In this episode of the Transform Your Workplace podcast, Kelsey Pytlik and Rachel Bauer, co-founders of Gild Collective, discuss the urgent need for effective gender inclusion practices in organizations striving for diversity, equity, and inclusion. They highlight the issue of women leaving companies due to a lack of support and emphasize the importance of empathy in driving change and inclusivity. The episode also delves into the challenges of addressing personal biases, the benefits of diversity, and the significance of tailoring gender equity initiatives to an organization’s specific needs.
GUESTS AT A GLANCE
Kelsey Pytlik, co-founder of Gild Collective, has a BS in Marketing and Interactive Media Studies from Miami University and an MA in User Experience Design from Kent State University. She leverages her background in user research and a passion for addressing workplace bias, particularly for women, to develop data-driven, empathetic training programs and system improvements aimed at enhancing the experience of marginalized employees.
Rachel Bauer, also co-founder of Gild Collective, holds an undergraduate degree from Kent State University and an MA in Higher Education Administration from The University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Her expertise in supporting first-generation and nontraditional students, along with her experience in designing diversity and inclusion curricula, equips her with the skills needed to assist individuals in becoming advocates and allies for inclusion initiatives.
A QUICK GLIMPSE INTO OUR PODCAST
🔊 Podcast: Transform Your Workplace, sponsored by Xenium HR
🎙️ Host: Brandon Laws
📋 In his own words: “The Transform Your Workplace podcast is your go-to source for the latest workplace trends, big ideas, and time-tested methods straight from the mouths of industry experts and respected thought-leaders.”
TO STAY OR TO GO?
The pandemic exacerbated the burnout that women were already experiencing in the workplace. With increased childcare responsibilities, they often felt compelled to reduce their working hours or leave their jobs entirely.
In our most recent episode, guests Kelsey Pytlik and Rachel Bauer pointed out that, more recently, women are still leaving companies at “staggering rates,” but for a different reason: lack of supportive workplace practices and policies after they’re recruited. Companies that merely express a desire to hire more women without providing proper support are not retaining female employees.
It’s time for companies to start paying attention to this issue. Leaders can make a difference for women by including implementing flexible work policies, having supportive managers to facilitate career advancement, and addressing microaggressions and the day-to-day treatment of women in the workplace. Failure to address these issues can “lead to that desire to look elsewhere,” according to Kelsey and Rachel.
PODCAST EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS
Empathy: The Key to Inclusivity
Rachel Bauer: There’s one trait that is probably the biggest driver of this. And I always hesitate when I start to talk about it because it’s a soft skill, and people don’t like to be told that the trait that they really need is a soft skill… but it’s empathy. And that sounds so simple. […] So when it comes to actually motivating change, interrupting bias, or actually implementing systems that promote a more equitable workplace for gender or any underrepresented person, it’s empathy, right?
Coming to the Realization
Rachel Bauer: I remember sitting in so many conference rooms of big Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion conferences. And there was always sort of a high career-level man at a gender inclusion portion of the conference saying, “I just didn’t realize how big of an issue that X, Y, or Z still was until my daughter entered the workforce.” I distinctly remember a man [saying], “My daughter told me a story of pumping in a bathroom stall in her office.” And how jarring it was for them to realize, “Oh, we aren’t necessarily putting these supportive practices in place.” […] It’s really once [you’re] able to have that fire-sparking moment of empathy, that you become more receptive to making intentional and transformative change that’s going to impact your career progression and the experiences of your employees.
A Lack of Buy-In
Rachel Bauer: In 2020, after George Floyd’s murder, a lot of companies were bringing on diversity and inclusion leaders within the organizations, the chief diversity officer. When it felt like everyone was asking for it, it was an easier thing to say, “Yes, we’re going to do that too.” But then at this first moment of resistance, there’s a question of, “Okay, […] is this something that we’re going to continue moving forward with and have embedded in our company culture, or was I really just checking the box?” […] Now that things have settled a bit, or people are kind of getting back to normal or their “new normal,” they just want things to go back to the way that they were, even if they didn’t necessarily like the way that they were. We’re reverting back to that place of comfort, and it’s making it hard to get to that place of buy-in.
Dealing with Our Biases
Rachel Bauer: It’s hard to talk about your own biases. It’s hard to look at your organization and see the way that biases are influencing the representation, the advancement of the people in your organization, and how you play a role in that. That’s all really, really difficult. And immediately our brains go into that fight or flight. That’s very normal. […] Now, I’m going to use this awareness of my biases to interrupt them in the conversations that I’m having. So I think those are a few ways to just kind of start nudging the conversation forward and not expecting it to be a 180 overnight. We say so often in our sessions, “This is about progress, not perfection.”
Time to Make a Change
Kelsey Pytlik: Everywhere you look in terms of research is going to support the idea that women — especially women of color, trans women, lesbian women, women with disabilities — have worse experiences at work. They have less access to support from their supervisors, from the organization as a whole, less and less access to opportunity. […] For such a long time, we tried to […] see everyone as the same, and we just know that that doesn’t work, right? We have to address that.
The Benefits of Diversity
Rachel Bauer: And what they find is that companies with higher levels of gender and ethnic diversity outperform their competitors in the same space. So we can then kind of look back and say, “Well, what are the reasons for that? What are some of the things that help benefit an organization when that diversity is present?” And that doesn’t need to be diversity in the way that you might typically think about it, in terms of gender or racial diversity, but that could also be diversity of backgrounds, not recruiting everyone from the same university, or always recruiting from a typical career path. When you have people with different perspectives, even in a conversation, it really drives that innovation.
A Solution That Works for You
Kelsey Pytlik: If you are interested in furthering the place that you work, your organization, maybe it’s your own company, your journey towards gender equity… it’s integral that you know where to start. And again, I think that this work can start with any employee at any level. So way too many organizations take a one-size-fits-all approach. Those are those one-and-done programs or even just going in and using a software platform that you’ve seen work for others. But you can’t skip the step of doing the internal work and figuring out what’s best for you.
LEARN MORE
Take Gild Collective’s free internal audit here to learn your next steps to fostering DEI at your business.