Improved parental leave, extended wellbeing benefits, new policies around menopause and domestic violence, as well as more flexible days for employees. These were the DEI trends we predicted for 2021. Were we right? Were we wrong? Were we surprised by something totally new? Let’s see as we delve into all the improvements our Endorsed Employers have made to their benefits and policies over the last year.
We’re thrilled to say there’s quite an extensive list below. But we noticed they all fell under these eight trends:
- Flexible Working
- Pay Equity
- Strategic Commitments
- Employee Voice & ERGs
- Shared Caring Responsibilities
- Career Development
- Internal Culture & Values
- Employee Support Services
Flexible Working
In response to the workplace needs that have emerged in the past year, flexibility is now part of the conversation not only for parents but for any employee. Just being ‘open to conversations around flexible working’ is no longer enough — employers are now leading the conversation.
Progressive employers like CityFibre and BNY Mellon have either updated or increased the number of flexible working options made available. Compressed working weeks, job sharing, and flexible hours are now all on offer to their employees, along with more opportunities for part-time work and remote working. J.P. Morgan was another stellar example of improving flexible working models. They started a new partnership with Roleshare to extend their ability to provide jobshare opportunities, matching candidates for roles of 19hrs/less.
For employers like NFP Corp., Transgrid, DSTL, and Ocado Technology the pandemic has been proof that almost all roles can be adapted to some form of work-from-home model and have introduced new hybrid working models to help support their employees welfare as they return to work post-pandemic. Wannon Water have also been thinking about how working from home models can assist those employees with children, and now offer a light supervision work from home option during school holidays, allowing their staff to save their annual leave.
One of the other predictions we made for this year was the implementation of additional flexible days off, and it seems we were right.
Rheinmetall introduced Loyalty Leave: for every year of service with Rheinmetall employees accrue one additional day of paid annual leave. Based on feedback from their employees Exa Product Development enacted a 40-hour workweek, enabling them to close their office on the last Friday of every month! They call this disruption-free day “Investment Day”, and their team members are encouraged to spend time with loved ones, go out of town, or catch up on their favourite Netflix show!
Iress started their own Long Weekend Initiative offering six additional paid days per year for every employee to use on a Friday or Monday to extend the weekend. Global Vision Media introduced paid volunteering days. Knight Frank Australia now gives their employees a paid day off on their birthday, and Sofology also gives its people extra days of annual leave to really celebrate big occasions such as weddings, milestone birthdays, or bringing a new pet home.
Pay Equity
If you were to take one of those additional annual leave days that were mentioned above, or perhaps even fall ill and need time away from work to recover, superannuation (401k) will continue to be paid into your nominated account. But if you welcome a child into your family and want to make use of parental leave arrangements, either government or employer funded, you are not guaranteed to be paid additional contributions to your retirement account over this time.
In combination with the current gender pay gap, and the fact that mothers usually return to work part-time after having children, this is one of the big factors contributing to women retiring with far less superannuation (401k) savings than men (despite living on average 5 years longer than them).
Some employers have been on the front foot and already provide superannuation (401k) on employer paid parental leave (PPL) and in some circumstances even continue to contribute to superannuation (401k) during the unpaid portions of parental leave:
- Knight Frank Australia now pays superannuation (401k) on top of paid parental leave for primary and secondary carers.
- EY now pay superannuation (401k) on the unpaid portion of parental leave.
- Lion now pay superannuation (401k) for up to 18 weeks of parental leave (originally only funded for 12 weeks).
- Toyota now pay superannuation (401k) on the unpaid portion of parental leave.
- Thoughtworks superannuation (401k) is paid for both paid and unpaid leave for a total period of up to 12 months.
- OZ Minerals now pay superannuation (401k) on the unpaid portion of parental leave.
Strategic Commitments
Formalizing an organization’s ambition to build and maintain a diverse, equitable and inclusive organization through strategic commitments can be one of the most important drivers of positive change.
