Bret and Jonathan Sposato
I had a chance to meet serial entrepreneur and tech industry leader Jonathan Sposato at the Washington Hospitality Annual Conference. Currently Jonathan is the CEO of the PicMonkey, a popular photo editing site. (check it out – it’s the best!) Jonathan’s industry has been under fire for misogynistic practices, so it was refreshing to hear a tech presentation on the importance of gender equality in the workplace. Jonathan pointed out what seems the obvious to me, a workforce that values gender equality leads to enhanced productivity. Jonathan went on to quote a fellow tech CEO Pete Hamilton who said, “Diversity feeds innovation by creating an environment that fosters a range of opinions, ideas, voices and emotions. By building a culture with the unmistakable feeling of inclusion, you will weather more storms and absolutely increase your chances of success,”
So how is the tech industry going about leveling the playing field? Jonathan talked about several large-scale salary reviews. After the temp agency giant, Salesforce, conducted an internal study, they quietly added three million dollars to raise the salaries of their female workers. Other tech companies like Intuit have followed.
Considering the majority of our managers are female, I want to be sure that Wirta Hospitality Worldwide is gender neutral when it comes to compensation. So I’ve decided to engage in a company-wide salary review too. It will be part of our 2019 company business plan. We’ll work with our Human Resources services provider and our new accounting firm for ideas on the methodology around this important task. Thank you Jonathan Sposato for leading your tech industry in gender equality issues and giving the rest of us a quiet nudge to do the same. We welcome this opportunity to show how much we value our managers’ well-being.