Great places for women to work
Smart employers know their people provide their competitive edge and to get the best people they must have the largest talent pool and that means including female talent.
Employers who understand the importance of the female workforce win on the bottom line and in higher retention rates – something the winners of this year’s Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency Business Achievement awards well understand.
This year’s winners include biopharmaceutical company CSL, the University of Western Australia, gold miner St Barbara Limited, the National Australia Bank, pharmaceutical maker GlaxoSmithKline, the Catholic Education Office Adelaide, the Australian Catholic University and law firm Norton Rose Australia.
You can read about the winners in our story Female friendly employers win in many ways but CareerOne wants to acknowledge the finalists as well. Their policies make fascinating reading – especially if you are looking for a new job.
List of Finalists
The Minister’s Award for Outstanding EEO Initiative/Result for the Advancement of Women
Catholic Education Office, Diocese of Wollongong
With women making up 80 per cent of its workforce, the Catholic Education Office in Wollongong has created a ‘Working Parent’s Toolkit’ and introduced flexible work arrangement such as job sharing.
Hayman Island
The Queensland resort has seen its female workforce increase from 45 per cent in 2010 to 52 per cent in 2011. It offers discounted childcare to staff via its Kids Club, work times that align to club hours and accommodation for employees and families.
The University of Sydney
The university recognises women are under represented at senior levels and so established two fellowships designed to assist female academics and carers obtain greater seniority.
The Thompson Fellowship ha been awarded to 12 people since 2009. It is for women at mid-range levels to help them develop and strengthen their research thus preparing them to apply for more senior roles.
The Brown Fellowship is open to male and female university researchers whose careers have been interrupted while they performed primary carer duties. Ten Brown Fellowships have been awarded since 2009 – all to women.
Maddocks
Law firm Maddocks has been pursuing greater gender diversity since the mid-1990s when it introduced paid maternity leave for lawyers and other female staff at a time when the benefit was rare.
The firm also has career development programs for women returning from parental leave and has increased the number of female partners. In the June 2011 promotions, four of the seven new partners were female.
Two are part-time due to family commitments and two are in the commercial group (where previously there were no female partners). Approximately 25 per cent of the firm’s partners are women. The commercial group also promoted one female senior associate to special counsel and identified three further women to participate in the high potential program.
Of the 13 associates promoted to senior associate, six are female and of the 15 lawyers promoted to associate 73 per are female.
Outstanding EEO Practice for the Advancement of Women in a Non-Traditional Area or Role
Downer EDI Limited
The engineering and infrastructure experts serve customers across minerals and metals, oil and gas, power, road and rail, telcos and water with a lot of its work taking place on sites. The company has been active in recruiting and developing indigenous female talent with the current number at 14. Downer has focused attention on advancing women to second interview and, where possible, selecting two female candidates to combat feelings of isolation a male-dominated environment.
Rio Tinto
The second largest supplier of iron ore in the world, Rio Tinto has actively developed its female talent through mentoring, coaching and learning programs. The mining giant has achieved 22.7 per cent female representation in its senior leadership ranks.
Overall, 21.3 per cent of its employees are women, 28.5 per cent of its graduates and of its 86 per cent of employees returning from parental leave in 2010-2011, 50 per cent took full time roles and the other half part time roles. Rio Tinto maintains its female pipeline via a target of 50 per cent female middle managers. From that pool, high potential women are identified and promoted or moved laterally within two years.
St Barbara Limited
Women make up 17 per cent of the gold mining company’s workforce up from 15 per cent three years ago. The number of women recruited has increased from 18 per cent in 2009-10 to 27 per cent in 2010-11 taking many non-traditional roles. Also, 38 per cent of promotions in this period were awarded to women. Of those selected for the company’s leadership development program, 28 per cent were women with three women since promoted to leadership roles. The company has decreased its gender pay gap by 17 per cent in the last two years. Eligible employees of its flexible work options can take paid and unpaid parental leave and have their annual leave, long-service leave balances and super contributions adjusted. Those earning $150k and thus ineligible for the government scheme are paid 18 weeks parental leave.
James L. Williams
James L. Williams specialises in providing environmental engineering solutions for the air-conditioning services sector firm. The company has recruited two female apprentices and worked with the Queensland Plumbers Union, Women in Plumping group, the Services Trade Industry Fund and RTOs to promote such apprenticeships to women. It has also created a work-experience program, promoted the apprenticeships to girls through schools and devised a mentoring and coaching program supported by its CEO.
