End Gender Bias (Enact Progressive Family Leave Systems): This failure in our system starts with the courts. Family court commissioners blindly discriminate based on what the court feels mom and dad should be in life. This is not justice; it is likely the most overlooked cancer in our government system that if it is not treated very soon could bring down our entire way of life. Meanwhile, the private sector is not helping end the bias of gender roles despite the robust advancement of women in personnel and HR roles. Did you know that according to Forbes, less than 17% of companies allow men to take paternity leave? Forcing men out of the workforce with no parenting leave rights is no better than penalizing women for having children. It further serves to prevent women’s advancement, too, by forcing them back into experienced-based hierarchies of hiring and compensation, not pay-for-performance systems. The ability for families to ensure a livable wage is earned by at least one earner is critical, and progressive models that holistically support American families should be a priority for every corporation.
As part of my series about “the five things we need to do to close the gender wage gap,” I had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. J Paul Rand, MBA, CPCN.
Dr. Rand is an Executive at RSolutions, PLLC an applied thought-leadership think tank. He was selected as a Regional White House Fellow, and once was the youngest elected public official in Washington State (both non-partisan positions). He is a Big 4 C-level adviser featured by FORBES, Puget Sound Business Journal, NBC, CBS, and more. As an Organizational Development Leadership Authority, he prescribes solutions maximizing ROI through organizational development/human capital performance strategies: a process he defines in his 2020 publication “Culture-ROI”. He is proud to have helped over 3000 female clients advance their careers over the past 15 years; but equally proud of his research and publication the DadJob: the fastest-growing career in America. He runs a non-profit (The-Orchard.org) where he was endorsed for his groundbreaking work supporting combat veterans since 2007. You can find him exclusively on LinkedIn or at www.jpaulrand.com
Thank you so much for joining us! Can you tell us the “backstory” that brought you to this career path?
Early in my career, I was afforded a chance to conduct research at the intersect of higher-education, personnel departments of large corporations, and professional non-profit associations to research, design, and deliver organizational learning systems. The focus of my research at the time was maximizing human performance in the workplace by working with leading-edge Human Resource and personnel department authorities. In time I became fascinated by the objective of putting the human back into the workforce (and now back into the digital era).
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began this career?
I was contacted by a follower on LinkedIn (I can be found exclusively on that platform). He nominated me based on my research to serve as a non-partisan Fellow in the White House Fellows program. Out of over 2500 nominations I was selected as a Regional White House Fellow and made a policy proposal on how to advance America with new learning systems within the Department of Labor, some of which I will discuss here.
Can you share a story about the funniest or most interesting mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
I am still making them, in a desperate hope to remain relentlessly motivated in my work like it is day-one — a proven discipline of the Amazon Company, and name of their HQ based in Seattle!
Ok, let’s jump to the main focus of our interview. Even in 2019, women still earn about 80 cents for every dollar a man makes. Can you explain three of the main factors that are causing the wage gap?
I have created award-winning programs helping to economically advance thousands of individuals not just in being hired, but in performance, pay and leadership positioning as organizational thought leaders, applied scholars, and advanced performance-focused personnel professionals. This has included local, state, and federal accreditation and endorsed programs that I designed. Many of the programs were awarded by the Society of HR Management for ten consecutive years based on the individual performance of my clients. The participants were 90% women and represent to date over 85% of the personnel departments in Seattle (the City of Companies).
Based on my experience and research for over 15 years on this matter, I suggest that this issue is not an issue of men versus women. Equality is an American issue.
The wage gap exists due to:
- Gender pay likely is a symptom of gender bias in board and executive roles in the corporate sector.
- Adherence to an outdated management control model that does not embrace collaboration, innovation, and new perspectives by embracing systems self-defined roles and compensation for employees that fits the modern technical economy.
- But I would suggest the root-cause: Antiquated gender role bias in our (family) court system.
- To help define the complexities of the wage gap and the importance of why women’s advancement as organizational board leaders is imperative over the next decade for the health and performance of our economic system, my team at RSolutions has created a publication available in 2020. I hope your audience will check it out.
