Did you know? The gaps in salaries and bonuses between men and women are fourteen times more important than the gaps between their performance evaluations. In other words, a high-performance man is considerably more rewarded than a high-performance woman. Companies have however ramped up their efforts in terms of inclusion and training to sensitize their staff to these inequalities. And the thinking patterns are evolving. The blocking point now lies within the organizations’ functioning systems.

It is on insidious micro-discriminations, at each step of the company life, that one must work on  — starting with a detailed and quantified auditof its recruitment, rewarding, promotion or affectation processes, as we would audit a failing operational functioning. Why do you have so few women or persons from minority groups being candidates for management positions whilst the breakdown of your “juniors” is more balanced? Review the whole process to identify where inequalities have emerged. As for quality approaches, it is the systematic tracking of biases and bugs, even tiny ones, which will make the difference.

This book is a fascinating guide to start this indispensable approach in a world where the talents’war is raging.

To read: Bias Interrupted, Joan C. Williams, Harvard Business Review Press, 2021.