Create a working group
A working group helps distribute responsibilities, so they do not all fall on one person or team. You can also use existing networks to build your working group.
The working group guides the development and implementation of your GEAP.
It can also help fulfill other obligations under the Gender Equality Act.
This includes conducting workplace gender audits, doing gender impact assessments and promoting gender equality.
Other benefits a working group include:
- boosting engagement – a working group can boost employee involvement in your GEAP
- demonstrating commitment and accountability – supporting a working group is a commitment to gender equality. It also ensures accountability for progress
- providing a platform for consultation – the group is a resource for consultation. It can also support implementation
- adding credibility and community support – a diverse working group that reflects the makeup of your organisation adds credibility to your GEAP. It also fosters a sense of ownership among employees. This will ensure support for the GEAP even after the group is no longer active
- bringing diverse skills and perspectives – a working group brings together skills, experiences and viewpoints. This contributes to innovative ideas and effective problem-solving. Although it can be hard to manage different opinions, decisions made by a group are often more creative and effective
- offering mutual support – group members can support each other. This is important because the work can be challenging and require significant resources. The group can also celebrate achievements together as a team
- sharing knowledge in the sector – a working group can share knowledge, ideas and resources with other organisations. Check out the communities of practice available for some of the different industries on the Commission’s website.
Factors to consider
Some of the things to consider when creating the group include:
- diverse membership – include diverse employees in the group. This includes First Nations staff, people of different ages, people with disability, people of difference genders, races, religions and LGBTQIA+ people. Include staff from different departments and levels of seniority. Diversity ensures your GEAP development will meet the needs and experiences of all employees
- leadership representation – involve members of the executive team. This shows your organisation's commitment to intersectional gender equality. Senior leaders can help prioritise the GEAP in budgeting and work planning
- existing groups – use existing employee groups. This includes networks or staff groups, such as inclusion and diversity committees. This can save time, effort and resources. It also provides established procedures for consulting and communicating with employees
- workload and resourcing – assess the time and resources your organisation has. Smaller organisations might find a smaller, focused group more manageable. Larger organisations might benefit from having multiple groups, like a steering committee and a working group
- cross-organisational representation – ensure representation from different departments and functions. This helps distribute the workload evenly and prevents it from falling on a single person or department.
Using external experts
Some organisations use external experts to develop their GEAP.
This can be helpful if you have the resources.
However, your organisation will need to take ownership of the process and outcomes.
Having an inclusive and diverse group working on the GEAP can help with this.
Communities of practice
The Commission’s website has information about communities of practice. This includes industry-specific communities of practice.
Use multiple data sources
Collecting and using multiple data sources will help you to understand the gender inequality issues.
Each data source has strengths and limitations.
Your GEAP must be informed by your workplace gender audit. This audit includes workforce data and employee experience data.
Other sources of data could include:
- public data, such as national or state surveys and census data
- peer-reviewed published literature, such as research and resources from credible organisations
- sector reports, such as organisational reports, local research and interviews, and recommendations from relevant employee networks
- primary data, such as previous consultation findings, surveys, and research projects.
These data sources will help you understand your audit. You can use them to compare your organisation with similar organisations. You can also cross-check what your audit data is telling you. Other data sources can help you identify strategies to try in your workplace.
The consultation process is also an important step in data analysis. It provides a space for audit findings to be shared, tested and analysed.
This includes staff with lived experience as well as leaders in your organisation, the board and employee networks and unions.
We recommend that you outline any other information or data sources you considered as part of developing your GEAP.
This shows the evidence that supports your GEAP. It also sets out steps you took to understand your audit data.
Consider whether you need to collect additional data on specific groups or levels of the workplace to understand your workforce more fully.
Additional resources
The Commission has a list of useful data sources that offer national and Victorian data on a range of topics.
These include data on workforce, income, housing, education and employment, and more.
In addition, the Commission also has leading practice resources for each workplace gender equality indicator.
You may also want to share information, resources and data with other organisations in your industry group.
Highlight data gaps
You may find you do not have enough data to develop evidence-based strategies or measures for a particular indicator.
In this case, your GEAP should highlight where these data gaps exist.
It should identify how you will establish a more robust dataset or internal reporting system for these measures.
Consider intersectionality
The Act requires you to consider intersectionality where possible to inform your GEAP strategies and measures.
If you lack data to do an intersectional analysis, acknowledge this in your GEAP. You can identify strategies to address this data gap.1
An intersectional analysis of the data can reveal different experiences of gender inequality by different people. You can then focus GEAP strategies on the barriers for these groups.
Doing intersectional analysis may result in small sample sizes. This is why you should supplement quantitative data with qualitative data analysis.
You can gather qualitative data during the consultation process from people with lived experience. You will need to ensure participants feel safe in sharing their experiences.
Undertake an intersectional analysis
First, develop a plan to collect experiences from current employees.
Focus on employees with diverse backgrounds and lived experiences.
Make sure people feel comfortable sharing their experiences. For example, explain how you will collect, use and report the data they share with you. The ‘Consultation and engagement’ section has more about this.
To undertake intersectional analysis, you need to:
- collect data on demographic/identity attributes
- break down the data by gender and other identity demographics. For example, you could look at the promotion rates for women with a disability
- identify patterns and disparities – look for differences between groups in the data. For example, compare salaries, promotion, turnover rates and representation in leadership roles between:
- First Nations women and men and non-Indigenous women and men
- women and men with disability and women and men without disability
- LGBTQIA+ people and non-LGBTQIA+ people
- collect qualitative data from staff and relevant stakeholders. Use this data to gain insights and validate your findings. Lived experiences add context. They also highlight areas that need more investigation. See step 3: consulting on your audit results of the GEAP guidance(opens in a new window) 2026 for further help.
