector to see where India’s female workforce will continue to grow.

Men Penalized More Than Women for Staying Home

In a recent study from from Harvard Business Review, assistant professor of sociology at North Carolina University, Kate Weisshaar, found that stay-at-home-dads are the least likely to be called in for a job interview, below unemployed workers, laid-off works, and even stay-at-home-moms (who are already half as likely as laid-off women to be contacted).

Another study form the University of Michigan, which examined the effect of part time work on lawyer salaries, yielded further evidence that men are penalized more than woman when they reduce hours to share the burden of childcare. While the average decrease of a woman’s salary was 4.8 percent annually, men saw their wages decrease 2.9 percent monthly.  

Saudi Women in the Driver’s Seat

The ban on female drivers in Saudi Arabia was lifted this year on June 24th, in a sweeping decision by the crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman. Though the world remains skeptical of Salman’s motives given that 17 feminist activists are still in detention for protesting the ban, many women are already looking forward to the possibilities this new “privilege” may afford, including the ability to work.

Sara al-Theeb, a 30-year-old employee of HSBC, recounts to the Financial Times in 2017 her difficulty in finding a job, saying, “it [was] challenging. Men have the advantage of driving. Whenever there is a sudden visit to a client, I can’t accommodate that.”

Ten women have been issued licenses to date, and over 120,000 have applied.

Already ride-sharing apps like Careem (the Uber of the Middle East) are looking to recruit from this new talent pool. Over 2,000 women have applied, and a small number have already been hired (mainly women with international licenses in the process of being transferred).

Given that educated women outnumber men by 105,494 to 98,210, in Saudi Arabia, it would be no surprise if other industries soon follow suit.

Is #metoo Hurting Women?

A Lean In Institute survey reveals that three times as many male managers are now uncomfortable at the idea of mentoring a woman in the wake of #metoo. The number that has risen from 5 percent, to 16 percent, still a small fraction of male leadership, is important because it reveals an attitude that sexual harassment is something that one just happens into, merely by being alone with a female colleague.

However, the 2010 World Economic Forum Report suggests that women are “over mentored” and ‘under–sponsored,’ meaning mentors don’t, as often, use their clout within the company to get get their female mentees promoted.

“Among survey participants who had active mentoring relationships in 2008, fully 72 percent of the men had received one or more promotions by 2010, compared with 65 percent of the women.” – Harvard Business Review.

So maybe fewer one-on-one chats and a little more recommendation writing wouldn’t be so bad afterall.

Revlon Appoints First Female CEO, but It’s Just A Cosmetic Fix.

For the first time in Revlon’s 86 year history, a woman, Debra Perelman, is appointed CEO. And while the choice garnered much favorable press for the beauty giant, it comes amidst a sharp dip in the number of female CEOs and board members decrease in S&P fortune 500 companies overall.

Female CEOs in this exclusive echelon of the business world have decreased by 25 percent in the past year, from 32 to 25. Staples, Avon, eBay and Campbells Soup, to name a few, all said goodbye to their female CEOs in 2018, and almost all have been replaced by men. With 2017 as an all-time high, the old two steps forward, one step back, feels very real.

Wage Disparity Greatest in Tech Hubs

Progress towards wage parity between men and women has been grossly stagnant in the last 15 years, and a new report reveals that our glittery tech metropolises aren’t helping.

Seattle and the San Francisco Bay Area are found to have the widest gender pay disparity, at 30 percent and 20 percent respectively. In an analysis of 25 major US cities from the American Association of University Women (AAUW) found that the pay gap between men’s and women’s salaries hovers at 19 percent, in line with the findings of the US census. Of course, this isn’t the whole story.

The wage gap is more complicated than a blanket average. Even the widely touted statistic of women making 79 cents for every man-made dollar is misleading, as it ignores factors of race, profession, and location. In every city surveyed, black women fare worse than their white counterparts, and Latina women are paid the least of all measured demographics. For instance, in Tampa, Florida, where the wage gap is the lowest in the US, white women make 89 percent of what white men earn, while black women earned 65 percent, and Latina women only 61 percent.

Do women choose lower-paying professions? Yes, women tend to cluster in certain professions (men do too) and the female cluster is lower on the pay scale. (Elementary school teachers, RNs, and Secretaries being the most popular female professions). However, even when working in the same sector, men still tend to make more. For example, in the Seattle tech world, the average salary for a female employee is $110,000, while for males it’s $143,000, found a 2016 survey from Comparably.

Speaking of tech, the same study discovered that the tech wage gap is surprisingly 17 percent above the national norm, at a whopping average of 36 percent across the 16 cities surveyed. When we break down that number further we find that finance, marketing, and business development are the biggest offenders, while women in administrative roles actually earn seven percent more than their male counterparts.

Come on 2019, we’re already expecting big things from you. Sincerely, Women.

Companies can now address diversity and inclusion challenges using AI. Joonko, named for Junko Tabe the first woman to summit Mt Everest, is a platform that acts in real-time to identify and solve workplace bias as it happens.

The Joonko story began in 2016 when CEO and founder Ilit Raz decided, after 13 years in tech, it was time to change the way people work – especially when it came to addressing bias.

Meet the companies vying for the title of Recruiting Startup Of The Year (RSOTY) at Hiring Success 18, in San Francisco, March 12-14. Register here!  Your vote determines which six are flying to California to pitch their ideas to 1000+ Talent Acquisition leaders and puts them in the running for the grand prize.