EY is an organization that understands this, and in 2021 they delivered their first EY Oceania Value Realised Scorecard. The report covered gender equality targets and pay parity and their annual progress against them. They recognize that these data points are important to measure their impact and progress, as well as to understand gaps against their objectives, and find ways to continuously improve.
This last year Great Southern Bank also launched their first Reconciliation Action Plan. This is an important milestone in any organization’s roadmap, and will help them build the foundations for relationships, respect and opportunities with First Nations peoples both within and outside their organization.
Ultimately, organizational change needs to be led from the top. That’s why employers like Systra Scott Lister spent 2021 implementing women in leadership targets, while F5 introduced a D&I Dashboard for all leaders to access. The goal for F5 is to keep diversity front of mind for their leadership and strengthen their commitment and accountability for their Allyship program.
Employee Voice & ERGs
From promoting fair practices to providing free career courses, Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) help employees thrive. ERGs are voluntary, employee-led groups that foster a diverse, inclusive workplace and are important because of their shared purpose of bringing employees together. Our employers have spent 2021 growing their existing groups, founding new networks, and finding new ways to ensure that a wide range of employee voices are listened to, learned from, and used to make lasting change.
For Rheinmetall 2021 marked the founding of the Women@Rheinmetall global group with their first annual conference held in December 2021. The Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) Committee with members from across all departments was also founded with many more initiatives in discussion to be launched soon.
EY already had a range of employee networks including Unity, Ability and the Gender Inclusion Network which all help to build a sense of belonging, enhance personal development, and a shared vision amongst EY people. But this year they also launched an autism employment program in partnership with the University of Sydney’s Brain and Mind Centre and ran their first EY Neurodiversity November campaign to raise awareness of inclusiveness and belonging through everyday conversations. They also launched She Starts Out, a dedicated program that seeks to support LGBTQ women and non-binary social impact entrepreneurs accelerate and grow through a series of tailored EY clinics and business mentoring.
And across the board we saw a huge increase in the number of weeks added to leave entitlements. In fact, a whopping 173 weeks of extra parental leave in total were added across our global list of Endorsed Employers.
- NetApp: Increased parental leave from 8.5 to 16 weeks.
- CityFibre: Introduced shared parental pay, 26 weeks full pay which can be split across the parents.
- BNY Mellon: Introduced shared Parental pay of 26 weeks.
- Lavazza: Increased from 10 to 14 weeks (PPL). Increased Secondary PPL from 2 to 3 weeks.
- Megaport: Established 12 weeks paid parental leave for any new parent.
- CS Energy: Increased available secondary carer leave from 1 to 6 weeks.
- Lion: Lion removed the primary and secondary care designator and provide 12 weeks parental leave.
- Altis Consulting: Have introduced 16 hrs pre-natal leave in addition to sick leave to allow both primary and secondary carers to attend pre-natal appointments.
- OZ Minerals: Reduced parental leave tenure waiting period from 12 months to 6 months and increased parental leave for secondary carers from 1 to 4 weeks.
- Marsh Australia: Increased primary carers leave from 8 weeks to 12 weeks.
- Toyota: Increased secondary carer leave from 2 to 4 weeks leave.
- Australian Super: Increased secondary carer leave from 4 weeks to 14 weeks.
- CIMIC Group: Increased paid leave for partners from 1 week to 2 weeks.
- Knight Frank Australia: Increased primary parental leave from 12 to 14 weeks.
- Transurban: Increased paid parental leave to 16-weeks full-time paid leave and up to 36-weeks unpaid leave.
- Canva: Increased primary parental leave from 16 to 18 weeks and matched the 18 weeks for secondary carers too. They also removed minimum waiting periods to access the leave.
And a special shout out to Cummins, who not only introduced gender neutral leave, and offer employees who are adopting or undertaking surrogacy four weeks of leave, but also introduced a generous paid parental leave package for those in Papua New Guinea. The initiative really illustrates how much they care about the inclusivity and wellness of all their people, regardless of where they are based, since there are no legally required paid parental leave entitlements in Papua New Guinea.
