Gender strategy toolkit

The comprehensive WGEA Gender Strategy toolkit covers the ‘Gender Equality Strategy Guide’ and the ‘Gender Equality Diagnostic Tool’. This suite will help organisations to achieve workplace gender equality, where people are able to access and enjoy the same rewards, resources, and opportunities regardless of gender.
 

A strategy provides a foundation for a plan of action to achieve a range of objectives. It provides a blueprint for accountability against measurable objectives – outlining who will execute tasks and by when. A strategy helps to create specific project plans for discrete initiatives and it can provide detail about how to prioritise actions.

Without a strategy, it is very difficult to gauge whether day-to-day activities and decisions are helping the organisation effectively progress towards the desired end-goal. A gender equality strategy enables organisations to move beyond an ad-hoc (programmatic) approach to gender equality and ensures investment in gender initiatives is targeted. Having a shared understanding of the strategy increases commitment to the initiatives and enables all parts of the organisation to work together towards the achievement of the objectives.

 The Gender Equality Strategy Guide (the Guide) equips you with the skills and resources to start and/or continue the change process towards greater gender equality in your organisation. The change process involves evaluating the current status of gender equality in your organisation, planning your organisation’s future gender equality objectives and actions as well as tracking your organisation’s progress over time.

Addressing gender equality within your organisation requires a strategic and systematic approach and it is a process that takes time. The aim of gender equality in the workplace is to achieve broadly equal outcomes for women and men, not necessarily outcomes that are the same for all.

The change process

Moving towards gender equality in an organisation involves a process of change and there are many different models and tools for managing organisational change. This guide is not intended to substitute these. Instead, it reflects established change management principles and provides a simple, strategic framework that can be integrated into a change process already in use by an organisation.

The guide is structured around the four steps which typically guide change programs.

Analyse 

The Diagnostic Tool provides a framework for determining where an organisation is on its gender equality journey and helps to identify challenges and opportunities for making progress.

Design

Each organisation needs to design a gender equality strategy tailored to its own circumstances. It should be informed by the analysis drawn from the Diagnostic Tool and this guide. Consider drawing on collaboration to design the gender equality strategy.

Implement

To achieve each strategic objective, each activity, program, or initiative identified in the gender equality strategy and agreed to by stakeholders should be implemented through an action plan. We know that what gets measured, gets done. 

Review

Annual Competitor Analysis Benchmark Reports provided by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (Agency) provide insights for each reporting organisation to help assess its progress relative to industry or other external comparators.

A gender equality strategy is simply a plan that brings together critical information in one place. It is connected by an action plan outlining the how, what and when of your strategy. The eight-step process outlined in this guide provides guidance for building a strategy. It does not need to be followed in a linear fashion, as each organisation has its own individual circumstances, challenges, and strengths. For example: If you have already established a business case and have leadership commitment – (Steps 1 and 2 of this process) – you can move straight to Step 3: Assess gender equality in your organisation. This process will help identify avenues for action including some that you may not have previously considered. The eight-step process covers each of the four change steps mentioned above.

A gender equality strategy will be most effective when gender equality has support and commitment from your leadership team and other stakeholders.

Developing a detailed business case tailored specifically to your organisation will help secure that crucial leadership commitment. It should highlight the “why” your organisation believes addressing and improving gender equality will be beneficial, and also underscore that it is the right thing to do.

A gender equality strategy can support your business case for gender equality and it may:

• improve the wellbeing of staff
• affect your bottom line
• enhance your organisation’s external image and brand
• improve your organisation’s competitiveness
• help your organisation attract and retain talented staff
• reduce costs associated with staff turnover
• enhance productivity
• help future-proof your organisation
• reflect your customer base.

The business case for gender equality offers instructive ideas for developing a tailored business case. It is important also to consider the cost of inaction as the drive towards workplace gender equality gains more momentum nationally and internationally.

Resources to help you to identify the benefits of gender equality for your organisation can be found at: the WGEA website, Diversity Council Australia, Fair Work Ombudsman, Champions of Change Coalition and the Australian Human Rights Commission. WGEA’s Data Explorer provides data on the status of workplace gender equality in non-public sector employers with 100 or more employees.

