Gender Equality Action Plan progress report

High level overview of the progress made toward WorkSafe's gender equality indicators.

Shape

Background

WorkSafe has to complete 5 key activities to meet our obligations under the Gender Equality Act 2020.

  1. Promote gender equality.
  2. Conduct gender impact assessments.
  3. Undertake a workplace gender audit.
  4. Create a Gender Equality Action Plan (GEAP).
  5. Report on progress.

WorkSafe is committed to achieving gender equality through a number of strategies, aligned to the 7 workplace indicators:

  1. Gender composition at all levels of the workforce
  2. Gender composition of governing bodies
  3. Gender pay equity
  4. Workplace sexual harassment
  5. Recruitment and promotion
  6. Leave and flexibility
  7. Gendered workforce segregation

These indicators highlight where gender inequality persists and where progress must be shown.

Over the past 2 years WorkSafe has made significant progress toward promoting and improving gender equality in the workplace.

WorkSafe's efforts toward gender equality are important for our Employee Value Proposition, with a number of key factors below feeding directly into a positive employee experience.

  • Women@WorkSafe employee-led network.
  • Career development support.
  • A focus on flexible working, supported by a Flexibility in the Workplace Policy.
  • Regular gender pay gap analysis and reporting.
  • Generous wellbeing program and benefits.
  • Purpose-driven and inclusive culture.

2021 to 2023 reporting period

Key achievements

  • Six women took part in the Executive Readiness Initiative, double the number of men. This is a key development opportunity for senior leaders wanting to take on executive level roles.
  • Recruitment of women into WorkSafe Inspector and Investigator roles increased from 26% to 50%.
  • Over 100 participants in the The Women@WorkSafe mentoring program.
  • Ongoing inclusive recruitment training was launched for the talent acquisition team.
  • WorkSafe's 'Flexibility in the Workplace' policy was developed and launched.
  • The 'Inclusion in Action' learning program, which includes a gender equality module, was launched.
  • Biennial gender pay gap analysis implemented.

Measures against the 7 gender equality indicators

WorkSafe's next areas of focus

  • Convene an Intersectional Working Group to provide project governance for implementation of the GEAP.
  • Apply gender equality principles in the development of the upcoming new Enterprise Agreement.
  • Continue to support women into leadership positions through career development opportunities such as internal secondment, acting positions, leadership development and mentoring.
  • Continue to focus on gender balanced recruitment for areas under-represented by women.
  • Continue to strengthen WorkSafe's prevention and response to sexual harassment including:
    • engaging senior leaders, subject matter experts, corporate legal and risk teams in a working group
    • undertaking a gap analysis
    • draft of new sexual harassment prevention and response policy
    • draft of new sexual harassment prevention and response action plan
  • Improve D&I data collection and analysis through the new HRIS People Central and working with the Victorian Public Sector Commission (VPSC) to continuously improve the data that we collect through the annual People matter survey.

Detailed progress reports