Corporate Social Responsibility

Is It Time to Pay the Piper?

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This is an interesting old English expression. In today’s terms it refers to the ultimate cost of poor or self-indulgent behaviour. It seems employers around the globe have been demonstrating very poor behaviour when it comes to male and female compensation practices.

Where the pay equity issue is concerned, perhaps it is time for organizations to step up and pay the piper by way of addressing and absorbing the cost of the wage gap between men and women. Indeed, this seems to be a trend that is unfolding worldwide in various developed countries.

MacLean’s magazine released two versions of its cover in February; one for men, with a price of $8.91, and another for women, with a price of $6.99. A clever way to highlight the fact that in Canada men make 26% more in full-time wages than women.

This is a global issue. Let’s review some of the concerns around pay equity in other parts of the world:

Tesco, a UK grocery store chain is facing a 4 billion Euro pay equity law suit

The BBC is being accused of fostering a gender pay gap between its male and female reporters

Icelandic companies must now prove they are paying men and women equally, and get government certification

According to Stats Canada, Canadian working women make $0.74 cents for every dollar a man makes

The gender pay gap is a systemic issue in organizations, but that is no longer acceptable in most countries. It is time for all organizations to take an in-depth look at their compensation practices to see if there is a gender pay gap, and to assign resources to correct it.

It is high time for organizations to pay the piper, and to close the gender wage gap. The only way for them to do this is to implement and maintain a comprehensive and fair job evaluation process.

Discussion Questions:

  1. You have been asked by your VP of HR to research the job evaluation process and what it entails. Once your research is complete, you are to produce a 5-minute presentation for the board of directors focusing on the process necessary to complete a formal organizational job evaluation.

Visit the HR Council of Canada as a starting point for your research.

To Disclose or Not Disclose?

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What is the big workplace secret?

Employee compensation economy. Man working on laptop sitting next to young woman under money rain. Pay difference concept.
pathdoc /Shutterstock

We have it in the public sector: it is called the sunshine list, but should we have complete salary disclosure in the private sector as well?

In an interview with David Burkus, an Associate Professor of Management at Oral Roberts University, Sarah Green Carmichael from Harvard Business Review brings the topic of salary transparency right to the forefront.

Click here to read the complete article.

David Burkus is the writer of a book called, Under New Management: How Leading Organizations Are Upending Business as Usual. His research says that complete pay transparency makes for a better workplace for both employees and employers. His thesis is that when we keep salaries secret people feel they are underpaid and this breeds disengagement.

Click here to watch David Burkus speak on this issue.

Salary disclosure is a topic that many employees and employers are not comfortable talking about. But does it happen anyway in the workplace? Everyone has some idea of what their coworker makes, but no one has complete information, so assumptions are made and we know how often assumptions are wrong or inaccurate. Having access to accurate information helps: it can possibly create a more trusting and collaborate working environment. If so, perhaps more employers should consider removing the veil of salary secrecy, as David Burkus suggest.

Discussion Questions

  1. With a partner, have a debate and discuss the benefits and negatives of salary transparency in the workplace. Please research your arguments and plan on using your arguments to defend your position.

Strategies for Social Good?

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Group of people seen from above gathered together in the shape of a "thumbs up" symbol standing on a white background
Arthimedes/Shutterstock

Most of us are motivated to contribute something positive to the greater good of the world around us.

This motivation does not stop when we enter into our respective workplaces. When we spend forty or more hours a week working as part of an organization, we want to feel that our combined efforts are part of something bigger. We want to belong to an organization that gives back, not just to each one of us as employees, but to the broader social community. In recognition of this motivation, many Canadian companies are building their organizational frameworks on managerial strategies that allow for a reach beyond the workplace, into the broader community, to contribute to a social good.

Three examples of Canadian companies that have built their strategic frameworks on the principles of ‘good deeds’ are outlined in a recent article published by Canadian Business.

Click here to read about the initiatives implemented by Oliberté, Nude Bee Honey and Canada Goose.

From a compensation strategy perspective, each of these Canadian companies seems to include an element of reinvesting their rewards back into their communities, the environment, and their workers. As noted in the article, each of these profitable organizations must have the buy-in of their staff if they want to be successful in bringing about environmental or social change.

As a result, these strategies come at a price for consumers at the point of purchase. In the same way that employees may be motivated by doing good, these companies are successful through the targeting of socially conscious consumers who may be willing and able to pay in order to be part of a broader good.

Discussion Questions:

  1. How does a prospective employer’s commitment to social responsibility influence your career choices?
  2. What types of managerial strategies are evident in Oliberté, Nude Bee Honey and Canada Goose?
  3. How is employee citizenship behaviour rewarded in each of these companies?
  4. Would you pay more for a product if you knew that the profits would be used for social good?

Hiring for the Good.

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Starbucks rewards card
Source: NorGal/Shutterstock

How do you get work experience in order to have work experience, if you have never worked before?

How do you get a job that requires you to have high school education, if you have been unable to complete high school?

This is a common dilemma for many young Canadians.  Unfortunately, when these two requirements become barriers for employment, the only alternative left for many Canadian youth is continued unemployment.  This often results in a downward spiral that can lead to poverty and homelessness, unless some form of intervention helps to stop the spiral.  Such extreme consequences of chronic unemployment create a negative impact on the individual and our communities as a whole.

Intervention in our Canadian culture usually comes through government supports and social assistance.  There are, however, more instances of highly visible businesses creating opportunities for youth as part of their corporate social responsibility and active commitment to the greater good.

For example, Starbucks (the corporate coffee giant), announced a commitment to an ethical hiring plan that would set a 10% target for hiring at-risk youth across Canada.

Click Here to Read the Article.

The announcement of this commitment came out in the late fall of 2015.  By the spring of 2016, local media started to pick up stories of job fairs offered by Starbucks, which seem to be putting this commitment into action.

Click Here to Read the Artcile.

Rather than seeing the typical negative patterns continue, in this case, we are able to see a positive and active societal change that focuses on the vulnerable and essential youth demographic in the development of the Canadian workforce.

One small change really does make one big difference.

Discussion Questions:

  1. How would you prepare an HR recruitment plan to hire at-risk youth at your current workplace?
  2. Identify five long-term benefits for an at-risk individual, as a result of targeted recruitment.
  3. Identify five long-term benefits of targeted recruitment that will impact Starbucks Canada.
  4. What are five possible challenges facing employers wanting to implement a targeted recruitment plan focused on hiring at-risk youth?