you may not know this but tomorrow is
American business Women's Day and that
Day honors women in the workforce and
women business owners in our country yes
and women in the work workplace have
overcome many obstacles but according to
one expert there are some adjustments
that need to be made here now to talk
about this is Frances REO solution
speaker and the co-creator of the W
certified company thank you so much for
joining us this morning thank you and
congratulations as well because we are
working women here that's right so for
anyone who doesn't know about this what
is the W certified company okay W
certified is a union diagnostic tool
that will help organizations companies
be recognized as their preferred
companies for women so what we do is we
survey how women feel regarding their
engagement level satisfactions regarding
the company they work for so now
companies have an x-ray to really
understand what women want and need in
order for them to have more women in the
top tiers and why that is crucial let me
tell you something 85% of all decision
making you know purchasing decision
making at home are made by women from
the health insurance the car even the
underwear that they buy for the men who
lives in their house and that is crucial
why because for example only in Florida
this is just Florida women are losing 46
billion dollars we are losing 46 billion
dollars because we don't still have
equal pay equal work so if women would
be able to get at that amount of money
Florida would be better because it would
get better taxes and the families would
be in a better position because women
would be able to make more and companies
if they have more women in the top tiers
they would understand better the female
consumer and make sure that that female
consumer fall in love with your brand so
when it comes down to these companies
that are better places for women to work
how does that come about because you
said that many companies even though
they may employ lots of women that
women aren't in that top tier so how do
we improve this what how do we work on
this well there couple of things that
companies can do and if you are a
business owner check to check this out
first of all you need to have a
commitment to women inclusion and
demonstrate it when you go to the
websites you see that they say yes I
have a major commitment but when you go
and check the leadership you only have
like one women two women so they still
they need to start moving that needle
secondly they need to start developing
women there are areas that women need
help like for example negotiation skills
risk staking and most importantly
negotiation salary negotiation skills
they need that so you need to develop
women differently than you develop men
also you need to get rid completely of
sexual harassment women are always
sharing experiences you could probably
ask me Francis what kind of lipstick are
you wearing or Francis do you think that
I should go and work for this
organization no now don't go to that
organization because I have heard from
the news that they have major scandals
on sexual harassment so you need to make
sure that your organization doesn't
doesn't get into those kind of
situations are there any companies
leading the way right now when it comes
to better equality situations well
there's no perfect company in the world
that has no sexual harassment or what
has a perfect score on equal pay or
equal work but I can tell you that for
example companies like in Puerto Rico
like Microsoft Walmart Johnson & Johnson
Medtronic are among those who are
preferred by their female talent and
that goes a long way absolutely
absolutely what policies kind of need to
be put in place to promote more of this
gender inclusive workforce well first of
all Equal Pay Eagle work women need to
feel that they can trust your
organization that when the organization
HR leaders understand that there are
differences or inequalities they take
action like for example a couple of
months ago there our CEO of Salesforce
he was questioning his company how come
we have been considered a best place to
work when we don't have equal pay for
equal work
so he immediately gave them Monday to HR
to have equality when it comes to
salaries so right now companies need to
take that very seriously and also sexual
harassment nowadays the media and social
media are in a different way you know
from when I was a girl
nowadays everything goes viral so if you
really want to protect your reputation
if you really and this is the number one
problem companies have if you really
want to retain your talent if you really
want to have majors levels of engagement
you need to have special programs for
women so that you can have more women in
the top tiers and at the end of the day
this is about dollars and cents it is
proven that if you have more women in
the top tier if you are the prefer
organization you can have better
economic results and at the end of the
day it would have a major impact on our
communities as well hopefully the
companies are listening yes and what do
you think women have to kind of what you
know you have all the company is doing
what they can do what can women do Wow I
love this question first of all you need
to be very savvy about where you put
your money you need to decide should I
invest 250 or 500 dollars on a bag on a
pair of shoes or I'd rather invest that
money on a training that really that
will really help me go up the ladder
secondly women need to dare to take
risks should I stay in this position for
20 years or should I you know dare to go
to a different market and learn
different techniques so that I can go up
and third and this is critical we need
to dare to ask since we have been girls
as we were girls our parents taught us
to to stay seated and wait for wait for
the boy to ask us to be his girlfriend
or ask us to dance and when we go to the
workforce we are just sitting down and
waiting for a boss to ask us don't wait
to be asked you take the ownership of
your career and asked for a new position
a new opportunity a new salary a new
life
you talked about negotiations yeah all
about if you don't ask you're not gonna
get it you need to ask it's not gonna
come from the from the sky so there to
ask and you will get a better life a
better career be more brave thank you
friends thank you