By Marisa Young | Staff Writer
As of this summer, Baylor is one of the 700 best employers for women in America, according to Forbes Magazine.
Baylor ranked No. 182 out of 700 on the magazine’s list of “America’s Best Employers for Women.” To compile the list, Forbes collaborated with market research firm Statista, surveying “more than 140,000 women working at companies with at least 1,000 employees in the United States.”
The survey collected data on pay equity, advancement opportunities, childcare benefits, discrimination and other points of interest.
Associate Vice President of Employee Programs Casidy Orand said she feels “very proud” of Baylor’s workplace culture and benefits, which is the result of decades of hard work.
“I feel very strongly that our benefit package, whether for women or for anyone, is at the top of what you’ll find anywhere,” Orand said. “I’ve gotten to experience some of the benefits of being supported as a female at Baylor. I have had two children since I’ve worked at Baylor and gotten to take the parental and caregiver leave and felt supported through that process.”
Historically, Baylor has not always prioritized its female staff and faculty, according to Cheryl Gochis, vice president for human resources and chief marketing officer. The faculty maternity leave policy was first put into place in 2015, with additional benefits added beginning in 2017, Gochis said.
She attributed the rapid improvement of policy in recent decades to “strong female leaders” and a system of constant feedback.
“We’re very fortunate to have had President Livingstone here,” Gochis said. “She’s a great noticer of things, and she asks all of us as leaders to do that. When she hears something, she responds.”
Gochis said that having many forums of exchange between staff and leadership has been crucial in creating a healthier workspace.
“We try to open up feedback across the board, because we know great ideas can come from anywhere,” Gochis said. “The policies we have now for adoption and foster care came from an employee who said, ‘This would be meaningful for my family.’ We were able to put that in place, and she ended up being the first employee to utilize the adoption policy.”
Orand said that her office has several ways they implement feedback, since it is such an important part of executive operations.
“We have several committees that HR helps facilitate … a retirement committee comprised of faculty and staff, a group health committee comprised of faculty and staff and HR advisory,” Orand said. “They learn our processes and our policies, and they are helpful in gathering feedback, but also making decisions on things that are benefit-related.”
In addition to creating policies that meet staff and faculty’s needs, Gochis said her team works closely with leaders to ensure the cultural health of the workplace as well.
“We tell our managers and our leaders all the time — we can have the best policies in the world, but if a manager doesn’t really understand it or support it, that can minimize the support,” Gochis said. “So we really work with our leaders on that, too. I think we have really receptive and agile managers that help make these policies become a reality.”
Gochis said that while there has been “tremendous” progress in caring for women in Baylor’s workplace, her team is constantly seeking ways to improve.
“We hope that we do such a good job supporting [faculty and staff] that they’re able to really put their main focus on the main focus, which is the students, and that’s how we achieve our mission every day,” Gochis said.
