Developing your strategies

Use a comprehensive approach

Real and lasting change relies on a comprehensive approach.

Your strategies should look at gender inequality as a whole.

Consider all parts of your organisation, including its structure, culture, policies and practices.

A comprehensive approach considers how different factors are connected.

Gender inequality may affect many parts of an organisation.

It is influenced by things like organisational culture, leaders, policies, work practices, communication and employee attitudes.

Intersectional gender equality is a complex issue that needs multiple solutions. A comprehensive approach embeds intersectional gender equality into every part of your organisation.

This includes strategies on:

• policies and processes
• communication and engagement
• education
• leadership and accountability
• data gaps and measuring change
• pay equity principles.

Your workplace gender audit and staff consultation will identify barriers to gender equality. Your strategies should focus on these key areas.

Strategies can overlap and address multiple areas at once. They should aim to drive progress on the 7 workplace gender equality indicators.

However, it may be more effective to use different strategies for different problems.

For example, introducing a flexible work policy without other actions might not change employee attitudes or behaviour. You might also need to work on the workplace culture around flexible work. You can do this by:

• promoting its benefits
• gathering feedback on employee attitudes
• training managers to understand the benefits of flexible work and to lead by example
• addressing any barriers that specific groups of employees might face.

Keep communicating with staff. This ensures everyone understands and supports the changes.

It also allows staff to provide you with real-time feedback for improvements.

Finally, regularly monitoring and evaluating your strategies will tell you if you are successful so you can adjust your approach.

Policies and processes

Updating, changing or introducing policies and processes can effect change in your workplace. They can be powerful tools in advancing gender equality.

They can play a role in addressing the issues and barriers identified by your audit and consultation.

Strategies on policies and processes could involve the following

Introduce new policies and processes

You may need new policies to support organisational change.

These can include new ways of working or changes to recruitment or promotion practices.

New policies, such as targeted action plans, can also focus on gendered barriers faced by certain groups of employees.

The Victorian Government’s Recruit Smarter guide(opens in a new window) has sets out how to achieve fairer recruitment processes.

Review existing policies and processes

Review your organisation’s existing gender equality plans and processes.

Determine whether they promote intersectional gender equality and support the aims of the GEAP.

This process may show some changes are needed.

Conducting a GIA can be useful to assess your existing policies and processes. However, note that conducting a GIA is not a requirement for internal initiatives.

Act on existing recommendations

Include recommendations from external reviews, research reports and employee or industry advisory networks.

Also, consider insights from internal audits, employee feedback and best practices from other organisations.

Use existing systems and processes

There may be existing reporting processes, monitoring and reflection tools, training or communication processes you can use in your GEAP.

You can include measures that integrate the GEAP into these existing processes and systems.

This avoids duplication and saves resources.

Strategies for communication and engagement

Communication helps employees engage with the GEAP. It can contribute to behaviour change.

Communicating progress also increases staff engagement and motivation.

Your communication strategies will depend on the resourcing available, the size of your organisation and employees’ understanding of intersectional gender equality.

You could develop a communication plan as part of your GEAP.

This provides a framework for consistent and coordinated messaging.

Strategies on communication and engagement could involve the following.

Change staff behaviour

Motivate employees to act differently.

Encourage everyone to express their ideas.

Take their input seriously.

Train and empower staff to lead change.

Use different ways to communicate and engage.

Share examples from your workplace.

Change organisational culture

Share the goals of the GEAP to help everyone understand its purpose.

Provide information about the impact of gender inequality and what needs to change.

Make employees aware of relevant workplace policies, processes, resources and support.

Communicate the benefits of gender equality

All employees should understand the benefits of workplace gender equality.

Regularly communicate these benefits with supporting evidence.

Use your case for change(opens in a new window) messages to support your communication.

Celebrate progress and stories of positive change.

Demonstrate leadership commitment to the GEAP

Leaders should communicate their support for the GEAP.

This could include statements from leaders at events, meetings and in organisational communications. This reinforces the importance of workplace gender equality and the role of the GEAP.

Include a statement of commitment from leaders in the GEAP.

Tools to support inclusive communication

Internal and external communications should promote inclusion and gender equality.

Introduce tools and resources to support employees with this.

