Using the results of your workplace gender audit, you must undertake a consultation process.

Under the Act, defined entities must consult with their governing bodies, employees, employee representatives (including relevant trade unions) and any other relevant person (s10(2)(b)). Where consultative mechanisms are already established under enterprise agreements and other legislation (e.g. the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004), defined entities will need to utilise these mechanisms (and partner with those involved to build on them if necessary – see below) in their GEAP consultation process.

Where possible, consultation should include the following:

• People for whom gender inequality may be compounded by disadvantage or discrimination that a person may experience based on any of the following:
  • Aboriginality; age; disability; ethnicity; gender identity; race; religion; sexual orientation
• People of different levels and employment types (part-time, casual, flexible, tenured, contract etc) in the defined entity
• Relevant peak bodies
• Gender equality organisations, women’s health organisations, community groups or research groups in your local area who can advise specifically on the issues relating to your internal workforce
• People who have experienced your recruitment processes
• Other relevant people and/or groups that can provide helpful insight into the intersectional disadvantage or discrimination that a staff member may experience based on any of the following:
  • Aboriginality; age; disability; ethnicity; gender identity; race; religion; sexual orientation

Your consultation process should begin as early as possible in your GEAP development process.

Your consultation should be conducted using the methods listed in the ‘Effective consultation’ section below, which will supplement the data you receive through the workplace gender audit process.

At least 2 rounds of consultation will be required to develop your GEAP. Prior to the development of strategies and measures, an initial round of consultation will allow you to share the results of your workplace gender audit (removing personal or potentially identifying information) with your workforce and seek ideas for how your organisation can address any workplace gender equality issues it has identified. This information will assist with understanding your workforce’s perspectives on priorities for improvement and should inform the potential strategies and measures to include in your GEAP.

Further consultation will facilitate feedback about proposed strategies and measures to be included in your GEAP.

Further information about how to undertake meaningful consultation is included below.

You may conduct your consultation via any methods that are appropriate and encourage open and honest feedback from all levels of your workforce, including through:

• in person “drop-in” sessions
• staff surveys (you may wish to consider doing a paper-based survey in addition to digital, to enable the participation of non-office- based staff who do not have ready access to computers)
• targeted focus groups or workshops
• individual interviews
• anonymous feedback mechanisms.

You may wish to consider the role of anonymous feedback in your consultation. This may help address safety concerns around disclosing family and gendered violence (and/or other personal experiences).

Whenever consultation is conducted, results should be reported back to those consulted. At a minimum, this should be reported through the consultative mechanisms used, but ideally this would be more broadly reported to your workforce.

The methods you use to conduct consultation for your GEAP should be documented in your GEAP. Further guidance on GEAP consultation is included in Appendix C.

Prioritising safety and wellbeing during consultation

Discussing gender equality can raise issues of safety and/or wellbeing for your employees. It is critical to ensure that you mitigate the risks of causing harm to the people with whom you consult and have strategies in place to deal with harm if it arises.

Prior to consultation, ensure that support mechanisms are in place and clearly communicated. This may include, for example, employee assistance programs, professional supervision, processes for reporting issues to HR and external referrals to support organisations if appropriate.

Employers and employees have mutual obligations to ensure the workplace is safe and without risks to the health of employees and others. The OHS Act provides that employers must – as far as is reasonably practicable – eliminate, or otherwise minimise risks to health and safety. The OHS Act also requires employees to take reasonable care for their own health and safety and the health and safety of others who may be affected by their acts or omissions at the workplace.

In addition to consulting with your workforce as part of GEAP development, you may also wish to engage and communicate with your broader workforce about the work being undertaken to develop your GEAP. We suggest this is done on a regular basis to help keep your workforce informed and engaged in implementation of the GEAP.

Take the time to consider who should be communicating with staff. For example, a message from the CEO (as opposed to the HR team) reinforces that the work your defined entity is doing around workplace gender equality is important, and that the defined entity is committed to it.

