Gender Equality In The Workplace – Madeleine Park
gender equality in the workplace
SUMMARY
It is a delight to know that there are companies that are empowering their employees and promoting gender equality in the workplace.Inequality, whether it’s age, gender or ethnicity, is still one of the issues that a lot of companies face today. Eradicating it is a work in progress and as long as there are steps taken to resolve it, employees will feel that they are included and being cared for.On this episode, we have Madeleine Park. She is the Director of Marketing at MaidPro Franchise which has been named a Top Global Franchise.Madeleine talks about how to identify good and hardworking people to create an equal landscape and shares ways of empowering people to make them feel equal.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Happy employees always produce great results.There are a lot people who can do the job that you are requesting but you should look for people who can do the job well and willing to do it well with you.It is easier to create an equal environment within your company if the people you have selected to work with are good and hardworking.Getting the input and acceptance of those people who you already worked with in accepting new people in the company is essential.Connecting with your people on a deeper level and having their best interest at heart is always beneficial for the company.Easy access of communication to the higher ups can make the people who works for them feel included.Providing an equal environment in the workplace helps increase employee retention.TRANSCRIPTION:Â Gender Equality In The Workplace – Madeleine Park
Luis CongdonHey Thriving Launchers, today we are going to be talking about creating diversity and gender equality in the workplace and in your company.
Kamala ChambersWe’re here with Madeleine Park. She is the Director of Branding at MaidPro Franchise which has been named a Top Global Franchise.
Luis CongdonAlright Thriving Launchers, let’s jump on the call with Madeleine Park.Madeleine, are you ready to launch?
Madeleine Park I am ready to launch! Let’s build an empire.
Era Where Women Are Pushing Gender Equality In The Workplace
Luis CongdonI know that you are doing a lot of great work over there at MaidPro. One of the things that attracted us to have you guys come on the show is you have done something fantastic in this era where women are fighting for rights and equality. We see a lot of companies and franchises having issues with gender equality in the workplace and inequality whether it’s age, gender, or ethnicity.When I looked at you guys, I noticed that you are doing a really great job of being inclusive of women and even putting women in some high-powered roles like even yourself for example.
Ways To Promote Gender Equality In The Workplace
Luis CongdonI’m curious, what are some of the ways that you’re empowering franchise owners and people that work under MaidPro’s label to make them feel like equal, and included? How do you promote gender equality in the workplace?
Madeleine Park I think first and foremost we put innovation and happiness first.
Creating Gender Equality In The Workplace By Putting Innovation and Happiness First
Madeleine Park We know that happy employees and happy franchisees are always going to do the best work.The work landscape is about community so not only are we pretty selective in terms of who we bring in; male or female, old or young, we want them to be good, hardworking people. I think when you find great people like that it makes it easier to create a landscape of gender equality in the workplace where everyone listens to one another and being able to promote people within their roles.
Kamala ChambersThat is such an incredible skill to be able to identify the people that are hardworking and going to give their all.
Ways To Have People Who Understand What Gender Equality In The Workplace Means
Kamala ChambersWhat are some ways that you identify those people so everyone is on that equal page where there’s gender quality in the workplace?
Madeleine Park Yes. I mean I think it definitely takes a village. I know that’s what people use when they say in raising kids but it’s almost the same thing when you’re raising a business.We definitely go through a lot of meet and greets before we bring anybody in. There are some extensive processes and procedures behind that in terms of just meeting someone and getting along with them.People who can do the job that you are requesting are probably a dime a dozen but the people who can do it well and are willing to do it well with you, those are what we are trying to find.
Create Gender Equality In The Workplace By Acting Like A Family
Madeleine Park Making sure that we are bringing all types of people who already worked with us and getting their acceptance, getting their go ahead that this person is going to add to our culture is definitely one of the main things that we focus on, getting everyone’s opinion and really acting like a community and family.
Luis CongdonThat reminds of my early dating days when I found very quickly that if my family didn’t like somebody that I was dating, it was probably a sign that maybe they weren’t a good fit for me.At first I have this kind of initial response of being defensive or feeling kind of attacked when my family said something that was a red flag for them. Then, I got a little smarter and got a little wiser and realized that community has the best interest at heart.Now, this is kind of a different thing because I’m talking about my family.
Kamala ChambersGood thing, your family loves me.
Gender Equality In The Workplace – Help Women Feel Included
Luis CongdonThis is a little bit different though because at work we need to do something to cultivate that kind of cohesiveness and that togetherness.What are a few specific ways that you’ve seen MaidPro do that especially that pertains to helping women really feeling included?
Promote Gender Equality In The Workplace – Have An Open Landscape In The Office
Madeleine Park Yes. From the home office perspective, we create a very open landscape. There’s no closed off offices. Our CEO and a lot of our executive team don’t have offices at all. They have desks right in the middle which makes it very easy to communicate with them.On top of that, our executive team is mixed with all sorts of men, women, all different ages. We also try to nurture our culture in terms of; we’ll take people out to lunch; we do these adventure trips where we take these crazy adventures all over the world. We just got back from the Amazon rainforest and everybody’s included. It gives us really great time to bond and spend time with each other.
