Is Nike'S Global Pay Equality A Magic Weapon For Market Success?

In July 23rd, as a global sports apparel giant, Nike announced the decision to raise wages for about 7400 employees.

The move of Nike has responded to the call of genuine equal pay policy, and this trend is becoming more and more obvious.

This is also a major change for Nike.

In the past few months, under the influence of the MeToo campaign, Nike has suffered many disputes and publicly dismissed several executives.

In the era of news and 24 hours of continuous global spread,

At least it shows the speed of change as a world-famous brand.

In April this year, the New York Times reported that an internal memorandum and an anonymous investigation were recorded.

Many female employees have been treated unfairly.

These experiences vary from gender based office bullying to openly sexual harassment.

There is also evidence that Nike's career development is hindered.

With this trend of problems emerging, consumer support for sports is booming, and understanding female consumers is the key to the growth of enterprises.

Chip Wilson, founder of LuluLemon, published an article in Forbes.

The key consumer group is "women who are highly educated, interested in travel and sports, and the market is growing."

Another news report pointed out that Nike's ambitious growth market strategy includes laying emphasis on such consumers.

It seems unwise to lose employees who can see this key market.

In early 2018, reports of unfair treatment by female employees were gradually disclosed.

With the promotion of female employees in Nike, the company began restructuring.

The process of change is open and full of twists and turns.

In May, 11 executives and senior executives were sacked or resigned.

At the same time, countless other employees, many of whom are women, have resigned for unfair treatment and discrimination.

Nike seems determined to create a new chapter in corporate culture.

Although it is not clear whether the change in pay structure is a direct response to the spring upheaval, this is encouraging.

A spokesman for Nike said the company's staff incentive plan focused on ensuring that the company remained competitive in all jobs, regions, functions and brands.

The spokesman also pointed out quickly that the pay adjustment had an impact on women and men.

Nike published data on global pay equality on its website. The results of fiscal year 2017 show that men earn 99.9 cents for every dollar earned by a man.

"We will continue to monitor the data and make adjustments in the right place, taking 1:1 as our goal."

A spokesman for Nike said.

The new pay structure includes based on

The adjustment of the annual analysis and further analysis of all the roles of the company.

Many people believe that doing this continuous analysis is the best way to maintain equal pay for equal work.

Nike also announced a decision to change the way bonus payments are made.

The spokesman said before, for all eligible employees, bonuses were determined according to the company, team and individual performance.

In the future, success (and possible bonus) will be based on the performance of the company.

This shift from individual to overall organizational performance will help to enhance the collaborative culture within Nike will become an interesting topic.

At present, studies on pay and annual assessment show that the assessment of pay and personal performance is not effective for motivating employees, and the effect of cooperation is much less.

The pformation of Nike's bonus structure follows the trend of human resources, aiming at finding more effective and inclusive indicators to promote success.

What is the meaning of Nike's change in real income and gender equality in the enterprise? Four human resources and equal pay experts' answers are hopeful. They also reinforce the view that better integration into the organization will bring better results.

Employment search

Kelli Dragovich, senior vice president of recruitment company People at Hired, highlighted the real costs and benefits of the fast implementation of the pay balance in the organization.

"A simple fact is that even if you do not have much reserves, there is always a way to get you and show progress."

Dragovich said, "but Nike really has reserves, and I appreciate that they have done the right thing in the team to solve the problem of inequality."

Dragovich also pointed out the benefits and cohesiveness that Nike wants to achieve to the organization of the company.

Dragovich points out that research shows that inclusive and diverse teams can make better decisions and produce a 60% increase in results.

Nike's implementation of equal pay for equal work is an important moment for enterprises to remain competitive and retain their employees.

"Big Brand Company such as Nike will make changes and maintain their posture in the market, and small companies will follow suit because they have to do so to remain competitive in attracting top talent," said Stacy Strauser, OneDigital's chief consultant in charge of pay.

SameWorks chief executive Crystal Hansen agrees.

Her company executes data-driven pay audits, and many of her clients regard salary fairness as a market differentiation factor in recruitment.

"This is a good decision for Nike."

Hansen said, "when employees find that they are not paid fairly, they will not only affect their personal financial level, but also bring problems to their employers, including employee turnover, turnover and damage to brand equity."

Lydia Frank is vice president of content strategy of cloud computing compensation company PayScale.

It is encouraging for large and influential brands to make such a change because it will produce a chain reaction and encourage other organizations to pay more attention to pay equity.

This means that it is possible to solve problems actively instead of passively. "

She said.

But Frank points out another point, which is the key to understanding the persistence of gender wage gap.

"I think for Nike and other organizations, it is also important to ensure that women's progress within the organization is ensured while ensuring fair income."

Frank said, "now the gender wage gap is largely due to the shortage of women in leadership positions."

Although it is encouraging to say that the basic equality of positions is now achieved, more attention should be paid to internal management and managerial opportunities.

Career development is the key.

Frank mentioned that promotion rate is a new way to make up for the income gap permanently.

A report written by PayScale this spring, which studied ten years of pay and career data, found that men were more likely to be vice presidents or chief executives in the middle of their careers than women, and 142% more likely to assume leadership positions in the latter part of their careers.

Gender differences in leadership roles released by Nike also show similar differences.

Nike said that in the fiscal year 2015 and 2017, the proportion of male and female employees was 52% and 48% respectively.

However, in the past two years, most directors (62% in 2017) and vice presidents (71% in 2017) were male.

Between 2015 and 2017, these percentages dropped by a few percentage points.

Can Nike speed down the gender gap in the leadership at a fast enough speed to keep it in

The leading role of the field remains to be seen.

Getting more highly educated, highly athletic and experienced women executives may be exactly what they need to stay ahead of the competition.