Gender

Our pursuit of gender equity in a traditionally male majority industry has continued since 2014 when female employee targets were first set. We monitor our Australian progress against global enterprise targets, outlined below. Executive (Enterprise target 25%)

30%

Leader (Enterprise target ≥25%)

21.9%

Snr Professional (Enterprise target ≥30%)

21.4%

Professional (Enterprise target ≥30%)

40.2%

Entry (Enterprise target ≥45%)

44.7%

Championing breastfeeding in the workplace

To help more of our women feel supported to breastfeed or express milk during working hours, in 2021 we received the Breastfeeding Friendly Workplace Accreditation from the Australian Breastfeeding Association, by addressing three key areas for our business: 1. Space: Provide a private space for employees to feed their baby or express milk 2. Time: Develop a policy to support lactation breaks and flexibility 3. Support: Set a comprehensive communication strategy to enable a culture of a truly supportive breastfeeding environment.

Parental leave and return to work

Our Parental Leave Policy supports our people before, during and after periods of parental leave by providing time off work to care for their child, and by encouraging them to return to work at GHD. Our policy includes entitlements for non-birth giving and same sex partners. We’ve seen, and encourage, an increase in males taking leave as a primary caregiver while their partner returns to work. And to make the return to work transition easier, our people are encouraged to adopt flexible working practices. We also offer 10 days paid leave for partners leave.

Women in GHD (WinG) Program

Our WiNG group was established in 2007, in Australia, to provide a platform for our women to feel empowered and to network. In 2014, WinG became an ERG, and today, WinG is active globally, running local initiatives and events, providing a platform for our women to connect, inspire, grow and lead all of our people to foster a culture of gender equality inclusion.

International Women’s Day

We celebrated International Women’s Day (IWD) 2021 in line with the theme #ChooseToChallenge – we can all choose to challenge and call out gender bias and inequality. Our people around the world celebrated the achievements of women and pledged what they challenged on IWD. We also profiled the many incredible women of GHD who are challenging some of humanity’s most urgent needs every day, in a video compilation.

Pay equity

We’re committed to achieving pay equity – this is central to our reward culture at GHD. We have tools that help us assess and maintain pay equity: our GHD People System, market-based salary ranges and our core job architecture framework. In 2021, we entered into a threeyear partnership with a company specialising in pay equity, which provides us with tools to quickly access our pay equity, as well as consulting to provide best practice guidance and third-party oversight. We also conduct annual gender pay equity reviews and completed our first ethnicity pay equity review in 2021. We focus on these review findings as part of our annual salary reviews.

Jobs Academy: Helping women get back to work

We’ve partnered with Future Women’s Jobs Academy program for 2022 to help women who are unemployed, underemployed or looking for a career change. This 12-month pilot aims to leverage connections with partner organisations to identify employment opportunities. As a partner to the program we’ll be presenting open roles with GHD in two webinars, promoting roles on the program’s website and assessing applicants.

Enterprise leadership programs at GHD

52% 103

of participants were female during FY 20/21

Over the 20/21 financial year, 52 percent of all participants in our enterprise leadership programs were female.

Programs include the emerging leader program (24 months), future leader program (nine months), business group leader program (seven weeks), coaching skills for senior leaders (six weeks), leading professional services firms – Harvard Business School (two days), and the global executive leader program (nine months).

Career Relaunch Program

Our Career Relaunch Program encourages and welcomes professionals back into the workforce after an extended career break – most commonly due to parental responsibilities. The 10-week, paid, flexible program was a first for our industry when launched in 2017 – and is now an annual program offered Australia-wide.

+92 90%

Career Relaunch participants since 2017

offered ongoing roles at GHD

→ Read some real Career Relaunch participants stories

Women’s Career Advancement Program (WCAP)

Following a successful pilot in our South Queensland region in 2020, WCAP ran nationally in 2021, and aims to empower and accelerate female talent. 24 women from across GHD nationally participated in the six-month program, which has the ultimate goal of accelerating participants' career advancement in GHD for both individual and enterprise-wide benefits.

The program involved monthly structured learning events, self-directed learning activities, a health check on career progression and the exploration of career aspirations. Each participant was paired with a senior manager they did not have a strong relationship with, to provide the opportunity to expand their network and increase exposure and advocacy at a senior management level.

Cultivate Sponsorship Program

A cohort of seven GHD women participated in our national female sponsorship program with Cultivate in 2021. The seven-month program gives business leaders the tools to build strategic alliances with women and matches future leader participants with sponsors from our leadership teams to break systematic barriers. 2021 was our third year running the program. Find out more about this year’s program here.

“Cultivate gave me the platform to reflect on my leadership aspirations, connect with other women in the business, and further develop my relationship with my sponsor.

The course material and some pretty raw conversations through the program, gave me the impetus to challenge myself and lean into leadership opportunities I might have previously dismissed. It was a key factor in putting myself forward for my current leadership role as Regional General Manager."

Alison Colella Regional General Manager, Northern Australia