Once you have developed the business case, explain the benefits to your leadership team. The executive leadership group will decide whether developing a gender equality strategy is a priority for the organisation. For a successful strategy, leadership commitment and ownership will be crucial from the beginning of the process. You will need their support and input when it comes to developing your organisation’s vision for gender equality.

Once the strategy begins to be rolled out, leaders at all levels, from the board, the CEO and senior leaders will need to commit to the strategy and actively engage not just all employees, but also clients and suppliers, such as recruiters.

Leadership commitment is also crucial to enable adequate resourcing of time, personnel, and financial investment.

• Use these points as guidance for proposals, papers or conversations aimed at securing leadership commitment:
• Find out what objectives the board, CEO or senior leaders would like to achieve and in what time frame
• Help leadership understand the different ways to measure gender equality progress in the workplace – metrics, data and indicators, which measure and compare changes – and help leadership define which of these best align with organisational objectives
• So that your business case is clear, be specific about resourcing requirements – outline what human and financial resources you will need and what time frames are realistic for the execution and the alignment of the strategy with overall business and people strategies.

Your leaders should be the core champions of gender equality in your organisation. They can help you maintain buy-in within the leadership group, throughout your organisation and among external stakeholders. Your leadership should:

• be vocal about your organisation’s business case for gender equality – internally and externally
• act on their own needs for flexibility at work and role model this for others
• bring gender equality considerations to the forefront of leaders’ discussions on talent, promotions, remuneration and structural changes
• foster ongoing understanding and capacity to communicate the metrics (representation, recruitment, exits, promotions, pay equity) and other data that relates to gender equality initiatives
• articulate how the organisation is tracking on gender equality compared to others in the same industry or of the same size using the WGEA Competitor Analysis Benchmark Reports and the Data Explorer.

It is a good idea to start talking to leaders about resourcing for action on gender equality early in the process. You will know more about your resource requirements as you make more progress towards a fully developed strategy.

To develop a successful strategy you need to have a clear picture of the current status of gender equality in your organisation. You will need to collect and analyse current data and conduct a comprehensive assessment of the effectiveness of existing policies and practices. The Diagnostic Tool will help to give you an understanding of your organisation’s gender equality status.

The diagnostic process involves answering yes/no questions against 17 gender equality focus areas and calculating an overall score which indicates where the organisation is placed between ‘meeting minimum requirements’ and ‘leading practice’.

Using the Diagnostic Tool will help you determine where your immediate focus needs to be and how to build from it. In addition, if your organisation reports to the Agency, you may also find it useful to consider the confidential Competitor Analysis Benchmark Report provided by the Agency.

The data collected from the diagnosis will form the basis for building your strategy by highlighting what your organisation does well and identifying gaps and areas of weakness.

Each focus area has a list of suggested resources to help you build your goals and objectives. You can use the Diagnostic Tool before you begin developing your gender equality strategy or as a review process any time afterwards. You can also conduct a diagnosis using your own methodology.

As part of the process, it is likely that you will need to review your existing policies and procedures for gender bias. Another example of assessing gender equality is to run focus groups where participants are invited to share their thoughts and insights on where the organisation is today and what needs to change in the future.

The Gender Equality Focus Areas in the Diagnostic Tool are:

1. Strategic alignment of gender equality with business priorities
2. Leadership and accountability
3. Gender pay equity
4. Gender composition of the workforce
5. Support for caring
6. Mainstreaming flexible working
7. Preventing gender-based harassment and discrimination, sexual harassment, and bullying
8. Support for employees experiencing domestic and family violence
9. Professional development, networking, mentoring, sponsorship
10. Applying a gender lens to all policies and strategies
11. Recruitment, selection, and promotion
12. Talent management and succession planning
13. Workplace gender equality training
14. Applying a gender equality lens to everyday operations
15. Applying a gender equality lens to casual, contract and short-term, task-based employment
16. Driving change beyond the workplace
17. Applying a gender equality lens to mergers, acquisitions, and restructures
     

Remember

Some focus areas might not be applicable to your organisation or may be a low priority at this stage. If you are at the beginning of the strategy development process, it is recommended that you prioritise the key focus areas that have the greatest potential to impact on improving gender equality in your workplace.