Based on your workplace gender audit results and your consultations, include a statement which explicitly sets out your defined entity’s commitment to the gender equality principles outlined in section 6 of the Act. This statement should outline how you have used the principles to inform the strategies and measures in your GEAP. The gender equality principles, as listed in section 6 of the Act, are:

• All Victorians should live in a safe and equal society, have access to equal power, resources and opportunities and be treated with dignity, respect and fairness
• Gender equality benefits all Victorians regardless of gender
• Gender equality is a human right and precondition to social justice
• Gender equality brings significant economic, social and health benefits for Victoria
• Gender equality is a precondition for the prevention of family violence and other forms of violence against women and girls
• Advancing gender equality is a shared responsibility across the Victorian community
• All human beings, regardless of gender, should be free to develop their personal abilities, pursue their professional careers and make choices about their lives without being limited by gender stereotypes, gender roles or prejudices
• Gender inequality may be compounded by other forms of disadvantage or discrimination that a person may experience based on Aboriginality, age, disability, ethnicity, gender identity, race, religion, sexual orientation and other attributes
• Women have historically experienced discrimination and disadvantage based on sex and gender
• Special measures may be necessary to achieve gender equality

This statement should include how your defined entity has considered intersectional gender inequality in the development of your GEAP. This may be through highlighting:

• what your defined entity has identified as the systemic barriers to access, inclusion and equity for people who experience intersectional gender inequality
• how you consulted with and incorporated feedback from people who experience intersectional gender inequality and any other relevant organisation such as a peak body or representative organisation
• insights relating to people who experience intersectional gender inequality, identified through your workplace gender audit or through other means
• strategies and measures relating to intersectional gender inequality in your GEAP.

Include a clear explanation in your GEAP of why gender equality is relevant and important to your workplace. This is called the business case for gender equality. The audience for your business case should primarily be your internal workforce. The business case should reference the benefits of workplace gender equality. For example:

• Improved productivity, economic and social outcomes
• Improved engagement and wellbeing of your staff
• Increased organisational performance
• Enhanced ability of organisations to attract talent and retain employees
• Enhanced capacity to innovate in order to solve complex problems during changing conditions
• Enhanced ability of organisations to engage with Victoria’s diverse community

Your business case could also incorporate your defined entity’s commitment to the gender equality principles set out in the Act, and how these will inform the strategies and measures to promote gender equality in your defined entity.

Further resources for developing the business case for your GEAP can be found on the Leading practice resources page.

Set out a vision for where your defined entity will be in 4 years’ time when it comes to workplace gender equality. This should be developed using the feedback you receive from your workforce throughout your GEAP consultation. Include reference to the goals your defined entity is seeking to achieve based on the gaps and opportunities specific to your defined entity,identified through your workplace gender audit as well as any other relevant research or data.

Your vision statement should also demonstrate your defined entity’s commitment to making reasonable and material progress in relation to the workplace gender equality indicators (s16(1)).

If you have existing strategies or measures relating to people based on Aboriginality, age, disability, ethnicity, gender identity, race, religion, sexual orientation and/or any other attribute which may compound the effects of gender inequality, you can outline how this GEAP complements those existing strategies and measures.

Further resources about these attributes and how to apply the Act’s intersectional gender inequality provisions can be found on the Leading practice resources page.

You may wish to include contextual information on your defined entity’s efforts to improve gender equality, and how this GEAP builds upon that existing work.

Once you have determined strategies and measures based on your workplace gender audit results and consultation, document your agreed strategies and measures with reference to the relevant workplace gender audit results.

These should be grouped according to workplace gender equality indicators, as outlined in the Act:

• Gender composition of all levels of the workforce
• Gender composition of governing bodies
• Equal remuneration for work of equal or comparable value across all levels of the workforce, irrespective of gender
• Sexual harassment in the workplace
• Recruitment and promotion practices in the workplace
• Availability and utilisation of terms, conditions and practices relating to family violence leave, flexible working arrangements and working arrangements supporting workers with family or caring responsibilities
• Gendered segregation within the workplace

It is important that your defined entity can make ‘reasonable and material’ progress towards achieving gender equality through the strategies and measures in your GEAP, in accordance with s16 of the Act. Bear in mind that you will be required to publicly report to the Commissioner on your ‘reasonable and material’ progress in 2 years’ time. Example strategies and measures are included in Appendix D.

For each individual strategy or measure, clearly state who in your defined entity holds responsibility for implementation as well as timelines for completion. Accountability should be assigned at management or leadership level. We recommend that accountability for individual strategies and measures be shared across the defined entity, so it is important to nominate several leaders/managers to be responsible for implementing components of the GEAP within their division or area.

In addition, at the overall GEAP level, as outlined in 'Leadership and resourcing your GEAP', your defined entity should assign and document which individual or individuals hold overall accountability for implementing your GEAP and for driving ‘reasonable and material’ progress as a whole.