Strategies on education

Meaningful and sustainable workplace change requires ongoing employee involvement, training and education.

Education helps everyone understand the importance of gender equality, recognise unconscious biases, and learn inclusive behaviours.

One-off training may provide initial support to employees. However, more will be needed to sustain long-term organisational change.

Strategies on education could involve the following.

Engage with your employees

Ask staff about the training, guidance and support they need to make changes.

Seek feedback to ensure tools and training meet different employees' needs.

Consider the workload impact on employees who actively engage.

Include strategies in the GEAP to support them and share the load.

Update existing training and development processes

Your organisation likely already uses training providers and online platforms.

Consider if these existing processes can be used to train staff to implement the GEAP and provide ongoing guidance.

If you do not have suitable processes, develop new ones and explore training options.

Develop new training programs

When creating a new training program, involve employees with diverse lived experiences to develop the content.

Ensure the program is evidence-based.

Share employees’ lived experiences

Besides formal training, sharing the experiences of willing employees can raise awareness.

This could include opportunities for senior leaders to listen to staff experiences or creating blogs or videos with individual stories.

Encourage leaders with lived experience to tell their stories. This will help employees feel safe to share.

Peer mentoring programs can also help share experiences and advice.

Use external resources and tools

There are many networks, peak bodies and programs to support your work on inclusion and diversity, including gender equality.

These can provide external technical support and online resources. This may be especially useful for smaller organisations with limited human resources.

Consider resourcing for training resources and tools

Include this in your resourcing plan and specify where the budget will come from.

Consider the costs of ongoing subscriptions, membership fees and other expenses.

Strategies on data gaps and measuring change

Data is crucial to understand workplace gender equality issues. Your GEAP should include strategies to address any data gaps and to improve your data collection processes if needed.

Strategies on data gaps and measuring change could involve the following.

Understand the gaps in your data collection

Identify and understand the gaps in your data and what you need to do to address them.

Improve your data collection

Include specific actions to improve data collection. This can be throughout the GEAP or as a specific focus area.

Make a plan to improve data collection

A plan can help you identify and coordinate all the steps needed to achieve change.

Introduce interim measures to collect data

Improving existing data collection processes or implementing new ones can take time.

You may need an interim measure to support data collection.

Support psychological safety

Ensure employees to feel psychologically safe to provide personal information.

Consider actions that focus on creating a culture that supports data collection.

Undertake further data collection

Conduct further research and data collection to understand intersectional gender inequality issues in your workplace.

Collect qualitative data

Gather qualitative data to understand more about experiences of gender inequality in the workplace.

Establish protocols for using and storing data

Consider how data is stored, who has access to it, and how it is used.

Being transparent about data storage and use can help build staff trust. Read the Commission’s privacy policy.

Strategies on pay equity principles

GEAPs need to take into account the pay equity principles.

The best way to do this is to include relevant strategies in your GEAP.

The information below provides some examples of strategies for each of the pay equity principles.

Pay equity principle: Equal pay for work of equal or comparable value

Examples:

• Conduct an annual gender pay-equity audit. This should help find unequal pay and analyse the causes of gender pay gaps.
• Identify actions and set targets to address pay gaps.
• Allocate the annual budget to correct any pay discrepancies.

Pay equity principle: Freedom from bias and discrimination

Examples:

• Review pay policies and practices and consult with employees to find improvements.
• Apply an intersectional lens to your pay gap review.
• Educate managers about bias in hiring.
• Include a prompt in recruitment guidelines to negotiate pay. This should be aimed especially at women, trans and gender-diverse staff.
• Analyse starting salaries at the commencement of employment by gender. If possible, consider how gender inequality may be compounded by other forms of discrimination and disadvantage.
• Review your promotion and flexible work policies. Check for any impact on pay inequity and if changes are needed.

Pay equity principle: Transparency and accessibility

Examples:

• Internally publish pay gap data annually.
• Increase awareness of pay and promotion policies.
• Expand pay reporting to all classifications.
• Provide education on superannuation management.

