The Act requires you to do at least one round of consultation. You need to consult with employees, employee representatives and your governing body.
It is your choice how you undertake the consultation.
We recommend two rounds of consultation: one in relation to your audit results (refer to step 3(opens in a new window)) and one in relation to your strategies and measures.
7.1 Consulting on your strategies (recommended)
After drafting your strategies, gather feedback on them.
Do this by consulting with employees, union representatives, any other employee representatives and members of your governing body (if you have one).
Do this before you finalise your strategies.
The consultation process can reveal gaps, challenges and areas for improvement.
Consultation helps to ensure the strategies are practical, relevant and supported by stakeholders.
Some questions to ask during consultation include:
- reflect on previous GEAP and progress reports (if relevant) – what worked and did not work?
- clarity – are strategies clear and easy to understand?
- relevance – do the strategies cover the main gender inequality issues in our organisation?
- feasibility – are the strategies realistic within the timeframe?
- impact – do you think the strategies will have the desired impact on the workplace gender equality indicators?
- missing groups – are there groups in our organisation whose experiences of gender equality are not accounted for in these strategies?
- lived experience – are strategies meaningful to diverse employees, especially those potentially experiencing discrimination?
- involvement – what would help stakeholders feel more engaged in the GEAP?
This step complements step 3: consult on your audit(opens in a new window). For further guidance on how to plan and run consultations, see:
- Deciding the purpose of your consultation
- Identifying who to consult
- Advice on specific stakeholders:
- consulting with union representatives
- consulting with your governing body
- involving senior leaders
- Involving senior leaders
- Managing effective consultation and engagement, including:
- consultation methods
- budget and timeframe
- communication methods
- choosing who to lead the consultation
- supporting participants to feel safe
- consultation materials
- documenting and sharing consultation feedback
- intersectional approach to engagement
- Gathering feedback and reflections on your consultation process
7.2 Documenting your consultation (required)
You must document your consultation process in the GEAP.
State how you consulted (at least once) with your employees, union representatives, any other employee representatives, and members of your governing body (if you have one).
This might include:
- consultation methods, such as online, in-person, through surveys or focus groups
- how the consultation shaped the interpretation of audit results, development of strategies and measures and other aspects of your GEAP
- participant numbers for each stakeholder group
- how you created an inclusive and safe consultation
- communication methods such as using infographics to make information easy to read and understand.
You can include extra details about the consultation in the section at the end of the GEAP template for additional comments. This keeps the main body of the GEAP concise.
If you choose not to use the template, you can include this information in an appendix.
Completing the GEAP template
This step aligns with the advice in step 3. Refer to step 3 for guidance on completing the GEAP template.
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