The Commission has developed guidance to help defined entities to assess and report on their progress in relation to the gender equality indicators. This is referred to as a 'progress audit'. A progress audit involves:
- collecting workforce and employee experience data in 2023
- comparing this information to the workplace gender audit data collected in 2021
- providing the results to the Commissioner along with progress reports.
Progress audit guidance 2023
Guidance for conducting a progress audit in 2023 as part of your progress reporting obligations under the Gender Equality Act 2020.
Why you need to do an audit
Under section 19 of the Act, a defined entity must submit a progress report to the Commissioner every second year after submitting a Gender Equality Action Plan (GEAP). The first progress report is due on 20 February 2024.
In the progress report, a defined entity must (among other things) demonstrate progress in relation to the workplace gender equality indicators. The progress audit is used to help you do this.
In line with the Gender Equality Amendment Regulations 2023, you are required to complete a progress audit to demonstrate progress in relation to the workplace gender equality indicators.
A progress audit is defined as:
- collecting updated information in relation to the workplace gender equality indicators
- comparing the updated information to the information submitted in 2021 as part of your workplace gender audit.
You must submit the updated information and the results of the comparison as part of your progress report.
What you need to do
There are 3 stages in a progress audit:
- preparing to collect your data
- collecting your data
- analysing your data.
The full detail of what you need to do is contained in the Progress audit guidance.
Key dates
The progress audit is part of your Progress report.
The first progress report is due by 20 February 2024. This deadline has been extended from 31 October 2023 and applies to all defined entities.
The reporting period for the first progress report is 1 July 2021 to 30 June 2023 (and 1 April 2021 to 31 March 2023 for universities). The submission extension does not affect this. The only change is the date by which your organisation must submit your progress report.
GEAP timeline
What you will need
Progress audit guidance
The Progress audit guidance for defined entities will help you to prepare and for and develop your progress audit.
Workforce reporting template
The Progress audit 2023 - Workforce reporting template lets you submit your workforce data to us in the right format through our reporting platform.
Reporting platform user guide
Further information about the Commission’s Reporting platform, including a detailed user guide, can be found on the reporting platform help page.
What data will be published by the Commission
The Commission will publish high-level data to our public data insights portal. This data will be drawn from the progress audit data organisations submit through our Reporting Platform. Data will appear for each defined entity as well as for different industries (e.g. Victorian Public Service, local government, etc.).
By publicly reporting data, the Commission ensures that organisations under the Act are transparent and accountable to employees and the community for making progress on gender equality.
In 2023, you will be able to use the reporting platform to preview how your data will be displayed publicly before you submit it.
The Commission has published a list that provides an indication of the types of data the Commission will publish. We will communicate any minor changes to defined entities before we publish the data.
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