Youth debate: Parity... in the workplace

The inaugural International Parity at Work Day will be observed on January 11 globally, starting January 2017 and every year, thereafter on the same day. The World Economic Forum currently estimates that economic parity between the sexes will take 170 years to achieve after a continuous and dramatic slowdown in progress. Our young professionals debate on this issue. 

Kushal Pem: “Parity is a main pillar” 

Parity can be defined as the condition of being equal, explains Kushal. “A main pillar of any successful organisation is parity. Having a level of coequality spreads a good vibe across the office; it makes all the employees believe that if they put in the hard work, they will gradually make it up the ladder. Parity has another aspect, which is gender equality, in a world where men and women are growing at the same rate, it is essential to value both the male and female for a prosperous working environment and growth.” 

Farhaan Bolaky: “Parity brings positivity at workplace”

Farhaan, a young professional explain that in his workplace he has noticed that equality between genders has a positive impact in the workplace.  “Parity between genders has helped the company to have a good reputation and to boost profits.  If you want to improve your bottom line, try balancing the number of men and women in your office. While it may make some employees unhappy, increasing gender diversity in the workplace helps make businesses more productive. A more diverse set of employees gives can help the office to function better. Studies have shown that shifting from an all-male or all-female office to one split evenly along gender lines could increase revenue by roughly 41 percent. Moreover, gender equality could add to the collective knowledge of a group of office workers and make the unit perform more effectively.”

Habeeba Nobee: “Parity enhances productivity” 

Fair and equal treatment of employees in an organisation is essential, declares Habeeba. “Employees’ rights should not be violated, and their health and happiness in the organisation need be valued. Employees are most productive and at their peak performance when they feel happy and fulfilled at work, and when they are given an equal opportunity to succeed in the organisation. This is the key to employee motivation and engagement. Employees should be given a voice to share their opinions and ideas. This will contribute to their personal growth and better advancement of the company. An ideal workplace would be one where the management and employees share a good relationship with mutual respect. The boss should lead by example, with integrity, honesty, a high level of empathy, and always listen carefully to his employees. Leadership and emotional intelligence are critical skills every leader should learn to develop and master. Certainly, one-on-one meetings of managers with each employee once a month can help build a close relationship based on understanding, ensure that employees’ goals are being met and to discuss issues. The Workplace should be where every employee is at his full potential and unleashes his creativity and imagination in order to generate the best results in the most peaceful and positive environment. Leading through fear is definitely not the right tactic, as it will only adversely affect the mental health of the employees and rise their disinterest in their work and confidence in their boss.”

For her, building a culture of employee recognition in an organisation through rewards and praise is very important to acknowledge work that has been well done. “Encourage diversity at the Workplace! Irrespective of our colour of skin, social background, age, or religion, we are all gifted with talents. These criteria should not bias the judgment for recruitment or decision-making relating to employees.”

Alvira Jahaleea: “Equality does affect any workplace”

Alvira states that achieving gender equality is important for workplaces not only because it is ‘fair’ and ‘the right thing to do,’ but because it is also linked to a country’s overall economic performance. “Equality does affect any workplace. In fact, workplace gender equality is associated with improved national productivity and economic growth, increased organizational performance, enhanced ability of companies to attract talent and retain employees as well as enhanced organizational reputation. Furthermore, it creates an environment with high employee morale as well as developing a good reputation for the company to be able to recruit top talents. In addition to this point, the effectiveness of employees is measured by their contributions, which may motivate them to openly contribute to the company in a positive way.” 

Abhishek Fowdur: “Implementation is not a fact”   

Abhishek argues that equality at workplace is a reality in terms of laws. “Parity fluctuates among different sectors. In the agricultural sector, the wage rate of male and female laborer is still different. Such differential rate is because of the heavy and light duties they need to conduct. In such areas, parity is not prevailing. These are in terms of wage, but parity aims more than that starting from sex discrimination, race till disability. In the field of security or police force, if a person is injured at the workplace and is unfit to serve according to the duties and responsibilities which require physical fitness, he or she might be compensated but what about the job? He/she is no longer required by the organization, there is no plan B for alternate position in the company but rather financial incentives. But does parity ends here? Very often there might be certain employees whereby they have different workload. Employee A has more workload compared to employee B, but the salary of A is less than that of B. Does this mean reward for good work is more work?” 

He further adds “considering the disabled persons who are definitely eligible to form part in the professional field. The 3% that the government stated for recruitment of persons with special abilities is fading away. If recruitment of 3% is a fact, then all companies, government and parastatal bodies should be “equal opportunity employer”. But mostly such implementation is not a fact.”  

Norbert Samee: “We do have parity in Mauritius” 

Youngsters are always facing new challenges, more nowadays, in this era of constant change, says Norbert. “We have been taught from a young age that we are all equal and many ONGs fight for different rights and organise sensitization campaigns to reduce racism, gender inequality and other problems that may arise at workplace. As in any country, a government job is considered to be better than working in the private sector because of the stability that it offers but lack of parity is a huge issue that has arisen during the past years in some institutions. Luckily, in Mauritius, we do have parity in most of the institutions. Requirements are well specified and interviews are conducted on a fair basis. The work atmosphere is pleasant for everyone. There is no difference in terms of salary for man or woman, the workload is the same for both.”

He adds that “one of the major issues that we are facing now is university education. It is wrong to say that someone who has pursued his studies abroad has gained more skills than one who went to a local institution. It has been seen that some of our students from local institutions find themselves with no internships during holidays because of the students who went to study abroad. What can be done to change this situation? Unfortunately no one can change one’s perception and it is the youth of our country who will suffer deeply.”

Najaah Parahoo: “Mauritius has a long way to go in achieving gender parity”

For Najaah parity has become a great issue to be dealt with at the work place and there a greater need to focus on it.  “If parity is not managed properly, this may lead to a dysfunction at the management level, as its human resource will not be used to its utmost.  The major point here is to target the parity between genders. Mauritius has a long way to go in achieving gender parity in the workplace. There is a shortcoming in the system indicating that Managers are often not empowered to deal with their female employees, women are very often not valued at work and viewed as the weaker sex compared to men. More educated should be allocated to managers on the differences between men and women.” 

She argues that women are often alleged to be less aspiring than men because of certain constraints such as time flexibility, maternity leave, lack of support from their partners and all these pose greater barriers to women’s success. “Women are often stereotyped as more nurturing and caring than men, which signpost that they are meant only for home, taking care of children and the role of women is more focussed on maternal leadership. The glass ceiling is another form of discrimination. This has been used as a metaphor to designate the ostensibly invisible barriers that thwart women to reach the senior positions of management.  They often do not have ample experience, fear of public speaking, and they are often perceived to have low quality skills that can be at the impairment of the company but many educated women had fought successfully against these hurdles.”