Can you share with our readers what your work is doing to help close the gender wage gap?
For nearly two decades I have been working to help women to break the stigma of women in work, shatter the glass ceilings (by helping several become elected officials) in government and private sectors; and actively coached, mentored, and trained thousands of women pioneering a pathway for younger generations of women in the workforce through applied professional sciences which I outline in an interview with this outlet previously.
Recently, I have been writing a lot lately about the Culture-ROI method while working with an elite team of AI scientists (in collaboration with Nestor-Up, learn about this system at www.RSolutionsPLLC.com) to create an applied organizational culture-performance system. This system will ensure companies can monitor, measure, and compensate fairly for collaboratively focused culture-building roles in the organization.
One past example I am proud of is the thought-leadership of professional scholarly programs at the Strategic Learning Alliance, a system run by women owners with over 30 years in both health-sector negotiations and IT sectors. These women are pioneers and I encourage any women who feel discriminated against, held back, or prevented from excelling to learn about these two leaders and their applied professional programs for coaching and negotiations in professional roles. They will immediately impact your ability to break through the barriers!.
Can you recommend 5 things that need to be done on a broader societal level to close the gender wage gap? Please share a story or example for each.
My research on this has revealed a few concerns summarized here that address what I believe is the root-cause behind the pay gap:
- Solution One: Embrace the Learning Economy by implementing learning sabbaticals and academies: higher education often lags the private sector. One way they do not is they understand the value of life-work balance with a sabbatical system. Organizations achieve ROI within three years of investing in educational programs (undergraduate to advanced degrees). I have helped to influence and forge learning organization systems, with some clients investing over $1B annually in education benefits. When we change our paradigm that life-work balance can drive ROI as much and better than work-life expectations, we can impact our working and living cultures profitably. I speak about the depths of this in an overview of my policy made to the Department of Labor and the White House on LinkedIn and also in an article with this outlet here in addition to other HR-focused interviews available on my website.
- End Gender Bias (Enact Progressive Family Leave Systems): This failure in our system starts with the courts. Read my publication DadJob and see the shocking evidence that the root cause starts with one government branch that has no checks on its authority. It does not take much effort to research the fact that family court commissioners blindly discriminate based on what the court feels mom and dad should be in life. This is not justice; it is likely the most overlooked cancer in our government system that if it is not treated very soon could bring down our entire way of life. Meanwhile, the private sector is not helping end the bias of gender roles despite the robust advancement of women in personnel and HR roles. Did you know that according to Forbes, less than 17% of companies allow men to take paternity leave? Forcing men out of the workforce with no parenting leave rights is no better than penalizing women for having children. It further serves to prevent women’s advancement, too, by forcing them back into experienced-based hierarchies of hiring and compensation, not pay-for-performance systems. The ability for families to ensure a livable wage is earned by at least one earner is critical, and progressive models that holistically support American families should be a priority for every corporation.
- Cultivate a Culture-ROI HR Strategies: Engage your organizational culture, and change the dynamics of your organization for the better! I am regularly cited for the importance of creating culture-ROI systems. Processes in an organization that focus on humans first, then leverage proven time-tested business models to empower technology solutions. Instead, according to research, less than 80% of companies lead with people-first organizational strategy. This despite plenty of evidence it separates the good from great. I write in 43 cities about this message as a Leadership Trust member of the American City Business Journal. Check out my work on my website for articles, but I challenge all HR professionals to spearhead being the solution and present in all departments and not stuck in the legalistic silo created by outdated HR leaders of the past century who merely responded to legislation and did not proactively seek to innovate personnel departments. What’s the ROI? Take a look at the City of Seattle’s growth where 85% of their HR leadership has been trained and supported in this method. Year over Year for a decade its experienced hypergrowth and created millions of jobs through economic gain. Culture-ROI, that embrace true diversity of thought with people-focused strategies drives ROI, it’s that simple.