The Commission recommends considering the following gender pay equity principles (which were developed by the Equal Workplaces Advisory Council) when developing the strategies and measures in your GEAP:

• Establishing equal pay for work of equal or comparable value: Equal or comparable value refers to work valued as equal in terms of skill, effort, responsibility and working conditions. This includes work of different types
• Freedom from bias and discrimination: Employment and pay practices are free from the effects of unconscious bias and assumptions based on gender
• Transparency and accessibility: Employment and pay practices, pay rates and systems are transparent. Information is readily accessible and understandable
• Relationship between paid and unpaid work: Employment and pay practices recognise and account for different patterns of labour force participation by workers who undertake unpaid and/ or caring work
• Sustainability: Interventions and solutions are collectively developed and agreed, sustainable and enduring
• Participation and engagement: Workers, unions and employers work collaboratively to achieve mutually agreed outcomes

You are encouraged to include one or more strategies or measures relating to people who may experience intersectional gender inequality due to Aboriginality, age, disability, ethnicity, gender identity, race, religion, sexual orientation and other attributes. This might be, for example, to improve systems and processes to be able to collect more meaningful data to inform your next GEAP.

Example strategies and measures are included in Appendix D, and further information on intersectional gender inequality is available on our website.

You may wish to include references to any best practice and/or emerging good practice research that has informed the strategies and measures included in your GEAP. This may include examples across different jurisdictions, industries or relevant workplaces.

• Establish specific targets for gender composition at all levels of the workforce considering the results of your workplace gender audit, employee consultation and the diversity of the defined entity’s service users
• Report gender composition findings and targets back to the defined entity
• Identify and implement advancement strategies, such as: mentoring, scholarships, development and education pathways, secondment opportunities

• Establish targets for the gender composition of members of your governing body considering the results of your workplace gender audit
• Ensure clear policy and process guidelines around recruitment of governing body members and include actions that would reduce any barriers to the recruitment of diverse applicants
• Build in maximum tenure periods into the governing body’s terms of reference to ensure accountability and input continues to incorporate diverse perspectives

• Allocate a specific budget for resolving any pay discrepancies identified through gender pay gap analysis
• Reduce your gender pay gap by at least five per cent¹ within the next four years
• Increase the transparency of progression and remuneration increases and appraisal processes

• Implement a process that provides a victim-centric² approach to case management of sexual harassment complaints, including establishment of workplace contact officer roles with whom workers discuss experiences and concerns confidentially
• Create an internal awareness campaign about sexual harassment policies and internal complaint mechanisms, as well as a link to the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission’s complaint processes (should internal systems fail to achieve a satisfactory outcome for the complainant)
• Set up anonymous reporting processes for instances of sexual harassment in the workplace and ensure that reporting processes include adequate response and support mechanisms
• Commit to reporting of sexual harassment complaints to the governing body as a standing workplace health and safety agenda item
• Commission a specialist organisation to run organisation-wide training to ensure employees know that sexual harassment is unlawful and harmful, to raise awareness of what constitutes sexual harassment and what to do if
  it happens to you or you witness it happening to someone else – as well as management responsibilities when a complaint is received
• Establish a zero-tolerance approach to sexual harassment with reference to the positive obligations in the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 and any health and safety obligations in enterprise agreements

• Set a target for the proportion of applications or recruitment shortlists that are gender balanced and take into consideration intersectional gender inequality
• Set targets for recruitment of diverse candidates at specific levels
• Review recruitment processes to attract greater gender diversity in candidates. For example, through reviewing language in job descriptions, composition of interview panels, shortlisting, and appointment processes
• Communicate a transparent process for secondment and acting opportunities

Family Violence Leave

• Review and communicate family violence leave policies and processes to ensure they are victim-centric and in line with sector best practice, noting your organisation’s EBAs may contain relevant processes relating to leave and flexible working arrangements
• Build a culture of checking in consistently to ensure that staff making complaints or disclosures are supported, that issues raised are always taken seriously and dealt with appropriately and effectively
• Ensure there is a clear process to reallocate personal/sick leave to family violence leave if required
• Commission a specialist organisation to run training for managers, HR and other key staff on how to support and respond to an employee experiencing family violence

Flexible working

• Set a policy for all roles to be offered on a flexible basis by default (or ‘if not, why not’ basis)
• Create a campaign to encourage the use of informal flexible working³ (beyond remote working) to increase access and utilisation of flexible working

Family or Caring responsibilities

• Ensure parental leave policies do not discourage a particular gender from taking up parental leave
• Ensure there are processes in place to encourage people of all genders to take carers leave as required

• Target specific cohorts as part of recruitment and secondment arrangements.
• Establish traineeships and scholarships to support more diverse entry into non-traditional career pathways
• Create an internal awareness campaign to help people understand the gendered segregation of occupations within the workplace, workforce and industry and the impact gender stereotypes can have on decisions about role type and level

The Act requires that your defined entity allocates adequate resources to developing and implementing the GEAP (s10(3)). The allocation of dedicated resources, including a specific budget for implementation of strategies and measures designed to create structural change, will be an important means of driving progress in your defined entity.

