Step 6:
Maintain Equity Over Time

An illustration that shows two equal stacks of coins, the one on the left labeled men and the one on the right labeled women.

Sustaining Pay Equity Gains

Pay equity audits are not a one-time fix. Recurring or cyclical factors that can impact pay equity include:

Competition for talent
Changes in job duties
Reorganizations
Bias in hiring and merit increase and bonus cycles
Acquiring companies with different pay practices

To keep your pay equity progress on track, implement regular, scheduled pay equity audits and bias reduction training, especially for managers. Cultivate a culture that recognizes and addresses biases because healthy cultures attract top candidates.

Strategies from California Employers

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Beginner

Require the completion of at least one bias mitigating workshop or training program for everyone in your organization who is responsible for hiring or has influence over pay decisions before they can hire any new employees.

What might this look like? Imagine a local restaurant chain wants to institute mandatory bias blocking training for its managers. Coordinating the training is a challenge because the managers all have different schedules and work at different locations across the Bay Area. Unable to bring everyone together for a day-long training, the restaurant’s owners find a bias mitigation curriculum that allows them to break up the training into a series of shorter sessions all managers can attend.

Advanced

Offer bias mitigation and DEI training to all employees in your organization, not only those that are directly involved in hiring. Try to find options that are interactive and immersive, involve role-playing, and/or can capture learning outcomes and measure progress.

What might this look like? Imagine an investment firm revamps its approach to bias mitigation training by requiring all employees to participate in interactive exercises using real-world hiring scenarios. This immersive experience helps them see firsthand how certain conditions can lead to a higher likelihood of bias, and builds their understanding and buy-in for bias reduction initiatives.

Intermediate

Train managers in how to consistently set pay ranges and document compensation decisions. Provide feedback on each manager’s compensation decisions, including the allocation of bonus and merit increases.

What might this look like? Imagine a mid-sized energy company spots potential inconsistencies in compensation practices across different managers. The company successfully addresses it by taking a three-step approach, starting with the creation of a "pay allocation tool" outlining clear criteria for setting pay within each pay range. The company then holds mandatory one-hour training sessions to help managers to fully understand the tool and its proper application. Finally, the company integrates an assessment of how effectively managers allocate pay within their departments into managers’ performance reviews.

Tools to Maintain Equity Over Time

We collected some free tools and programs on bias training for you to explore

See Bias | Block Bias: A toolkit created by the Stanford VMware Women's Leadership Innovation Lab to methodically diagnose bias.

50 Ways to Fight Bias: A free digital training program by Lean In to empower employees to identify and challenge biases head on.

Many regional and local organizations offer bias reduction training, including the Economic Development Collaborative which serves the counties of Santa Barbara, Ventura and Los Angeles.

Fighting Gender Bias in the Workplace: A LinkedIn Learning course that guides you through what you can do to foster a more equitable workplace (free for LinkedIn Premium members).

Step 6: Maintain Equity Over Time

Sustaining Pay Equity Gains

Strategies from California Employers

Beginner

Tools to Maintain Equity Over Time

Step 6:
Maintain Equity Over Time