Before you begin to separate out issues to address, capture a gender equality vision for your organisation. A vision can be a starting point for developing a gender equality strategy.

It is important to consult widely with stakeholders and use a variety of methods to gain input from all employees. This could be done through a general employee survey and/or workshops or focus groups.

The consultation process is a public commitment to improving gender equality in your organisation and is also a forum to raise awareness of the issues and reasons for a focus on gender equality.

There are numerous ways to capture your organisation’s vision, but the most common method is to create a mission statement, which usually comprises a short statement with realistic, achievable goals. It does not need to be detailed but it is important the statement is developed as part of a collaborative process with key stakeholders. This can be achieved through collaborative workshops with leaders and employees to get their buy-in and help build up a common vision that is shared across the organisation.

The mission statement process can start with blue-sky thinking but should continue to be refined until the vision is practical and achievable for your organisation.

Once you have completed the diagnosis, you will be in a good position to develop your goals and objectives for the strategy. You can use your results to benchmark you organisation against the 17 gender equality focus areas in the Diagnostic Tool as a guide.

The gender equality strategy is your foundation document, but it is also a working document which will grow and change with your organisation.

For organisations just beginning to prioritise gender equality, it is commendable to aim for an ambitious strategy, but it must also be realistic. If you are a long way from answering ‘yes’ to all of the questions in many of the gender equality focus areas, you may want to invest your energy into a few of the most relevant areas at first.

Your strategy should address:

• Why is gender equality important to our organisation?
• What is our vision?
• How will we achieve our vision?

Any employee or stakeholder should be able to look at your strategy and understand your organisation’s level of commitment and the tangible steps you are taking towards the organisation’s vision of gender equality.

You can follow a simple process to develop goals and objectives:

1. Design objectives that are practical and measurable using input from stakeholder consultation and diagnostics.
2. Identify who will be affected by each goal – make sure this group has been consulted.
3. Identify risks that may be associated with your goals and objectives and create a risk-mitigation plan.
4. Identify relevant metrics and indicators for collection and monitoring.

To monitor each of your objectives, you will need to designate specific metrics that can be collected and measured. For example, your objective could be to increase the uptake of flexible working arrangements – this can be measured by the number of formal flexible working arrangements.

Once the goals and measurable objectives have been developed, link these with your vision statement document to form your complete gender equality strategy document.

When the goals and objectives have been endorsed by leadership, the rest of the strategy can be completed. There is no prescriptive way to document a strategy. However, it is advisable to keep it short and simple to encourage more people to engage with it. You may even choose to display the strategy on a single page (see Appendix C for examples).

You can review your strategy and realign your goals against leading practice when you are further along the process.

It is important that you stage the implementation of your gender equality strategy carefully, engaging in regular organisational communication (both internal and external where appropriate) at every step of the process. To ensure that the strategy is implemented effectively, it is important that steps are taken first to ensure that all relevant stakeholders have received the appropriate training and preparation. Likewise, it is crucial that stakeholders have the confidence and authority to appropriately respond to any resistance or backlash if or when it emerges.

A strategy is critical for the direction, accountability, and achievement of objectives. However, the strategy will only come to life when the actions – policies and practices – supporting the objectives are implemented. This means a relentless and consistent focus on the execution is central to the success of the strategy.

A strategy also provides the all-important roadmap for execution and helps to identify core priorities when resources are limited.

The next step is to develop an action plan, outlining the policies and practices that will be implemented to realise the gender equality vision.

For the development of the action plan, first decide which focus areas to target. You will also need to ensure that you have the required resources to execute any actions.

To help guide execution, we suggest the following steps:
 

Decide on a time frame to implement actions under each focus area

A typical strategic time frame will span three to five years. Actions and initiatives need to be distributed over the time frame to ensure cost-effective delivery outcomes, and time frames need to be identified for each action.
 

Prioritise your actions and consider these dynamics:

• potential impact and likely return on investment
• level of stakeholder support and how this might change over time
• timing of, and relationship with, HR, business, or other change initiatives
• availability of resources
• regulatory and other external drivers.
   