Pay equity principle: Relationship between paid and unpaid work

Examples:

• Analyse pay gaps for employee groups such as carers and people who work part-time.
• Review superannuation policies for equal superannuation rates regardless of FTE.
• Link with your policies on leave and flexible work.
• Address gendered unpaid work in your organisation. For example, which staff clean up after meetings or organise workplace social events.
• Encourage parental leave uptake, particularly from fathers.
• Practice gender-equitable job design. For example, consider job requirements, position descriptions and workspaces with a gender lens.

Pay equity principle: Collective and sustainable solutions

Examples:

• Establish a group focused on pay equity for ongoing consultation during GEAP implementation.
• Support feedback from staff and employee representatives after publishing pay gap data.
• Engage with the broader sector, such as industry networks, to test ideas and share learning.

Applying an intersectional lens

In addition to a comprehensive approach, your strategies should address intersectional inequality.

This should be guided by your audit(opens in a new window) and consultation(opens in a new window) findings.

Strategies for intersectionality

Strategies may include the following.

Develop targeted strategies for specific marginalised groups

Create strategies that support marginalised groups in your workplace.

Research what other organisations have done, read reports and frameworks.

Consult with marginalised groups on strategies that affect them. A good way to do this is to work with existing employee networks or formalised structures.

This is essential to ensure strategies are fit for purpose.

Regularly review and update policies

Ensure that your policies are regularly reviewed and updated.

They should reflect current best practices in intersectionality and inclusion.

Increase understanding of intersectionality

An intersectional approach is new for many workplaces.

You may need strategies to help employees understand and apply this concept in their work.

Provide training and education

Offer continuous training and education on intersectionality and related topics. This will keep all employees informed and engaged.

Applying an intersectional lens to all your work

Apply an intersectional lens to existing policies and practices. Conducting an intersectional gender impact assessment(opens in a new window) (GIA) on internal policies and programs can support this.³

For instance, on enterprise agreement negotiations, leave provisions, corporate values refresh.

Recognise the cultural load on staff that contribute to this work.

This refers to the unpaid labour often expected of First Nations employees and staff from diverse backgrounds to educate organisations about racism and inclusion.

The Diversity Council recommends recognising and remunerating staff for this role if they choose to undertake it.

Create safe spaces for dialogue

Establish safe spaces where employees can discuss intersectional issues and share their experiences without fear of retribution.

Measure and report progress

Develop metrics to measure the effectiveness of your intersectional strategies.

Regularly report on progress to maintain transparency and accountability.

Prioritising your strategies

Transformative change takes time.

Prioritise things you can achieve within the timeframe of your GEAP.

Set clear timelines so that actions are spread over the lifetime of the GEAP.

If you are a small organisation with limited resources, be realistic about the time some actions may take.

The Act requires duty holders to provide adequate resources to GEAP strategies. Consider practical and reasonable things you can achieve.

Ideas for implementing your GEAP

The following ideas can help you implement your GEAP in a small, resource-constrained environment.

Focus on high-impact strategies

Identify and prioritise strategies that will have the greatest impact on indicators.

Use data from the audit and consultations to determine the most effective initiatives.

Phased or pilot approach

Use a phased approach to implementing gender equality strategies.

Start with pilot projects in specific areas.

This allows you to test and refine approaches before scaling up.

Collaborate and partner

Partner with other organisations (duty holders), community groups, or industry bodies to share learnings, resources and expertise.

Collaboration can help amplify efforts and achieve greater impact with limited resources.

Check out the communities of practice available in some industries on the Commission’s website.

Empower champions

Identify and empower gender equality champions within your organisation.

These people can advocate for gender equality, lead initiatives and inspire others. They help to drive change from within.

Use free or low-cost training

Take advantage of free or low-cost training and resources available online.

Many organisations and institutions offer webinars, workshops and toolkits about gender equality and diversity.

Considerations in prioritising

• Consider what you can realistically achieve within the timeframe.
• Identify your starting point and desired end point, and outline the steps needed to bridge the gap. Include strategies to support staff development, especially if employees are new to understanding gender equality and intersectional analysis.
• Determine which strategies will help achieve the change needed in your workplace. Consider what employees of different genders, or who may experience compounded gender inequality, suggested during consultation.
• Assess if you need more information. You may need to focus on understanding the problem better before you can proceed.
• Evaluate the resources. Increasing resources for gender equality work and including the GEAP in budgeting processes may be an important first step for leaders and governing body members to consider.