The Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) has announced 90 organisations as holders of Employer of Choice for Gender Equality citations. The list includes a number of engineering companies and associated organisations such as universities and construction companies.
WGEA Director Libby Lyons said the initiatives demonstrated by this year’s recipients showed that more employers were taking a sophisticated and whole-of-organisation approach to supporting women and men’s equal participation at all levels of the workplace.
“Employers increasingly understand and value the benefits of having a diverse workforce for organisational culture and business performance,” she said.
GHD received the citation for the second year in a row. Its Australian general manager Phil Duthie is a WGEA Pay Equity Ambassador.
“Despite more rigorous criteria, it is great to see real change happening in a historically male-dominated industry, with Jacobs and AECOM joining GHD and Arup in being awarded the citation,” he said.
Duthie said he was particularly proud of the strides they had made with flexible working to support men and women balance work and personal commitments.
He pointed to research showing that flexible working helps attract and retain a diverse workforce and earlier this year, the company introduced a unified flexible working policy.
“Change takes time, and one of the biggest pieces is creating a shift in the cultural acceptance of flexible working as a legitimate and valuable way of delivery quality outcomes for our clients and business,” he said.
“We’re seeing more people with flexible working and part time contracts applying for management and other key positions, which is fantastic. From a company point of view, it’s a real win-win situation as we have a more comprehensive list of applicants for roles.”
AECOM is another engineering company on the list. Chief executive Lara Poloni said she knows first-hand the challenges faced by females trying to build a career in the infrastructure sector.
“Every year the bar is being raised in terms of workplace equality. Unfortunately, for years the infrastructure sector has lagged others in terms of gender diversity and equality, and we’ve really being playing catch up,” she said.
“At AECOM we’ve worked hard over the past year to meet and exceed WGEA’s rigorous standards, so this is a real moment of pride for every one of our 2,800 team members across Australia. I’m proud to say we are now one of the organisations recognised for best practice in driving gender equity, but it’s a journey and we still have a long road ahead.”
Lendlease was another company to receive a citation. Its CEO and Managing Director, Steve McCann said gender equality in the workplace was a key focus.
“We often talk about the challenges we have attracting women to the construction sector, but we’re proud of the initiatives we already have in place matched with our continued endeavour for best practice,” he said.
Among the initiatives highlighted in the citation was Lendlease’s parental leave policy, making it easier for all employees to spend more time with their families, and learning and development programs such as the Xplore for Success Leading Women’s Program, a program aimed at maximizing the potential of senior women in the business through group sessions and individual leadership coaching.
“Business leaders have an important role to play in significantly influencing the culture of their organisation. Visible and active leadership in promoting equality is key to the progress we are making,” Mr McCann said.
Libby Lyons said the number of recipients this year was an increase on last year’s 76 and this year’s citation holders range from small professional services firms to very large organisations such as universities and banks.
“The spread of industries and organisational size in this year’s list of citation holders is very encouraging and highlights growing awareness of the value of taking a strategic and systematic approach to gender diversity,” she said.
“It’s especially encouraging that more organisations are looking for ways to actively support women and men to balance their caring responsibilities while also pursuing their careers.”
She said this year’s applicants were required to consult with employees to demonstrate that gender equality initiatives translated into lived experience.
Trends among this year’s recipients included: measurement and disclosure of like for like and company-wide gender pay gaps ; enhanced caring provisions for men including paid parental leave; strategic focus on flexibility; targeted approach to succession and recruitment for critical roles; and enhanced efforts to shift organisational culture towards outcomes-based working rather than hours spent at the desk.