TIME’S UP and concepts42 Introduce Behavioral Method to Constructing Extra Equitable Workplaces

“For decades, the only tools organizations have had to deal with bias and discrimination have been subconscious bias training or diversity training. However, after decades of use, we see that these tools were nowhere near enough,” he said Tina Tchen, President and CEO of the TIME’S UP Foundation. “It is time to use cutting-edge behavioral science to develop new approaches to uproot the systems and structures that have unfairly disadvantaged women, especially BIPOC women, for far too long.”

As a first example of this new approach, TIME’S UP and ideas42 looked at the persistent existence of the gender pay gap The United States, over half a century since the Equal Pay Act was passed. This new study shows that the gender pay gap persists in part because of outdated “ideal worker norms” that form the cultural idea that work requires the full attention, loyalty and sacrifice of workers.

These norms developed from the experiences of men who, in the past, were able to dedicate their lives to work because women do the lion’s share of unpaid care work at home. While these norms are a holdover from the past, they remain anchored in the fabric of seemingly innocuous practices and cultures in the workplace – such as settlement negotiations, promotions, or assumptions and stereotypes about female caregivers and their commitment to paid work.

“Decades of research show that the environment in which people make decisions affects their behavior in meaningful ways,” he said Katy Davis, Managing Director at ideas42 and co-author of the new report. “To truly close the gender pay gap, we need to require employers to change the work environment – systems, policies and practices in the workplace that maintain bias. Behavioral design offers promising strategies employers can use to disrupt contextual features Environment that reinforces outdated social norms and directly affects who is hired and promoted. “

The report identifies the problems with obsolete standards preventing progress and provides a way forward by outlining a number of new “ideal workplace” standards taught by behavioral science to transform the obsolete “ideal worker” standards and actionable steps employers can take to make their jobs less harmful and fairer, including:

• Designing hiring and recruiting processes that focus on the experience of nurses as standard;
• Implement gender-neutral policies on paid family and medical leave to help women stay in the paid workforce;
• Creating clear scheduling and working time expectations and maintaining a work environment that encompasses cultural change; and
• Provides a path to fair promotions by expanding leadership traits beyond stereotypical masculine traits.

This collaboration combined TIME’S UP’s expertise in inequality in the workplace and ideas42’s rigorous behavioral science approach to tackling lingering social problems. This created new, scientifically sound solutions that employers can use immediately to improve their jobs.

Learn more here or download the full report here.

About the TIME’S UP Foundation
The TIME’S UP Foundation insists on safe, fair and dignified work for all by changing culture, companies and laws. We enable more people to seek justice through the TIME’S UP Legal Defense Fund. With the TIME’S UP Impact Lab, we are pioneers in innovative research that aims to find solutions to combat systemic inequality and injustice in the workplace. And we are redesigning key industries from the inside out so that they can serve as models for all sectors. TIME’S UP Foundation is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization. More information is available at timesupfoundation.org.

About ideas42
ideas42 is a non-profit organization that uses insights from human behavior – why people do what they do – to improve lives, build better systems, and drive social change. For more than a decade, we’ve led the way in applying behavioral science to the real world. Our efforts have expanded to 40 countries so far as we have worked with governments, foundations, NGOs, private companies and a wide variety of public institutions – in short, anyone who wants to make positive changes in people’s lives. More information is available at ideas42.org.

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