Secure a budget and resourcing

Finalising a budget will require extensive stakeholder engagement and careful planning. Make sure you budget for unexpected bumps in the road.
 

Develop an action plan for each key focus area which details:

• outcomes and deliverables
• time frames with milestones
• resources required
• approaches and methodologies
• roles and responsibilities
• work streams – progressive completion of tasks by different groups

Once your organisation’s vision, strategy and actions are ready, it is time to communicate your strategy to employees and other stakeholders. It is important for the organisation to have clear and consistent messages outlining the data analysis, business case and vision. All leaders should understand and communicate consistent messages.

Communication and engagement with stakeholders is essential for the success of the strategy, as stakeholders often appreciate being asked for their input, which can make them more supportive of change.

Communicating and implementing gender equality policies and strategies is the foundation for change. However cultural change can be slow and complex. The organisational change process towards gender equality will be the longest step in the process and requires constant maintenance to ensure the process does not lose momentum.

The success of your strategy also depends on visible and ongoing leadership commitment. Research shows it is important for leaders to model positive behaviours to encourage all stakeholders to embrace cultural change.

Before you release any details of the change process it is crucial that all policies and actions must be ready for execution. For example, all documentation and support to roll out flexible work or parental leave should be in place. Once the strategy has been announced, employees and other stakeholders will start to form expectations and your organisation must be ready to begin the execution in key gender equality focus areas. It is also important that plans are in place to manage any backlash that may arise.

The release of the strategy is an important moment and can be accompanied by an event or organisation-wide meeting to highlight that it is a significant initiative which involves staff at all levels.
 

Things to consider for your communication strategy:

• Will you use social media? If so, which channels and who will you target?
• Are there internal networks you should reach out to? 
• Will formal language or a more conversational style be most effective?
• Is there a key event, a product launch or strategic milestone that you can leverage as an opportunity to communicate your gender equality work?
• How best to handle any further communication from stakeholders. For optimal engagement, your strategy should not just be announcements, but rather a two-way flow of messages, inputs, debate, and discussion. Consider creating steering groups or committees to encourage employee participation and buy in.
• Whether large or small, activity in all organisations runs on incentives. Incentives can include financial rewards, linking outcomes to remuneration, recognition via rewards programs, or other employee benefits that recognise participation and impact. Consider what rewards or sanctions are available to incentivise leaders and other employees to dedicate their time, energy, and influence to bring your gender equality strategy to life. What do your people have to offer, and what incentives are needed to get them involved?
   

A communications plan should include:

• key messages
• target audiences
• lines of responsibility for communications
• time frames / scheduling / frequency of messaging
• any communications for media.
• a plan for managing backlash
   

The communication objectives supporting the gender strategy should:

• explain – articulate the ‘what’, ‘why’ and ‘how’ of the gender strategy
• educate – equip stakeholders with the knowledge and confidence they need to articulate and promote the gender strategy
• engage – motivate and inspire stakeholders to actively contribute to the gender equality journey
• convey - a sense of ownership for successful outcomes at all levels.

For examples of key messages please download the PDF version of the guide (available below).

Regular monitoring, evaluation and review of your objectives, time frames and milestones will help ensure that your organisation’s gender equality strategy stays on track. Evaluations make it possible to assess whether and why some objectives take longer than others to flourish.

A primary method of assessing whether the execution of a gender equality strategy is producing the intended impact will be to monitor, measure and regularly report the outcomes of processes over specific time frames. Ideally, the mechanisms to track and report should be in place before the strategy implementation begins, to enable measurement of results before, during and after specific initiatives and interventions.

A gender equality strategy should also include some detail on how, when and by whom it will be evaluated and reviewed, including how measures of progress will be communicated.

The diagnostic process will enable your organisation to establish a benchmark against which performance can be measured over time. Just as you use data to complete the diagnostic process, it is also important that you continue to collect and expand your data collection. Data analysis is a core component of the ongoing monitoring and evaluation process.

Different objectives might have different evaluation time frames. For example, for some indicators ongoing evaluation and review can occur in micro stages such as monthly, quarterly, or at key cyclical stages such as annual review, pre-budgeting, and annual reporting.

