Employers of Choice for Gender Equality 2017-18 Announced!

This year new prerequisites focussed on strengthening accountability about flexible work and we are SO proud to see so many FlexCareers employer partners among the 120 organisations to achieve the citation this year – particularly those we have been supporting to embed and embrace flexible work!

WGEA Director Libby Lyons said the steady growth in the list indicated that the business benefits and competitive advantage gained by improving gender equality in Australian workplaces were becoming ever more widely recognised.

Trends among this year’s recipients include:

• entrenching organisation-wide flexible work
• programs to support women into leadership
• tailored parental leave policies to support use by both women and men
• initiatives to attract women into male-dominated roles
• supporting men’s caring responsibilities
• robust analysis and correction of gender pay gaps

“I am particularly delighted to see some of the innovative and exciting initiatives by our EOCGE citation holders covering, amongst other things, flexibility, paid parental leave, supporting women in leadership and addressing gender pay gaps,” said Ms Lyons.

FlexCareers has been involved with, and showcased, a number of these initiatives in the last year. Some of our highlights include:

• Deloitte Australia, GHD & Telstra supporting women to Return to Work with specially designed programs to help source, on-board and coach women to re-launch their careers.
• Supporting AECOM to launch a bold initiative to attract women back into engineering with School Term Employment contracts.
• New citation holder (so deserving!) Viva Energy, who this year announced an industry-leading initiative to pay superannuation at full-time salary rate to employees working part-time to raise a family for up to 5 years!
• Origin Energy being the first energy company in Australia to provide breastfeeding facilities at all regional sites
• Aurecon supporting men to take on a bigger role as parents, launching the first “shared care’ parental leave scheme among the big engineering firms
• Organisations like pwc and Lendlease supporting and showcasing men taking extended parental leave to break-down gender stereotypes
• FlexCareers was excited to support Australia’s inaugural Flexible Working Day along with so many of our partners, including EY, GM Holden and Medibank!

FlexCareers is also continuing to highlight the amazing work our employer partners are doing to attract and support women in traditionally “male” roles and industries with our 2018 International Women’s Day campaign – you can find out how to get involved by contacting us: marketing@flexcareers.com.au

Ms Lyons said “WGEA data shows there is continuing momentum and progress towards gender equality in Australian workplaces. However, it also highlights the accountability gap between having a policy or strategy in place and being held accountable for delivering results.”

FlexCareers CEO Natalie Goldman agrees. “Our consulting team works with leaders from organisations around Australia and New Zealand to define and embed key policies and initiatives such as flexible working, but that is just the starting point.  Changing attitudes and behaviours to drive deep cultural change is the only way to make real progress and we are so proud to be able to support so many on that journey.”

2017-18 EOCGE citation holders range from small professional services firms to very large organisations including universities and banks, with male-dominated, female-dominated and mixed industries represented.

“It is encouraging to see some new citation holders this year in fields as diverse as engineering, manufacturing, insurance, IT and entertainment,” said Ms Lyons.

“Each industry and each business has its own gender equality challenges. We are confident that all our citation holders are driving change in their own organisations as well as playing a leadership role to promote gender equality across their industries and in the wider community.”

A special shout-out to all of our Employer Partners that achieved EOCGE citation for 2017-18:

About the citation

The WGEA Employer of Choice for Gender Equality (EOCGE) citation is designed to encourage, recognise and promote active commitment to achieving gender equality in Australian workplaces.

Criteria for the citation cover leadership, learning and development, gender remuneration gaps, flexible working and other initiatives to support family responsibilities, employee consultation, preventing sex-based harassment and discrimination, and targets for improving gender equality outcomes.

If employers need support to achieve citation, FlexCareers offers consulting services to identify gaps in current policy, and training and coaching to organisations to help them drive the change required to succeed. You can reach FlexCareers at info@flexcareers.com.au 

You can have you say on important issues such as Flexible Work, and how we support parents in the workplace by participating in FlexCareers research:

• Annual Flexibility Survey
• Pregnancy, Maternity Leave and Return to Work Survey

A list of the 2017-18 Employers of Choice for Gender Equality can be found here.