One of these six will be selected by a group of C-Suite experts and industry analysts for the ultimate prize of a Gold Sponsorship to Hiring Success 19, worth $10,000, which includes a branded booth and dedicated demo-room for potential customers to interact with their product.

As a woman in tech, Ilit Raz is all too familiar with the unconscious, and conscious, bias that comes along with being part of an underrepresented group in a professional setting so she dedicated herself to putting an end to those unacceptable attitudes.

Give us the elevator pitch for your company.

We’re solving diversity and inclusion challenges using artificial intelligence while delivering measurable results that can move the needle for our customers.

Joonko is a real-time diversity and inclusion coach for companies, which can identify unconscious (or conscious) bias events as they happen and help your employees and managers to overcome them immediately.

Any thoughts on 2017 as a landmark year for awareness surrounding sexual harassment?

Campaigns like #metoo and #timesup have revealed the prevalence of sexual harassment in almost every industry including tech. There is an undeniable need for comprehensive solutions, like Joonko, to help HR/Talent leaders check and eliminate these biases and harassment – unconscious or conscious.

What lead you to create an inclusion and diversity tool?

I started in tech at the age of 18 and the bias I experienced was extremely isolating. I truly thought I was the only one who felt excluded, and it was extremely frustrating. Of course, through the years I found that these negative experiences were a problem in most workplaces and that’s when I decided I needed to do something about them. I didn’t want anyone else to experience what I went through.

How do you envision your idea changing the talent acquisition landscape?

We tackle the ‘pipeline problem’ when it comes to diversity and inclusion hiring. The ‘pipeline problem’ is the idea that a company can’t achieve diversity goals because there aren’t enough qualified candidates applying outside of their usual demographic. On average we are able to improve candidate representation by at least 12-24 percent in the first 90 days, which shows bias is usually the problem not a lack of candidates.

What’s the role of technology in hiring?

Rather than fearing a future where technology replaces you, learn how to leverage your tools to become a better recruiter. Tech speeds us up, measures our work, and helps us see patterns – just those three things can amplify your recruiting 10 fold.  

One venture-capital superstar. One HR Tech vice-president. Put them together and what do you get? Something of the time, and something for the future as well.

For some people, there is a phantom thread being pulled through the fabric of their careers. And when that thread happens to be philanthropic, the more such a person succeeds, so do others. In the case of Wo/Men Inc, launched today in Berlin, the thread finds purchase in a platform that, through a vast business network and a series of curated events, supports career-focused women as they build meaningful professional networks – ones that will grow with them throughout their professional lives.

For co-founders Lea Vajnorsky and Robin Haak, it’s been a natural career progression to Wo/Men Inc. For Lea, through her female-focused initiatives with VC firm Redstone and the NOAH conference. For Robin, as SmartRecruiters global VP, minimizing bias and stressing inclusivity in recruiting. There’s much to say, so let’s hear it from them, in their own words.

How did you two meet?

Lea: I met Robin when we both worked at Axel Springer back in 2012. We became good friends, and have been working together since last November, and the result is or Wo/Men Inc initiatve.

How did the idea for Wo/Men Inc come together?

Lea: When I was working with the NOAH conference, Marco, the founder and CEO, encouraged me to work on strategies for female entrepreneurs, and from there, the idea for this started to blossom. After I organized a networking breakfast last November, I understood there is a need for a platform that focuses on women, but also includes men. While talking to Robin about it on the phone, the idea came together, and I felt that feeling, kind of like the one you get when you fall in love.

Robin: She’s right. When an idea just hits – that spark, that chemistry – it feels like being in love. Everyone is seeking that feeling, and it can be about a business idea as much as about a person. I just knew Wo/Men Inc was going to be great.

What makes you think your co-founder is the right person for the job?

Lea: We’ve known each other long enough to know each other’s strengths and weaknesses. Our business relationship is grounded on a very stable friendship.

Why set up this organization now?

Robin: I think different generations face different problems. Something similar to Wo/Men Inc should and could have been there all along. We admire and honor any organisation tackling these topics and trying to make a positive impact.

Why is this topic so important to you?

Robin: I co-founded a company called Jobspotting, which has helped millions of people find jobs, but diversity is a larger topic. At the moment we are working on an artificial intelligence recruitment product which we will launch with SmartRecruiters in March, that will hopefully help filter any gender or racial bias on the part of recruiters. Wo/Men Inc is closely related to this, and gives us the opportunity to see actual outcomes.

What do you see as your biggest challenges as you get things started?

Lea: We both have day jobs so it isn’t easy to do this on weekends and late night to get things done but we are fully committed. I think another open concern is, how big will it really get? We want to change the world, we want Toni Garn, Waris Dirie and Sheryl Sandberg and so many others join this movement. We want to make money we can donate globally. As is every entrepreneur, we are challenging ourselves, and the challenge is to fight the fear.

What is your strategy for your upcoming events – in what areas do you want your message to most resonate?

Robin: We will have standalone events in Berlin, Frankfurt, San Francisco as planned. We will partner with NOAH in Tel Aviv, and we will host a female reception by Wo/men Inc in March. We will also do satellite events, like we did with Becycle in Berlin, which allowed us to donate over 1,000 euros from 30 participants to the Desert Flower Foundation.

Which existing organizations do you see as allies? Which ones would be considered competition?

Lea: We don’t have competitors, really. We have a great network of friends around the world, who approach issues like gender equality and workplace diversity from many different angles, and we can’t wait to connect with them more.