Seven Things You Can Do to Promote Income Equality

Nicole Cuellar
work

 

Here are some simple ways you can support positive change:

  • Open your eyes. Take note of the makeup of leadership in your company or office.

  • Speak up. When your company interviews potential candidates, suggest adding different people to the panel of interviewers if the current panel is made up of only one demographic.

  • Examine the frontrunners. Studies show that having just one woman or minority among job finalists isn’t good enough to shift the odds. But having two or more minority candidates in the finalist pool increases the odds of making a diverse hire by 194 times. Source: Harvard Business Review, April 2016

  • Check the talent sources. If none of the job candidates you’re seeing come from a diverse background, start requesting that your recruiters use a wider net. There are hundreds of organizations, websites, universities, and other avenues where jobs can be advertised to get the attention of diverse professionals.

  • Champion pay equity. If you’re in a position to influence fair pay, do it.

  • Activate advocates on your team. If you work with good people, they’re probably also thinking about these issues and want to do something about it. Join existing Employee Resource Groups that support and advocate diversity and inclusion in the workplace. If you don’t think they’re doing enough, take the time to brainstorm ways to make the group more effective. Be constructive, cooperative, and keep a positive attitude.

  • Tap the leaders. Executives care about these matters, too. They have 99 problems already, but if no one is talking to them about equality, don’t assume they’re ignoring issues on purpose. Find a confidant who you know is trusted by the exec and together develop a strategy for voicing concerns that aren’t currently being heard. Let them help you take action without making yourself a martyr for the cause.

 

The Only Ones

Nicole Cuellar
work

On the last day of our leadership summit, I was at a happy hour that my company was throwing, and this woman from our European operations rushed up to me. She said, 'You know, we're the only women here in management roles? We have to stick together.'

My first reaction was to push her away. I hardly know this woman and she's got her arm around me, piling the Girl Power schtick on thick. I worked hard to get where I am in my career. I earned my spot here. My professional success doesn't have anything to do with my gender and to make some kind of alliance based on that now just seems regressive.

And then I looked around the room.

Taboos

Nicole Cuellar
work

I’ve been pushing back lately on the notion that certain things are too taboo to talk about at work. No one wants to be the one on the team always bringing up “women’s” issues. However, if we see, feel, experience, know that there are issues in our workplaces that impact women more than men, but have the perception that we can’t talk about them — how do we even begin to make positive changes?

The First Post

Nicole Cuellar
work

I'm Nicole, but I go by Nikki at work. 

If you're someone who knows me personally, that might cause you to chuckle because you probably know how many years I spent resisting that nickname. When I went to college, I used to introduce myself as "Nicole, never Nikki." Just to make sure my preference was clear.