A “post-fact era”? Not at FullConTech. Our participants tell us that they love data, and they want more of it.

As we gear up for the May event, part of our planning process is to go through relevant data, looking for trends, insights, and surprises that can help us shape our discussions on “Building a Better Workplace.”

What does the data tell us so far? There’s a reason so many workplace problems are persistent, pervasive, and so difficult to change: they’re complicated. And the root causes seem to be contrary to many of our long-held beliefs.

Here are a few things we’ve discovered:

Washington has one of the largest gender pay gaps in the country.

On average, U.S. women earn about 75 cents to every dollar that men earn. In Washington, according to the National Women’s Law Center, the average is 76.5 cents. That’s ahead of the national average, but among the 12 states with the biggest gaps along with Mississippi and West Virginia.

Women around the world are forecasted to reach wage parity in 2234.

We continue to make far less progress closing the global gender wage gap than was forecasted. The World Economic Forum predicts that, at the current rate of change, it will take 217 years for women to reach wage parity with men. This is 47 years longer than forecasted in 2016 and 99 years longer than predicted in 2015.

Behavior differences drive the gender pay gap at Uber.

Uber studied driver data in Chicago to understand why men drivers earn, on average, 7% more than women. The Uber pay algorithm is gender blind, and the study found that riders show no preference for men or women drivers. So, what’s causing the pay gap? Fifty percent of the difference can be explained by speed: Men drive 2% faster than women and can get in more rides per hour. Over time, this makes a huge difference.

Seattle’s workforce is getting bigger and less diverse…

Most cities become more diverse as they grow, but as Seattle’s population has expanded, the city has become  one of the 10 least diverse major cities in the country. Meanwhile, King County has been experiencing rapid diversification, with Bellevue now a minority-majority city along with Renton, Federal Way, and Kent.

…which could put Seattle area businesses at a disadvantage.

Cloverpop recently analyzed 600 business decisions by 200 different business teams in a variety of industries over 2 years and found that diverse teams make decisions:

• That are better up to 87% of the time.
• 2x faster with 1/2 the meetings.
• Deliver 60% better results.

Employee engagement continues to drop.

Gallup released a State of the American Workforce study last year that revealed that 87% of companies say that employee engagement is one of their top priorities, yet only 31% of U.S. employees describe themselves as “engaged,” and 20% say they are “actively disengaged.”

“Leaning in” doesn’t help women advance.

Harvard researchers recently looked at employees at a large, multinational firm and found almost no perceptible differences in how women and men behave at work. Women had the same amount of mentoring as men, spent as much time with senior leadership, and allocated their time similarly to men in the same role. Yet, while women made up 40% of entry level employees at the company, they filled only 20% of the most senior leadership positions.

Companies are starting to tap into the talent pool of people with autism.

There is about an 85% unemployment rate for adults with autism who have college degrees, primarily due to their inability to get through the interview process. But companies, like SAP and Microsoft, are developing Autism at Work programs that create innovative hiring processes focused on problem-solving, rather than traditional interview skills, and provide mentors. SAP has a 90% retention rate for employees with autism.

Employees want to work for companies that care.

A Cone Research study found that 79% of people prefer to work for socially responsible companies, and 79% employees think companies should match their charitable giving. Companies seem to believe these numbers, because 65% of large companies and 28% of small companies match contributions, and nearly  60% of companies offer paid time off for employees to volunteer.

Want to join the discussion on “Building a Better Workplace”? Register today for FullConTech and get the Early Bird rate until March 1, 2018.