Gender Equality In The Workplace – Connect With People On A Deeper Level
Madeleine Park Really, we do focus on having that family feel so we know that MaidPro’s maybe not for everyone but for those it is, we’re going to act like a family. Of course, we are all working but being able to connect with people on a deeper level and have their best interest at heart is always going to benefit the company.On our franchisee side, the franchisees are also welcome into the home office anytime in and on these trips but for their employees, which we call Pros, which are the Pro’s cleaning the houses, we have culture training which is very much if you are going to work for someone in one of these jobs, it’s a hard job.
Culture Training On Gender Equality In The Workplace
Madeleine Park It’s not appealing to want to go and then clean people’s toilet. How do you make it something that people want to be a part of?And so we have all these trainings and tools to make sure that the owners can provide monthly parties, monthly bonuses whether it’s cars or we set up GoFundMe’s for Pro’s have problems due to natural disasters and stuff.
Gender Equality In The Workplace Helps In Employee Retention
Madeleine Park It is a trickle-down effect from our own office all the way down through to our Pro’s so that this culture of spending time together and caring about each other resonates with people and helps employee retention.
Luis Congdon
Here’s a question I have for you. Having worked with several different companies in the franchise space and one of the companies that we helped with some of their marketing in fact is Amada Senior Care. They’re a senior care company and the people that work there, there are the franchise owners and then there are the people that are like the Pro’s in your case and they’re doing jobs that are challenging and require a shift in mindset. That requires leaders to be strong and understand what they’re doing and how to lead.Gender Equality In The Workplace – Create Events Where People Can Celebrate Their Wins
Luis Congdon
I know some of the things that some of the franchises do is they do events with their franchisees. They do different things to bring that community together and celebrate their wins.What are some of the ways that MaidPro is doing that to empower people? And some of the things that you might recommend that you’ve seen being done so our listeners can go “That would be an interesting thing. That’s something that we can do in our company.”Madeleine Park Yes. A couple of big things we do, we always do an annual convention where all the franchisees can come together and it’s usually not in a boardroom. It’s in a very cool place where they can listen to different tracks, talk shop with one another and bond.
Having Peer Performance Groups Promote Gender Equality In The Workplace
Madeleine Park The thing that MaidPro recently started was called the Peer Performance Groups. We have grouped up franchisees by region and every quarter, they have a meet up where they all get together. Someone from the executive team will go down there and it’s a smaller way for owners to get together, talk about their problems and things that they’re struggling with, talk about their wins and takeaway tips and trick from other owners.At the home office, we do have a MaidPro here but we’re not in the day to day so sometimes it’s more valuable to listen to your other franchisees and your people in your shoes day to day.
Gender Equality In The Workplace – Discuss With People Who Are In Your Shoes
Madeleine Park I would recommend discussing more with people that are in your shoes whether it’s your franchisee community or somebody else, another woman that starting a business, another man starting a business.Develop your network because that’s going to help you the most.I think on a smaller scale grassroots is not to be afraid to ask for help. Our model is very much about training and support and anything you need. We’re here and we’re going to help you through it. If we don’t know, we’re going to research it and we’re going to figure that out for you so being sure that you can lead by example and also know that you should continue learning. You should continue growing and developing and your business will too.
Kamala ChambersYou’ve given us many good tips.Is there anything else before we go that you’d want to leave the Thriving Launchers with that can help people make sure that they are creating gender equality in the workplace and a company that promotes leadership especially for women?
Gender Equality In The Workplace – Lead By Example
Madeleine Park Yes. I would definitely say that like I’d just mentioned lead by example. It’s one thing to say or have a mission statement on the wall that we promote equality. It’s another thing to step up and do it so definitely taking the first step whether you’ve thought through every process or not.A lot of times, companies and individuals get a little nervous to change something that they’ve done so much in the past.
Gender Equality In The Workplace – Grow Your Community
Madeleine Park After seeing what I’ve seen at MaidPro and how many great things are doing and especially with our franchisees and their businesses, my biggest thing is say yes, do it, grow your community, grow your network and all that positivity is going to propel you.
Luis CongdonThriving Launchers, I love that and it’s a wonderful note to leave with here is that leadership is an example, something we can do by example.Even if you’re not a leader in your organization or you’re starting a business and you don’t feel like you’re in that leadership role yet because it’s new or it’s a side hustle, one of the things that I’ve taken away in my life is that leaders aren’t always the people that have been voted into office.They’re not always the people who had been given that role. They are the people that take it upon themselves to lead and be an example and that will elevate you to that next phase of your life and that next space where you are the leader and people look to you because you’ve been leading by example and soon people start looking to you and going “That’s the way it should be done” or ” That’s the person that inspires me.
Takeaway on Gender Equality In The Workplace
Luis CongdonI hope that you’ve taken something away. Go out there, really make some big goals and exercise your ability to use your will and recognize the people in your team.Thriving Launchers, we’ll catch you on the next episode and we’ll see you on the next show.