- For more on intersectional analysis, refer to Applying intersectionality and the Intersectionality at work report.
Privacy
Keep your data collection, analysis and reporting confidential.
You must have privacy protocols, particularly when using an intersectional approach.
The more attributes you collect in relation to each employee, the easier it becomes to identify individuals. Read more about maintaining employee privacy on the Commission’s website.
Using intersectional data
Your workplace gender audit results may reveal insights about people who experience intersectional gender inequality.
This is when gender inequality is compounded by disadvantage or discrimination. It can be due to other characteristics such as Aboriginality, age, disability, ethnicity, gender identity, race, religion or sexual orientation.
Analyse these results to understand how intersectional gender inequality may manifest in your organisation.
Ideally, you should include these insights in your GEAP. You should also include strategies and measures to address any identified trends. Make sure you respect the safety, privacy and interests of people who experience intersectional gender inequality.
Consult with employees who experience intersectional gender inequality or relevant external people or groups. This will help you outline these insights in a safe and constructive way.
Include other information sources
You may also have other important information sources that can shape your GEAP.
For example:
- employee engagement surveys
- focus groups
- diversity and inclusion surveys
- research
- complaints data
- reports from workplace contact officers
- court proceedings
- anecdotal information from exit interviews
- participation in leadership development programs
- data on length of service at particularly levels.
Data from these sources can inform the strategies in your GEAP.
Gain commitment from leaders
Create a case for change(opens in a new window) and resourcing(opens in a new window) plan. Next, explain your obligations under the Act and the benefits of your GEAP to your leadership team.
For your GEAP to succeed, you need leadership support and ownership. Their support will shape your organisation's vision for gender equality.
Leaders at all levels, including the board, CEO and senior leaders, need to commit to the plan and actively involve all employees.
Leaders who actively support and prioritise gender equality initiatives demonstrate that these efforts are important.
This commitment helps with:
- better implementation of your GEAP
- ensuring resources are properly allocated
- promoting cultural change in the workplace
- encouraging all employees to participate in the GEAP
- creating a more inclusive environment
- boosting the chance of lasting gender equality outcomes.
Include strategies in your GEAP to ensure leadership focus and commitment. This includes holding leaders accountable with specific strategies and measures.
Finally, 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 with external stakeholders.
Your leadership should:
- clearly communicate your GEAP and your organisation’s commitment to gender equality, both internally and externally
- model behaviour and values that align with the GEAP. This includes gender equality principles and gender pay equity principles(opens in a new window)
- prioritise gender equality in leadership discussions related to the workplace gender equality indicators. This includes recruitment, promotions, pay and organisational changes
- build on their understanding of gender equality and intersectionality, emerging evidence and research, metrics and data. They should communicate this regularly to staff
- explain your organisation’s progress on gender equality compared with similar organisations. You can find how other organisations are doing on the insights portal.
An enabling environment includes the systems, processes and knowledge that leaders need to implement the GEAP.
Remember that your head of organisation (CEO or equivalent) will need to complete the GEAP attestation. This is on the cover page of the GEAP template.
Strategies to create a strong leadership environment
The following strategies can help you create this environment for your leadership team.
Strengthen knowledge and competency
Provide specific training and guidance tools for senior managers and your executive.
Start by assessing learning and support needs.
Managers may need help understanding gender equality and intersectionality.
They may need targeted support with specific issues or strategies.
Create opportunities for sharing, learning and listening to staff with different lived experiences to help your leadership team understand workplace inequality.
Invite the Public Sector Commissioner for Gender Equality to speak to your board and leadership team about gender equality issues (please email the Commission if you would like to arrange this).
Support regular engagement
Ensure you report regularly to your executive, governing body and senior leaders.
This includes communicating on GEAP implementation, barriers and progress.
Include key performance indicators or performance goals
Set performance goals related to GEAP implementation for individuals or teams, especially for the executive and senior managers.
This holds them accountable for the GEAP's success.
Assign accountability to leadership
Allocate responsibility for each strategy in the GEAP to a leadership role.
This ensures there is a management or executive level role with ultimate responsibility.
Accountability for each strategy or measure should not just sit with a work area or committee.
Include specific strategies for the governing body
Allocate specific strategies or accountabilities for the governing body in the GEAP to increase their involvement and support.
Involve the governing body with training opportunities where possible.
Effective communication for gender equality
Consistent communication with leaders about your GEAP is essential for enabling an environment that supports gender equality.
Clearly outline the goals of the GEAP, track progress and identify barriers. Explain why gender equality is crucial for your workplace (through the case for change).
When leaders and staff understand the importance of the GEAP, they are more likely to be committed and allocate necessary resources.
To ensure your message resonates, repeatedly share the vision and case for change outlined in your GEAP. This consistent messaging helps reinforce the significance of gender equality and keeps it at the forefront of your organisation’s priorities.
The importance of resourcing your GEAP
The Laying the Foundation for Gender Equality in the Public Sector research project by the University of Melbourne found that organisations did not allocate adequate resourcing to developing and implementing their GEAPs.
It found that most of the people doing the work under the Act were women, often employed through insecure short-term contracts at junior levels.
The researchers argue that this can lead to:
- staff burn-out
- ineffective implementation
- reinforcement of the very inequalities the GEAP is aiming to address.
This highlights the importance of the obligation under the Act to ensure adequate resources are allocated to your GEAP.
Footnotes and References
1 The Commissioner acknowledges that using intersectional analysis may be challenging for small-sized organisations (duty holders). We encourage organisations to undertake intersectional analysis where possible. This might mean working towards building capacity in the future to undertake intersectional analysis.
Updated