What will your workplace gender equality report tell you?

For many kids and companies alike, the end of year signals report card time!

Receiving a report at the end of the year can be a powerful catalyst for learning about strengths and weaknesses, forward planning and improving performance. It’s also a great time to reflect.

Whether a report makes us feel positive or disappointed, motivated or disheartened  will depend on how we interpret the results and the stories we tell ourselves about the outcomes achieved.

Workplace Gender Equality Benchmark Reports are released

This week, the Workplace Gender Equality Agency will release their 2015 annual gender data and  reports to all participating organisations.  The WGEA benchmark reports covers approximately 4 million Australian employees in over 11,000 non-public sector organisations; representing over 40% of our total workforce.

The Agency is highly regarded around the globe for its rigorous reporting data that continues to set new benchmarks on gender equality. The comparative data that is now available through the Agency allows organisations to compare their own benchmarks with others in similar industries, location, competitors, and size. This is a huge competitive advantage for organisations wanting to see what their direct peers are up to in the gender diversity space.

It can be tempting to read results as a ‘pass’ or ‘fail’, but ultimately the goal is to seek feedback on how your organisation is trending against the gender equality indicators and how you continue to develop along the diversity maturity curve.

Here at A-HA!, we work with organisations to implement sucessful diversity change strategies and here are our top 4 tips for turning your benchmark data into a powerful catalsyt for realising your goals:

1. Communicate, Communicate, Communicate
2. Lead with change
3. Don’t reinvent the wheel – use the right tools
4. Get the full picture

1. Communicate, Communicate, Communicate

Communicating your benchmark data results is a great first step, no matter whether the news is good, great or below your expectation. Engage in conversations with your colleagues about the data and see their perspectives. It’s so easy to dip in to a negative spiral if we don’t get the results we’re after from reports, employee engagement, culture surveys, or even feedback. We’ve met folks who often get stuck asking these questions:

• What are we doing wrong?
• Why aren’t we being recognized?
• Whose fault was it?

It is important to reflect on your organisations overall diversity journey and progress.  Good questions to ask are:

• Which outcomes are we most proud of?
• Which outcomes are we least proud of?
• What’s the single most important change we can deliver on in the next 12 months?

2. Lead with Change 

Leading with change is an important strategic driver in positioning gender diversity. It’s all well and good to have a strategy, but a change plan is critically important. Once you have reviewed your benchmark results, the next step is to review (or build) the gender equality strategy for your organisation by determining your key goals and priorities and developing specific actions for the year ahead. Build a plan around the structural and cultural change that will help to break down any barriers that may exist in the organisation.

A highly engaging diversity narrative must be woven through the strategy to build engagement and commitment to the vision for the future.

3. Tools to boost impact

Sometimes leading diversity change can feel like an overwhelming solo challenge, however there is no need to reinvent the wheel.  There are a number of great tools and resources that can boost the impact of your analysis and recommendations. Two of our favourite tools are:

• WGEA’s Gender Equality Benchmark Insights Guide + Communicating your Benchmarks Presentation Toolkit.  These two fantastic resources will make interpreting and communicating your report results easier and more effective (we know they’re fantastic as we’re pretty proud to say we helped develop them!); and
• The Workplace Gender and Equality Strategy Project Final Report published by the clever folks at the Centre for Workplace Leadership which includes 10 case studies of Australian organisations at different stages of their journey in building a whole of organisation approach to workplace gender equality.

4. Get the full picture

Getting the whole gender diversity picture is a great step to ensure your leaders see this is as a strategic business enabler. So getting your data accurate and current is something we highly recommend. Rather than wait until reporting time again when you might scramble around getting the numbers together, why not leverage a diversity dashboard that collates your composition by gender in job role, location, and level? What about calculating a pay gap analysis in the same dashboard?

We know how challenging it can be collating all of this data in to one solid and reliable source, so we went ahead and custom built a diversity dashboard that brings all of the essential WGEA GEI reporting criteria together for you. It gives you a snapshot each month of your composition, performance across the organisation by gender and age, perform a pay gap analysis in seconds, and better understand the diversity themes in your business.

Want to know more? Get in touch with us.

Still want more tips and tools?

Find out more direct from the experts!

On Thursday 10th December 2015 from 11.00am – 12 noon A-HA! is pleased to be co-facilitating a free webinar with Yolanda Beattie, Strategy & Engagement Executive Manager from WGEA focusing on how to maximise the value of your Workplace Gender Equality Benchmark report.  We’d love you to join us for the webinar, just register on the link below.

So as you read and consider your report, be it a Workplace Gender Equality Benchmarking report or other, remember to focus on the opportunity the insights present you in gaining a deeper understanding of stengths and opportunties for improvement, and creating momentum for sustainable long term change.

#ahamoments with Kat

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The team at A Human Agency would like to acknowledge and pay respects to the traditional custodians of the land where our office is based, the Cammeraygal and Wallumedegal peoples of the Eora nation. We pay our respects to Elders past and present, and celebrate the diversity of Aboriginal people and their ongoing cultures and connections to the lands and waters of NSW.