Leading CEO for the Advancement of Women
Gail Kelly, CEO Westpac chairs the bank’s diversity council, chairs quarterly talent sessions with the executive team and uses the Women in Leadership measures in her own performance scoreboard as well as those of her direct reports and key managers. In October 2010 Ms Kelly announced the Westpac Group’s plan to increase the percentage of women in senior management roles to 40 per cent by the end of 2014. She is a regular speaker on gender diversity in leadership including talking about Westpac’s policy to pay super on unpaid parental leave for all permanent male and female employees. Westpac employees are paid up to 39 weeks of super on unpaid parental leave on top of super paid on 13 weeks of paid parental leave.
Ralph Norris, CEO of the Commonwealth Bank champions the bank’s diversity efforts. He started and chairs the Diversity Council to foster principles of respect and inclusiveness and has raised awareness around unconscious bias in the workplace. He also takes part in the women’s mentoring program and the Sex Discrimination Commissioner’s Male Champions of Change program.
Karen Spiller, Principal of St Aidan’s Anglican Girls School mentored four women who became school principals; mentors young female teachers; supports programs in the school where employees can shadow senior leaders coupled with coaching and development work. As a result two thirds of eh school’s board and over three quarters of the executive are women. The school also supports flexibility and one quarter of the staff now teach part time. Ms Spiller is also a regular speaker and was the recipient of a 2011 Churchill Fellowship to further study preparing women for leadership in schools.
Deborah Waterhouse, Vice President and General Manager Australia and New Zealand of GlaxoSmithKline was nominated for being a role model for others by attending events at the school of her children, taking them to school and purchasing extra leave to spend time with family. Inside work, Ms Waterhouse mentors men and women, champions workplace flexibility options and other initiatives. GSK actively encourages women into non-traditional roles such as ICT, manufacturing and engineering. More than half of GSK’s executive team are women and its gender pay gap is under five per cent.
Diversity Leader for the Advancement of Women
Katie-Jeyn Romeyn, General Manager, Human Resources, St Barbara Limited
Ms Romeyn is a member of the Executive Leadership Team of the gold mining company. She has developed a structured approach to diversity and helped the organisation see diversity as a strategic priority. Initiatives she has introduced include industry leading parental leave, return to work incentives
Philip Jones, Senior Partner and Chairman, Maddocks
A member of the law firm’s first equal opportunity committee, Mr Jones served as the partner advocate for paid maternity leave taking the business case to the board where it was approved in the mid-1990s for all female employees. At that time, not only was paid maternity leave unusual in the legal sector, those in admin and shared services were not eligible.
As chairman of Maddocks, Mr Jones has championed gender diversity in the partnership ranks. He also oversaw the introduction of individual planning for each female lawyer preparing for and returning from parental leave that included communication and meetings with key colleagues and also provide assistance and budget relief/concessions in their first year back at work.
Helen O’Brien, Assistant Director, Catholic Education Office, Adelaide
Ms O’Brien has created a culture of acceptance and commitment making diversity everyone’s responsibility. There are 25 women in senior management and 36 per cent work part-time. Three of the five-member leadership team are women and the organisation has a 100 per cent return rate from maternity leave with the majority accessing part-time work.
Learning and development is encouraged and supported including through study incentive grants. A record number of these grants have been accessed in the last year.
Kerry Thomas, Employee Relations Manager, L’Oréal Australia
As Employee Relations Manager, Kerry Thomas has implemented numerous programs including paid parental leave of 13 weeks full pay for permanent staff with at least two years’ service offered in addition to the government-paid parental leave scheme. She also introduced the Stay-in-Touch program for parental leavers and the Flexible Working Arrangements policy. L’Oréal has a return to work rate of 92 per cent – up from 67 per cent in 2004.
Women make up 80 per cent of L’Oréal’s workforce and 40 per cent of the management team and 49 per cent of the senior management team.
L’Oréal has a variety of different groups who access flexible workplace arrangements. The largest groups are mothers, who request part-time options or flexible start and finish times to accommodate family responsibilities. Increasingly, parents (both male and female) are accessing telecommuting options, either on an as-needs or a more systematic basis, to fit in with their families’ requirements.
Leading Organisation for the Advancement of Women (<800 employees)
Biotechnology company Amgen Australia has 170 staff including 129 women.
The company supports male and female employees in a number of ways including a mentoring program where 53 per cent of participants are female.
The FlexAbility Program looks at the needs of staff and the business to offer flexible work solutions including flexitime, part-time, telecommuting, job sharing and remote work. Currently, 24 per cent of staff access flexible arrangements and 92 per cent of those are women. Programs and support are championed by the CEO and also include
12 weeks’ paid parental leave, a transition plan that allows a staggered return to work resulting in a return to work rate increase from 57 per cent in 2007 to 100 per cent in 2011.
Henry Davis York
The law firm specialises in banking, recovery and insolvency. The firm has 380 staff and 57 partners and offices in Brisbane and Sydney. HDY’s employees ranked equal opportunity as the firm’s highest rating attribute in their 2011 engagement survey.
