Should I Hire Women Welders (Part 2)

There are both upsides and downsides to hiring women welders…

See also:

Should I Hire Women Welders (Part 1)

Downsides of hiring women welders

While there are certain advantages that drive you to hire women welders, especially in mid of welder shortage. Still, there are some downsides you should consider before decision-making.

You should hire women welders for many reasons though, there are some problems you should consider, too.

1. Working in a male-dominated environment, your women workers should be do the best they can. Otherwise, it is difficult to endure the hardship here. If you decide to choose them, check their willingness to learn and to accept challenges in the interview and probation aside from testing their skills.

2. If you have an excellent, young female welder in the welding shop, there is also some problems you and she may face. She will find it difficult to tell the experienced, older men that they are not using the right rod, they are welding out of range, others. You know, they are constructive ideas though, it is uncomfortable to work with such a just-too-perfect welder. Then clever strategies from you should be employed. For example, help your women welder along the way. Let her make small mistakes, but prevent her from making the big ones.

3. It is safer now to work in the welding shop. Still, for women, especially those with visual sensibility, they will have hard time accepting burns, or the like. If they aren’t afraid of them and have ways to minimizing such cases, you will have excellent workers. They will know how to protect themselves and accomplish their tasks. 

4. The discrimination isn’t that serious. Still, depending on where they work and whom they work with, the different treatment will be zero, low or high. You, as a stellar manager, should have good regulations related and penalty for any violator. 

5. When it comes to pay, there is something that may concern you. For example, you will think of paying women welders as high for avoiding anything called discrimination. Still, as a fair boss, you should clarify the pay scale and bonus that lines up with the skill, capability, experience, performance, and productivity. Make them fair and then there won’t be any blame.

Stay tuned for part 3 with tips for beating downsides and promoting upsides!