- Learn Negotiations and Coaching as Applied Professional Sciences: women ask for less money than do men. Historically, the glass ceiling was shattered during the Great Recession. Women took jobs for far less than men, with more seniority, was offered (or would take). This is tremendous in that depending on the studies examined there are equal rates of men and women in corporate America (note: several indicators that over 66% of women hold higher degrees, and more women are being hired into corporate roles than men for the past two years). Consider work by two leading scholars I have had the pleasure of supporting over the years. They have created an applied professional certification program for women to advance in both coaching and negotiations. The fact is that less than 3 out of 10 female job applicants negotiate a job offer, versus 7 out of 10 men. Learn negotiations, learn to coach (to teach and guiding collaboration and performance accountability in the workplace). The system evolved from a nurse turned Union-negotiator (a very rare role over the past thirty years); and another female leader who cut her teeth as a single mother in the IT sector over 30 years ago (in an industry still plagued by gender role discrimination). When it comes to understanding struggle and the value of some of the ideas I share here, these two have lived it, researched, and innovated a great first step every woman considering a professional career should learn from. Learn about how negotiations can impact your job scope, your life-work balance, and earn better income (not just by learning to negotiate, but by also holding a certification). This is the best first step women can do immediately to enhancing pay and performance in the workforce. Check out their programs at www.strategiclearningalliance.org Imagine ending the wage gap by 2020 by simply helping inspire women to negotiate their worth using a system designed by women negotiators, for women to advance in corporate roles, but created in coaching like process to ensure application of outcomes based on natural strengths of women.
- Social Media versus Real Social Interaction Addiction: we have a right to opinions, but we also have a duty to keep destructive, negative, and biased opinions to ourselves. This age of shaming moms (who want to work; or dads that want to stay at home; and vice versa) must end. The notion we can attack people on social media from a place of personal opinion is a testament to our character as a nation. Likewise, stop believing everything on social media, accept it as entertainment at best. Be engaged in professional networking in responsible and mature forums and online programs, learning, and professional society events. These are ecosystems of evidence-based debate, collaboration and professional focused responsibility to make a more perfect community, workplace, and union. This is a far better use of everyone’s time pending some type of control on the abusive use of shaming, trolling, and creating conflict based on opinion, inadequate and flawed data collection methods, and hype.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
Well thank you for that statement; I appreciate you saying so.
I would have to say that my movement of focus this year is DADJOB. A system by fathers, with fathers, designed to help men be better for kids and community. Did you know that there has been a 4-fold increase in the number of stay-at-home dads (and many of them are disabled?). This is really important to me as a father of three daughters and one son; equality requires we ensure girls have the chance to earn really amazing income and career opportunities in corporate America, but also it requires we start to recognize it is important we help young men and current dads to be supported if they choose the dad-job — the fastest-growing job in America.
As a society, this is a new role and supports equality of pay as much as equal opportunity and respect for parents as a whole. There is a lot of support needed to men can feel welcome in this new role. It is a new phenomenon, and to encourage equality and diversity it is important men and women, young and old read this publication. Just like programs at www.strategiclearningalliance.org and my publication at RSolutions can help advance women in the workforce with modern professional performance tips, trends, and learning lessons. Gender equality is needed now.
This is an exciting adventure and one not only of personal experience for myself but also a three-year research endeavor I have taken to understand the complexities of this new gender role. Be sure to check out the 2020 public release at www.readDADJOB.com or on my websites!
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
Not everything that can be counted, counts; not everything that counts can be counted. I hope I have respectfully represented this quote by Einstein in my interview responses with you!
We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might see this, especially if we tag them. 🙂
I think I could help both Arianna Huffington and Melinda Gates in both advancing women in the workplace and creating innovative ground-level economic outreach good for social services and fundamentally changing our attitudes across the country in many ways. It would be a pleasure to learn from them over lunch or breakfast.
This was really meaningful! Thank you so much for your time.
Dr. J Paul Rand: “Here Are 5 Things We Need To Do To Close The Gender Wage Gap” was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.