By Pam Paquet

While the HR world focuses on benefits, policies, programs and compensation, the goal is to treat employees well and meet their living needs to improve success within the workplace.

Given the emphasis on empathy and people skills, is it any surprise that women are predominant in HR? Case in point, the membership of our Human Resources Management Association (HRMA) is over 70 per cent female.

The numbers speak for themselves, but do they also infer women are better for HR than men? Or course not. Beliefs like these reinforce stereotypes and pigeon-hole by gender for particular tasks, roles and jobs.

Stepping Up From Stereotypes
Unfortunately, they are historically engrained in the workplace. Consider the “men at work” philosophy that has been present since industrial times and the historical male hierarchies of business. Times have changed. On paper, women and men enjoy the same rights and opportunities. There is even legislation in place to address bullying and all forms of workplace harassment.

Over the decades, women have been shifting their talents, expertise and experience from their well-run homes and families and bringing them into the workplace, bringing coordination, prioritization and organization and nurturing to businesses large and small.

From the surge of women into the workforce during WWII to the growth of professional opportunities alongside Human Rights legislation in the 1970s to the proliferation of technologies and new careers with no adherence to gender—the equity framework has evolved.

Reframing the Big Picture
However, it is only a framework; the space within is the opportunity available for every organization to create its own big picture.
It is one thing to challenge these assumptions in challenging times, it is another to shift the mind space of the workplace on an ongoing basis. Most obviously, if efficiencies and productivity is to be maximized, it is necessary to go past gender and focus on differentiators indicative of leadership, innovation, engagement and motivation.

Purdys Breaks the Mold
To achieve that mind space, some companies and HR leaders are doing more than just dealing with gender models. Carmen Grant, VP of human resources and chocolate aficionado with Purdys Chocolatier, described the stir she created over 10 years ago; at the time, Purdys was even more predominantly women-dominant and Grant hired the first man in HR.

Grant reports that while women still far outnumber the men at Purdys retail stores (80 – 85 per cent) and in the factory (65 per cent), five out of eight at the executive table are men. She describes a shift from the traditional part-time female worker bringing in a bit more for the household to a new, full-time female focus on financial independence and career growth.

Some Assertiveness Required
She sees women showing up more and more with a confidence in their ability and learned skills to push past the “old boys club.” In her HR role, Grant feels a certain level of assertiveness is needed to show that the old ways can not stand—and more personally, Grant will not allow it.

Non-traditional is becoming the new traditional. Grant herself comes from a home where her husband cooks and she is more focused on building things and manual tasks; both of them follow their passions rather than gender stereotypes. She relates this to the mind space of the workplace where we should ask, “Does it have to be a man to do this task?”

Learning ‘Lean’ to Lead
Purdys fosters an openness to people doing things and taking on new challenges, outside of the gender stereotype. Grant provides a great example of her own professional growth. She had a desire to learn Lean processes desire to learn Lean processes, requested the challenge, took it on, learned about it and became Lean Sigma Six Canada certified.

Moreover, Grant had the opportunity to go to Japan and witness it firsthand so implementation would be successful. She stresses how learning and opportunity can benefit confidence, ability and drive.

Most importantly, she recommends more organizations make the shift to fresh mind space beginning at the hiring process. Nowadays people can be anything they want without barriers due to gender, age, culture or other obvious characteristic.

An Abundance of -Isms to Overcome
Unfortunately, a triumph over gender issues may unearth other latent or blatant differentiators subject to judgement and assumptions. Take for example, different generations. Finger pointing between generations is alive and well, but it is not as simple and straight forward as “he” versus “she” as it involves four generations (or even five in family based businesses) duking it out to be “right” and get things done “my generation’s way.”

Another differentiator subject to judgement and even full blown stereotyping is technology. The mindset around comfort level and appropriate usage amounts can be as different as day and night. The younger people need love and could not live without technology, while older people (except the youngers X’s) think technology is overused, reduces personal interaction and communication and is more trouble than it’s worth to learn (much less master).

Dig a little deeper into characteristics that are not so physically obvious and socioeconomic status and birth order can be added to the list of generalities that hinder the evolution of the mind space.

Add in the judgement of well to do (the haves) as opposed to the lower earning families (the have-nots) and the mind space is often muddied further—despite like Canadian Labour Standards and HR recruiting practices emerged to forbid these inappropriate questions during screening and interviews.

From C Suites to Front Lines
Gone are the days when certain professions and business sectors were relegated to one specific gender. From C suites to heads of state and laboratories to front lines, women have been redefining leadership and opportunities for some time now.

By simply being open to diversity of all kinds, an organization’s comfort zone expands—a mind shift occurs that creates the mind space needed to allow innovation and opportunity to flourish.

Pam Paquet, MEd is a master level facilitator and principal of Pam Paquet and Associates. Speaking internationally, she is an instructor with BCIT and certified with the Canadian Counselling Association.

(PeopleTalk Fall 2014)