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Organisational change
Wagga Wagga City Council (Council) was both a strategic partner and a workplace ‘site’ for organisational change. The ‘whole-of-organisation’ approach, utilised multiple strategies designed to initiate change at multiple levels within Council from an individual, colleague and management level, and for multiple outcomes. The outcomes included change in staff knowledge and attitudes, formal policy and practices developments, and campaigns to influence culture and behaviour change. The activities undertaken have been essential in creating an equitable and respectful workplace and addressing gender inequality, which is deeply embedded in structural practices and processes across Australian organisations.
Education
An education program was developed to equip Council staff with a deeper understanding of the gendered drivers of violence, and what can be done on an individual and societal level to prevent violence against women. It was designed not only as an education tool, but to prepare staff as ambassadors for change in the wider community, taking the learnings and principles from each module and applying them into their professional and personal lives. The topics include: • Equality vs. equity • Stereotyping and bias • Casual sexism • Respectful relationships • Barriers to empowerment • Active bystander actions • Prevention of violence
The program has been delivered through hard copy fact sheets and online eLearning modules, which integrate into a Learning Management System (LMS) to encourage organisation wide uptake and completion.
Internal awareness campaigns
Campaigns and awareness days related to gender equity and women are used by Council to inspire understanding and engagement in the workplace. By linking back to your organisation’s wider goals and values, awareness days can help promote a culture of inclusion and demonstrate your commitment to a workplace that is inclusive, respectful and supports everyone to reach their full potential. Commit to actively promoting and including 2 – 3 key awareness days and collaborate with other teams within your organisation, like Human Resources to host and run events for all staff. This is an opportunity to link to the education program topics and other resources to support your organisational message and increase staff knowledge and understanding of equity and respect.
Case study
#16daysofactivism
Promote and host an event supporting NSW Women’s Week/International Women’s Day or 16 Days of Activism and consider inviting guest speakers etc.
Events such as Movember can also be linked to gender inequality, as there is stigma associated with men talking about their mental health and showing their emotions. This concept is deeply rooted around gender stereotypes and societal expectations placed on men, often leading to toxic masculinity, where it is important to emphasise outlets for support and resources to aid these conversations.
Workplace equity survey
Council implemented an annual workplace equity survey to benchmark and observe changes in attitudes, behaviours, and engagement of staff to identify areas and gaps within the project delivery methods and where communication could improve. The focus areas of the survey include:
By conducting an annual equity survey your organisation can gather valuable feedback from staff about their workplace experiences and create an action plan, as part of a wider workplace strategy that will address specific focus areas.
• Workplace culture • Parenting and caring responsibilities • Flexible working arrangements • Gender-driven problems at council • Participation in equity and respect activities • Recommended prevention initiatives • Individual observations and comments
Workplace equity survey response, Wagga Wagga City Council
Policy review and development
As part of Council’s commitment to organisational change, two guides were developed to promote gender equality and the importance of gender-neutral language in new and existing policies. The policy review guide aims to assist policy owners apply a gender lens when reviewing or developing corporate policies and procedures. Covering three key areas, the guide provides examples and information on how to create an inclusive, easily accessible, and easy to interpret policy for all. Given the key role of language in shaping cultural and social attitudes, a gender inclusive language guide was developed to support the policy review guide and promote gender equality in documentation. These guidelines are provided to eliminate discriminatory language and create a positive climate of inclusive interactions and relationships at Council.
Organisational training and development
External training providers were engaged throughout the project to complement Council’s work in promoting and normalising gender equality. Training was offered to both indoor and outdoor staff, to engage the whole workforce and create a culture within Council that promotes respectful relationships, communication and how to be an active bystander.
Council staff participating in NRL’s Voice Against Violence workshop.
Human Resources practices
Gender-balanced recruitment, selection and advertisements play a key role in workplace gender equality and inclusion. Kat Matfield developed the Gender Decoder to analyse whether job advertisements are male or female biased or gender coded. The online tool was inspired by research¹, which included different kinds of gender-coded language to men and women and recorded how appealing the jobs seemed and how much the participants felt that they ‘belonged’ in that occupation.
Evidence that gendered wording in job advertisements exists and sustains gender inequality, 2011
Words such as competitive, dominant or leader are associated with male stereotypes, while words such as support, understand and interpersonal are associated with female stereotypes. The People & Culture team within Council use this tool to assist them in ensuring the language used in job advertisements is gender-neutral, inclusive and will not have a discouraging effect on applicants, therefore increasing the applicant pool.
Wondering why mostly men (or mostly women) are applying for your organisation’s open positions? Look at the language in your job listings. Chances are the wording is gender-coded towards one gender discouraging them from applying.
Access the Gender decoder tool at:
www.gender-decoder.katmatfield.com
1 Evidence that gendered wording in job advertisements exists and sustains gender inequality. Gaucher D., Friesen J., Kay A. C. (2011).
The experience of domestic violence can severely impact on an employee; affecting their productivity and attendance and raising risks of safety for the employee and others in the workplace. At Council the Local Government State Award (2020) provides up to 10 days paid leave to deal with the effects of domestic violence and is designed to assist employees undertake actions such as relocating, attending court, looking after children, or seeking medical care. Domestic and family violence (DFV) leave was added as a new leave type in Council’s payroll and recruitment system, to provide a consistent and positive approach to responding to disclosures and providing an organisational response to support staff experiencing DFV. Leave operating procedures were also redrafted to reflect changes to the LG State Award and outline the DFV leave application process and form part of the workplace response to staff disclosures.
The benefits of employment for victims of domestic violence is an important means of financial security and independence. Having a job can be a crucial factor enabling victims to leave DFV situation.
Consider the following as part of your organisational response to DFV in the workplace by:
• Committing to provide support for staff who experience family and domestic violence. Raising awareness about DFV and its impact at work. • Creating a supportive environment where it is demonstrated that work is a safe place to request support if DFV is occurring. • Being alert to the possible warning signs of DFV when it is impacting at work (consider free
DV-alert training offered by Lifeline https://www.dvalert.org.au). • Understanding that DFV may impact on performance and attendance at work and communicating to employees that their job is safe while making reasonable adjustments to support them. • Implementing paid DFV leave as an entitlement to support time away from work for employees to address DFV issues such as attending court, medical or legal appointments or to seek safer accommodation. • Assess the risks to your workplace and consider developing a workplace safety plan with specific measures to minimise the risk that employees will be subject to violent or abusive behaviour at work (you can find more information in the supporting documents accompanying this toolkit).
Employers may also face situations where perpetrators of DFV are identified in the workplace and you can find more information at Our Watch resources including “Workplace response to perpetrators of violence against women”.2 Our Watch resources include examples, advice and templates to support your workplace to respond appropriately to violence against women and sexual harassment.
2 Our Watch https://workplace.ourwatch.org.au/tools-and-resources/workplace-response-to-violence-and-harassment/
