Overview
Workplace Equality and Respect is an evidence-based approach and can guide you to promote gender equality in your workplace and prevent sexual harassment and other forms of gender-based violence (including domestic and family violence).
The video is an animation.
[A male CEO holds a document titled “Workplace Equality and Respect”. The CEO walks out of his office towards three of his employees, two men and a woman, who are at work in their cubicles.]Male narrating voice:
Take a look around. Do you think your workplace has gender equality and promotes respect towards women? Unfortunately, gender inequality and disrespect towards women exist in all kinds of workplaces and there are many ways these issues can show up at work.
[The animation splits into five parts to show an office, a hospital, a construction site, a factory and a café. The animation focuses on the hospital, where two men - one doctor and one nurse - laugh at a joke about women. They don’t realise it, but two female colleagues - another doctor and nurse - overhear it.]
You know those sexist jokes some people laugh at? Well, they’re harmful because they downplay or justify disrespect towards women.
[The animation shows a video conference of a group of six people, two women and four men. A woman is leading the discussion. Her title reads ‘Lena – Project Lead’. All the people in the call are paying attention to what she’s saying, but one man seems aggravated and keeps shaking his head. He interrupts Lena, talking over her.]
Some organisations have rigid ideas of women’s roles in the workplace. When women challenge these rigid ideas, they may face harassment, verbal abuse or be excluded from decision-making.
[The animation shows a construction site where a male, senior construction manager, and a female worker, are walking towards the construction site office.]
Everyone – from the leadership team to junior staff – has the power to promote gender equality and model respect.
[The animation shows text: “Workplace Equality and Respect Standard: Commitment”.]
The first big step is commitment. It’s essential to have leaders committed to changing the culture within your workplace.
[The animation shows the construction site office, where the senior construction manager is presenting to a group of three construction workers. On a whiteboard, there’s text that reads “How to make our worksite more inclusive”.]
[The animation then shows text: “Workplace Equality and Respect Standard: Conditions”.]
Next is providing equal conditions in your workforce. It’s important to spot disparities between women’s and men’s conditions. Equal pay for equal work is a good start.
[The animation shows a female office worker looking at her computer. She skims through a finance spreadsheet containing the salaries of employees in her company. The top row of the spreadsheet reads “Ruben - Director” with three dollar signs and the second row reads “Minh - Director” with only two dollar signs. She adds a question mark in the second row and types “Gender Pay Gap Review” in the next column.]
[The animation then shows text: “Workplace Equality and Respect Standard: Culture”.]
Now consider your workplace culture. We all need to make sure everyone feels safe and respected at work.
[The animation shows a factory where a male supervisor is telling off a younger female worker. Two coworkers step in to support the female worker.]
[The animation then shows text: “Workplace Equality and Respect Standard: Support”.]
The next step is Support. Your workplace needs to be prepared to respond appropriately if something happens.
[The animation shows a boardroom with a group of board directors discussing work at the factory. Text on the whiteboard reads, “Board Meeting: Discussion on staff complaints in our factory”. A list on the whiteboard reads: “Bullying and harassment” and “Sexual harassment”.]
[The animation then shows text: “Workplace Equality and Respect Standard: Core business”.]
Finally, your workplace should aim to model equality and respect in all interactions with clients, customers, and stakeholders. Every conversation, policy and action is important.
[The animation shows a cafe where staff members are interacting with customers. Then the animation splits into five parts: A woman looks at a finance spreadsheet in an office; there's a female doctor at a hospital; a male senior construction manager at a construction site; a man presenting at the board meeting in the factory; and a female server from the cafe.]
Addressing gender inequality and disrespect will help us create workplaces that are free from harassment and discrimination. It’s up to all of us to promote inclusive cultures in our organisations. Adopt Our Watch's Workplace Equality and Respect Standards today.
[The animation shows text: For tools and guides visit workplace.ourwatch.org.au. Our Watch logo with the tagline “End violence against women and their children”. Below the logo, text reads “This video was voiced by Nikita Chawla’s brother and Our Watch ambassador, Tarang Chawla”.]
The process
The Workplace Equality and Respect process walks you through four key steps you can take to assess your business, identify priority areas and implement actions to embed gender equality.
No two businesses are alike, so it also allows you to select different initiatives or focus on different areas based on your unique needs.
This process includes:
- readiness assessment
- project planning
- benchmarking and diagnostics
- action planning and review.
With these elements in place, you will be ready to implement change.
The standards
Workplace Equality and Respect is framed around five standards:
- Commitment
- Conditions
- Culture
- Support
- Core business
If businesses promote a culture of equality and respect across these areas, they can address the drivers of gender-based violence.
Download the Workplace Equality and Respect Standards for more detail.
Gender equality is good for your business
The benefits for business leaders include:
- be an employer of choice, attracting and retaining staff
- strengthen culture and improve productivity and business performance
- build your own, and your business’ reputation as a leader for positive change
- mitigate risk of harm to employees and litigation against your business
- meet staff and consumer expectations that businesses act on gender equality
Workplace gender equality is associated with a range of positive outcomes for individual businesses and for the national economy.
Increased organisational performance
The annual Gender Equality at Work report, which considered the performance of ASX200 companies, states that companies with greater diversity among their management and directorships are less volatile and sustain better than average performance on a range of metrics. It found:
- Companies with female chairs had the best performing yearly share price changes.1
- Female CEOs had revenue increases above the market average.2
- Companies or organisations with female CFOs were in line with or above the market average on all metrics assessed.3
When workplaces are equally appealing to women and men, organisations have access to a larger talent pool. Employees value positive workplace cultures and environments that offer gender equality policies and practices, flexible working arrangements and support for employees with family and caring responsibilities.
— Workplace Gender Equality Agency, 2016.
Enhanced organisational reputation
Working to change the social and structural conditions that drive violence is good for business as it builds trust and loyalty and enhances the workplaces reputation by showing leadership on issues the community cares about.
What's next?
How to prevent violence in workplacesHow might it look in my workplace?
Watch these short videos to learn from leaders about how Workplace Equality and Respect is already working in their organisations.
Watch the videos