After an outside audit identified a gender-based wage gap, executives at Boston-based Shawmut Design and Construction in 2019 revamped its policies with the goal of putting high-potential female employees on a faster track to advancement.

The Boston-based firm paired up promising employees with executives as sponsors, used a software program to select mentors, and changed its system of annual pay reviews to a more equitable schedule.

The focus on inclusion achieved its desired results in January, when Shawmut confirmed that it had completely eliminated the salary gap at the 1,200-employee firm.

“It’s been an incredibly rewarding experience because it’s a talent benefit and it’s a business benefit,” said Marianne Monte, Shawmut’s chief people officer, who has been acting as a sponsor for three employees.

Approximately 50 employees signed up for the voluntary mentorship program, which used software by Chronus, a Seattle-area company, to select compatible matches. The algorithm eliminates one of the drawbacks of self-selecting mentor programs, an unconscious bias to pair employees who look and act alike, Shawmut CEO Les Hiscoe said in an email.

The sponsorship program identified high-potential women and people of color seen as having the potential to move up to senior leadership roles, and assigned an executive to give them challenging projects and stretch their skills over a period of a year or more. One of Monte’s mentees, a human resources manager, was promoted to a regional leadership role in Shawmut’s New York City office, which has approximately 250 employees.

A five-year Shawmut employee, Monte spearheaded another key change: the timing of when employees received their annual performance reviews and salary adjustments. Previously, employees were evaluated on the anniversary of their hiring. That put some employees at a disadvantage, depending upon when their hiring date fell in the business cycle, Monte said.

“If you’re hired in January, there’s tons of money in the budget, but if you’re hired in December, there may not be,” Monte said. “We had to change the process to create a level playing field.”

The company created a common review date in the fall to evaluate all employees’ merit increases, and does a second review in March to flag disparities.

And a new Diversity Leadership Council was formed to sponsor diversity events such as Women in Construction Week programs, Pride Month celebrations and a Black History Month education program.

Shawmut did not provide the previous salary gap percentage, but said the disparities were primarily between new hires and employees who had been rapidly promoted. 

The construction industry has one of the smallest gender wage gaps of any industry. Female employees made 7.8 percent less than men, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau from 2009.