三和一善 企業契約における隠れたバイアス（セミナー3）
Hidden Bias in Corporate Contracts — and How to Eradicate It
From hierarchies requiring signatories to non-inclusive language, discrimination in contracts further marginalizes women and minorities.
Companies need to spend less time thinking about "exclusivity" and more time thinking about "inclusiveness" when it comes to digital contracts.
The COVID-19 era has been a catalyst for digital innovation. At a time of heightened uncertainty, organizations have been increasing investments in technologies such as video conferencing and tools to manage digital documents to ensure business continuity and future-proof operations. This includes contracts, such as customer or supplier agreements and employment or policy forms, which are central to organizational processes and collaboration.
But while embracing digital contracts is forward-looking, there is still a lot in the contracting process that feels stuck in the past. From the hidden hierarchy of who needs to sign a contract to the non-inclusive language within it, discrimination in digital contracts has the potential to further marginalize women and underrepresented minorities in our increasingly digital workplace.
This is an important time to consider these issues. While we spend a lot of time researching and training employees to identify face-to-face workplace micro-attacks, our understanding of digital micro-attacks is still in its infancy. Given that the era of hybrid work is as defined as virtual workflows and face-to-face interactions, organizations need to step up to ensure that inclusivity exists in all aspects of company culture, including key documents such as digital contracts.
Contract does not contain state
Adobe surveyed 1,400 corporate employees in the U.S., U.K., and Australia to find out employee perceptions of how employers handle inclusion in and around the contracting process. Our main finding: Companies have a long way to go before they say their contract business is fully inclusive.
Here are some key points:
Contract language remains gender-binary and non-inclusive. Thirty-eight percent of workers said contracts still use gender-binary terms, and 16 percent said they saw outdated and incorrect language to describe themselves.
Underrepresented minorities are more likely to spot these disparities. In the U.S., 31 percent of underrepresented minority workers reported noticing limited self-description options, compared with 23 percent of non-underrepresented minority workers.
Women spend more time looking for signatures. Women said it took them 97 minutes to get their contracts signed, significantly higher than the 70 minutes reported by male employees.
Many companies do not require employees to sign a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) policy. While two-thirds of employees signed a code of conduct agreement, only half said they signed a nondiscrimination or DEI policy
There are gender differences in who needs to sign the contract. Respondents said male employees were more likely than women to be required signatories of documents — 88% vs. 82% — or needed to eventually sign documents (75% vs. 61%).
It is clear from this data that there is a gap between what employers do and what employees want to see when it comes to inclusive practices in digital contracts.
Rewriting contracts for digital contracts
Given the clear value that digital contracts will have in our digital-first workplace, companies have an opportunity to ensure their contracts are as inclusive as the rest of the workplace culture.
There are some clear easy wins here. For one thing, start by doing a thorough review of your contract language to make sure you avoid gender binary phrases (i.e. "he" or "she") and use neutral phrases ("them"). For example, words such as "Chairman" in the contract should be replaced with "Chairman".
Another area of opportunity is job offer contracts, which require employees to voluntarily provide demographic information, such as their gender and racial identity. Our research reports that 25% of corporate employees say they don't see a broad enough range of options in their contracts, which limits their ability to describe themselves accurately. Companies should make sure their options are as broad as possible. A good rule of thumb is to leave an option where individuals can write down their preferred descriptors.
In addition to workplace language, develop clear policies around nondiscrimination and DEI policies. Employees need to have clear expectations about workplace behavior, helping set guidelines for how they treat others and how they expect to be treated. Research shows that organizations with DEI policies and programs experience better financial performance, growth, and talent retention. They just need to use the resources available to help develop policies and programs that work for all employees.
As more workplaces embrace the idea that they should encourage employees to give their full attention to their work, contractual inclusivity is a small but important way to illustrate that commitment.