Gender equality in the workplace is one of the hottest topics of the past few years. Australian businesses are trying to adapt to the new social climate and make sure their companies are gender inclusive, and women feel welcome and protected. In case you’re wondering what (else) you can do to make your company more gender inclusive, here are a few tips.
Start with your hiring policy
Many companies, some of them quite big, have found themselves in hot waters for not having enough women on their payroll as well as their management team.
You understand the need to hire more women, but this has to start with the way your job vacancy ads are formulated. Make sure the wording is gender inclusive and it is in no way implied that you’re looking to hire men. Equal opportunities for everyone.
Run background check on all employees
According to a 2018 survey published by the Australian Human Rights Commission, “one in three workers in Australia said that they had been sexually harassed at work over the last five years”. Almost 40% of the women surveyed said they had experienced sexual harassment at work. This is no laughing matter.
One of the things you can do is run police checks on all employees. No exceptions, so you won’t hear discrimination complaints. It’s not much of a bother to you since you can use an online character check agency like an Australian national character check, but it means the world to your female employees. When you do a criminal history check you’ll easily see if a potential employee has any sexual harassment, rape, or violence against women convictions. If you want to avoid trouble, don’t hire them.
Have a clear policy concerning sexual harassment
This is something you might want to mention from the first job interview. Sexual harassment, in any form, is not allowed in the company and those found guilty will be severely punished, no matter what position they occupy. This will sound reassuring to women and will send out a clear warning to all male candidates.
Have such a policy in writing and circulate it among all employees. Don’t hesitate to go into details. It’s not only about crude physical passes, sexual harassment also refers to derogatory language or sexist jokes. Let it be known there will be zero tolerance for such cases.
Also, don’t forget to appoint a person from the HR department in charge of hearing any complaints your female employees might have.
Should such a case occur, make sure the culprit is punished so everyone will know you’re dead serious.
Make sure female employees are protected
If your company requires your personnel to change in some sort of uniform, make sure to have separate facilities for men and women.
Locker rooms, showers and toilets should be in different parts of the building or at least see to it that your employees can lock themselves inside so that no one disturbs their privacy.
Also, if your female employees need to work long shifts and leave after dark, make sure the parking lots are well-lit and guarded. If necessary, provide company cars or taxis so you know your employees get home safely.
In order to make your company gender-inclusive, you need to take all the precautions to keep your female employees safe and be very strict regarding sexual harassment in the workplace.