Initiatives include having a dedicated flexibility manager. The firm has a return-to-work post parental leave rate of over 90 per cent, most on a flexible arrangement.
The firm has a female managing partner, and 67 per cent of senior directors are female, as are 68 per cent of special counsel and senior associates. Almost one-quarter of these senior female practitioners work flexibly. The number of female partners has doubled in the past five years and now stands at 28 per cent.
ITC Ltd
ITC provides higher and vocational education and training as well as professional services to the University of Wollongong.
Equal Opportunity programs include a Leadership Mentoring Program, an annual CEO award that recognises exceptional leadership by a female member of staff, an annual women’s forum that is hosted by the CEO, a formally established Diversity and Equity Committee, and specific training and development tailored for women.
ITC has a 75 per cent of staff return rate from parental leave with 67 per cent of those being women.
ASX Limited
ASX Group was created by the merger of the Australian Stock Exchange and the Sydney Futures Exchange in July 2006 and is today one of the world’s top-10 listed exchange groups measured by market capitalisation.
The ASX Diversity Strategy will soon be expanded to include initiatives such senior executives mentoring junior women, skill-building programs aimed at women and sponsorship for high-potential female staff.
As of June 30 2011, women made up 25 per cent of the ASX board and 27 per cent of management.
ASX’s Balance@ASX program, in place since 2009, takes a holistic approach to supporting a better work life balance for employees. Since 2009, the number of women who have accessed flexible working arrangements upon return from maternity leave has increased from 63 per cent to 92 per cent. The return to work rate is about 75 per cent.
Leading Organisation for the Advancement of Women
National Australia Bank
NAB has over 40,000 staff in New Zealand, Asia, the United Kingdom and the United States. A key strategic priority for NAB is building and maintaining a workforce that reflects the diversity of its customers.
NAB’s Gender Action Plan helps the company do this by building a pipeline of female talent, building leadership capabilities and reflecting its diversity goals in recruiting practices by training external recruiters.
The bank has clear targets and objectives it measures as well. As of September 30, 2011, women made up 28 per cent of NABs executive management, 20 per cent of subsidiary directors (up from 14 per cent in October 2010), 44 per cent of graduates for its 2012 program, 47 per cent of talent development program participants – up from 40 per cent in 2010.
Corporate Express Australia Pty Limited
Corporate Express is one of the leading suppliers of business products and services in Australia. With a head office in Mascot Sydney, 43 other locations and
2,000 staff nationwide.
Corporate Express’ annual Business Women of the Year program launched in 2010 and to address an under-representation of females in leadership.
The program focuses on mentoring, skills development and better visibility for female talent and has a university partnership with four female leaders mentoring female students and 86 women in the formal talent-mapping process. A job swap scheme saw a senior woman leader transferred into the warehouse manager role.
Corporate Express has set targets for the percentage of females in its top three layers
of management, which are measured and reported to the CEO quarterly. The company has significantly increased female representation in its executive, senior leadership team and direct reports to the senior leadership team.
In July 2010, Corporate Express launched its new Flexible Work Guidelines to promote flexible arrangements across the business, including the provision of opportunities for working mothers.
Stockland
Stockland is one of the largest property groups in Australia and is best known by the public for its shopping centres.
Stockland awarded an international research fellowship to three female employees so they could study the best policies to empower women in Business in 20 organisations across five Countries. As a result, Stockland implemented two new development programs specifically for women, together with training to prevent unconscious bias in its leadership team.
These new programs supplement its existing gender diversity initiatives, which
include women’s networking events, a comprehensive parental transitions program
and access to flexible working arrangements.
Stockland has set a target to increase the number of women in management roles to no less than 40 per cent by 2015. The number of women in management roles increased from 28 per cent in 2007 to 37 per cent in 2011. Stockland’s Parental Transitions Program has resulted in an increased return to work rate from parental leave from 56 per cent in 2008 to 94 per cent in 2011.
Westpac Banking Corporation
The Westpac Group was the first private-sector company to pay superannuation on
unpaid parental leave.
Westpac, which employs 38,000 people, wants to increase the number of women in senior leadership roles to 40 per cent by 2014.
Over 60 per cent of employees at Westpac are women and in the past 12 months the bank has increased the percentage of women in leadership by more than 4 per cent from 33 per cent to 37.5 per cent. In addition, it has improved the representation of women on the Westpac board. As of December 1, 2011, 40 per cent of board positions will be held by women.
One of the key actions is to leverage the results of Westpac’s research partnerships with leading academics and industry bodies. Research areas include valuing unpaid work, unconscious bias and mainstreaming flexibility.