Review continues throughout your overarching strategy time frame. Three to five years is usual, and each cyclical review, such as an annual review, can feed into adjustment and improvement of the strategy. There are some questions below that may help to guide your review. The Diagnostic Tool can be used at any time to help you benchmark and track your progress.
 

Questions to help guide your review:

• How is the organisation progressing with each of the measurable objectives in the strategy?
• Is there enough data to reliably assess progress?
• Where lack of progress or other issues are identified, how can these be addressed or overcome through adjustment of priorities or resourcing?
• What activities or actions should we stop, start, change, or continue?
• Does the strategy (or do the individual objectives) need to be adjusted in light of experience? What are the implications of these adjustments?
   

What next?

• Reprioritise initiatives due to changes in business strategy, funding, customer need or new opportunities
• Reset resourcing because of funding changes or team changes
• Celebrate completion of an initiative or program
• Add an entirely new idea that has come out of your consultations or an emerging opportunity.

In the downloadable guide, Appendix B sets out examples of metrics to support the measurement of the strategy’s effectiveness.
 

Evaluation

An evaluation occurs after the deadline for achievement of each objective.
 

Questions to ask include:

• Has the organisation achieved the objectives within the gender strategy?
• If not, why not – and what is the lesson from each success, partial success, or failure?
• How should the next gender strategy be adapted to include previous lessons to maximise the chances of success?
   

It may also be helpful to cross-reference gender strategy outcomes with performance in:

• WGEA Gender Equality Indicators (GEIs), and minimum standards (applicable to non-public sector employers with 500 or more employees in their corporate structure)
• Competitor Analysis Benchmark Reports
• WGEA Employer of Choice for Gender Equality (EOCGE) submission
• Diversity and Inclusion Awards (International and National)
• Support from advocacy groups.

There is no correct way to document and display your gender equality strategy. Some organisations may produce a detailed, multi-page document while others will elect to produce a high-level strategy on a page. Some organisations may do both. Condensing your strategy into a summary version makes it easy to read and use by all stakeholders. Appendix C includes examples of using one type of format: a strategy on a page.

The Workplace Gender Equality Agency’s (‘WGEA’ or ‘Agency’) Gender Equality Diagnostic Tool (Diagnostic Tool) helps you to analyse the status of gender equality and pinpoint gender equality gaps within your organisation. It can be used with the Gender Equality Strategy Guide (the Guide) to assist with the development of a strategy for addressing inequalities. You can use this tool before you develop your overarching strategy or as part of a regular review process.

The diagnostic process involves answering ‘yes’/’no’ questions in 17 gender equality focus areas and accumulating an overall score which indicates where your organisation falls between ‘meeting minimum requirements’ and ‘leading practice’ in addressing gender equality.

Do not feel overwhelmed if you cannot initially answer ‘yes’ to all of the questions in each gender equality focus area. Draw on your results to identify an appropriate number of areas to prioritise for action.

Your gender equality strategy and then accompanying goals and objectives will evolve over time, so no matter where your organisation is in the process, you can periodically return to this diagnostic tool to review your progress.
 

Use your results to build a gender equality strategy

We suggest you use the companion Guide (below) to help you develop a gender equality strategy that is relevant to your organisation. You can use the results from this Diagnostic Tool to help inform your gender equality strategy.

Every organisation and industry has its unique challenges when it comes to gender equality. At times, you may need to use your judgement to adapt this tool to suit your specific circumstances.
 

Suggested steps for using the diagnostic tool

1. Begin by using the scoring process in this Diagnostic Tool to identify gender equality focus areas to prioritise. These may be areas that are relevant to your organisation which have a lower total score (indicating that there is still plenty of work to do). Use your judgement to determine where you should focus your actions.

2. Use the scoring outcomes as a checklist and focus on developing goals and objectives in the areas where you would like to make improvements.

3. When you feel it is practical and appropriate, move on to other gender equality focus areas. There is no timeframe for this process.

4. Use the questions, the data you collected, as well as the linked resources to help you to design goals and objectives.

The downloadable (PDF) version of this tool includes a fillable scorecard to help you to get a sense of how your organisation is progressing against each focus area.