You must include details of how your defined entity will appropriately assign resources – including staff and budget – to implement the strategies and measures included in this GEAP. This should also include allocating time for cross- functional teams to develop and implement strategies and measures, as required.

When determining adequate resources for your entity, consider the factors which must be considered in determining whether your defined entity has made reasonable and material progress in relation to the workplace gender equality indicators (section 16(2)):

1. The size of the defined entity, including the defined entity’s number of employees
2. The nature and circumstances of the defined entity, including any barriers to making progress
3. Requirements that apply to the defined entity under any other Act, including an Act of the Commonwealth
4. The defined entity’s resources
5. The defined entity’s operational priorities and competing operational obligations
6. The practicability and cost to the defined entity of making progress
7. Genuine attempts made by the defined entity to make progress

Include a statement by a member or members of your defined entity’s executive leadership explicitly endorsing your GEAP as well as committing to implement the actions in, your GEAP.

Executive leaders are executive staff who have significant management responsibility, that is,their primary role is to provide leadership and strategic direction for other staff members. This could include the Chief Executive Officer, Directors and Group Managers.

Progressing gender equality in your defined entity will need input from across different parts of your defined entity. To generate collaboration within your defined entity, it may be useful to establish a cross-functional working group to develop and implement the GEAP. Ideally, this group would reflect the diversity of your workplace, to ensure more representative and robust decision-making as part of implementation of your GEAP. This group should include representation from across all levels of your organisation.

This group should have clear Terms of Reference or an equivalent document which outlines its purpose, roles, responsibilities, and to whom the group is accountable. You may wish to reflect the strategic contribution and workload associated with membership of the group by allocating staff time to participate in the group, and in individual performance development plans.

If your defined entity has enterprise agreements that have clauses relating to change management or consultation, ensure that this cross-functional working group is established in line with the relevant clauses in those agreements. Consider any consultative committees that are already established under enterprise agreements, health and safety committees and other existing mechanisms.

This group could also operate as key influencers and advocates for the GEAP within their areas as well as mobilise volunteers to advocate for the GEAP across all parts of the organisation. Strategies and measures to address gender inequality are most effective when there are people at all levels of the defined entity advocating for change. You may also wish to nominate a key contact in this group who is responsible for collating feedback on the implementation of the GEAP.

An important method of understanding whether your GEAP is achieving positive change is through regularly monitoring, measuring and reporting the outcomes of your actions over time.

Under section 19(3)(b) of the Act, you are required to report on the progress you have made through the strategies in your GEAP, every second year after 2021 (please note that this submission deadline for the first round of progress reports was extended from October 2023 to February 2024). Further guidance on how to prepare and submit your progress report to the Commission will be available in the future. In advance of that guidance, you should ensure you are regularly monitoring your progress.

We recommend using a project management tool such as excel to help you track your progress in implementing your strategies and measures. To monitor your progress, map your objectives against your strategies, timeframes and milestones to ensure implementation stays on track.

Your 2021 workplace gender audit results and GEAP will form your organisational baseline. Different strategies and measures might require different monitoring and review timeframes. Consider whether you can integrate monitoring your progress into your business-as-usual processes as part of your annual review, pre-budgeting and annual reporting.

Consider allocating a specific evaluation budget to enable external evaluation of how your strategies and measures could be improved for your next GEAP.

Progress on implementation and impact of the strategies and measures in your GEAP should be regularly reported to a governance group and/or leadership (including any people assigned overall accountability for GEAP progress in 'Leadership and resourcing your GEAP' to ensure that there is oversight for implementation, and so that any delays or issues can be raised and resolved as quickly as possible.

Ideally, your GEAP should document how progress will be reported, to whom, and how frequently. This should include submission of your biennial progress report to the Commissioner and publication on your defined entity’s website.

To monitor and communicate your progress with your staff, you may wish to create an achievement register. This will allow you to log both process and impact achievements to share with employees and the public. This may include completed programs, process improvements, policy updates or any other achievements relevant to your GEAP.

Ideally, your GEAP will include a high-level implementation plan which outlines the timeframes for communicating, implementing and reporting progress against the strategies and measures in your GEAP. Ongoing consultation and communication with your employees and employee representatives could be included in this plan. Further advice on how to complete an implementation plan including communication is available on our website.