Career Development
To address the current underrepresentation of women in leadership and in industries, such as science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine (STEMM), companies need to nurture and retain the women within their organizations through career development support that builds confidence, skills, networks and direction.
Whether it comes in the form of coaching and mentoring programs, education and training opportunities, return to work initiatives, or formalized growth and succession planning, this is an area that women from all backgrounds tell us they are seeking from employers.
And this is a call BAE Systems answered. The year also saw them enrol a number of emerging women leaders in the Rise Program run by Gillian Fox. Inclusive leadership was written into their leadership development programs and men and women alike, enjoyed events and forum that celebrated the role of women at BAE Systems. They were also the first Australian organization to partner with STEM Returners, helping them hire a number of talented female engineers who had been out of the workforce for some time.
Return to work programs and initiatives were also implemented by BNY Mellon, OZ Minerals and Canva.
EY were also busy this year in this area. They deployed the Inclusive Leadership Program. This program is intended to build inclusive capabilities and eliminate bias across the employee lifecycle including inclusive hiring and promotion practices. Engage with EY, a development and networking program for women candidates with over five years of professional experience interested in building a career with EY was also launched. They partnered with Talent Beyond Boundaries and Career Seekers to support career pathways for refugees, and launched She Starts Out, a dedicated program that seeks to support LGBTQ women and non-binary social impact entrepreneurs accelerate and grow through a series of tailored EY clinics and business mentoring.
Internal Culture & Values
We encourage and celebrate employers who proactively work to build inclusive cultures in which a wide range of people can come together and thrive. This involves removing any social, physical, or mental barriers that may prevent individuals from feeling safe, comfortable, confident, or able to fully contribute in the workplace.
Companies like BHP, LV=GI and Thoughtworks, released gender affirmation or transitioning at work policies which will support their people by offering things like paid leave for employees during their transition, additional EAP support, and a one-off clothing allowances. While Telegraph Media Group (TMG) introduced several new policies, one of which was a Transgender & Non-Binary policy. The policy will equip managers and trans employees at TMG with practical information on the support available and create an inclusive culture where trans staff are able to thrive and feel well supported during any process of transition.
Telegraph Media Group also released another new policy around Reasonable Adjustments, aiming to support all colleagues who require workplace adjustments and help inform colleagues and managers to better understand how they can support those with disabilities.
Meanwhile Phillip Morris International launched a more general one-year initiative to strengthen commitment to equality. It explores best practices and established thought leadership to advance the discourse surrounding inclusivity in business and society.
Transurban continued to celebrate/acknowledge days of recognition that are important to thier people including International Women’s Day, National Reconciliation Week and NAIDOC week and Wear It Purple Day/Pride Month to name a few. They saw a high level of engagement in a number of key events like LGBTQ+ Awareness and TU Talk: Uluru Statement of the Heart.
Employee Support Services
From domestic violence to ageism and ableism, women and underrepresented groups often face a multitude of workplace barriers. We encourage employers to recognize the role they must play in the systemic removal of such barriers while offering robust (often external) support for those impacted.
Our Endorsed employers are increasingly putting the safety and wellbeing of their employees at the forefront. Many have formalized these efforts this year in ways like CityFibre, Qualcomm, BNY Mellon, Spirit Energy and Telegraph Media Group who implemented policies and support around menopause. Telegraph Media Group, Vaultex and J.P. Morgan also implemented policies and resources around Domestic Abuse. EY recently also updated their Workplace Behaviour Policy, which specifically addresses gender-based violence. It strengthens their commitment to eliminate sexual harassment in the workplace.
Employee Assistance Programs (EAP) also saw a rise this year with mental wellbeing continuing to be a strategic focus for many organizations.
Vaultex started VaulteXtra – their EAP Wellbeing Centre with online tools to support physical, mental, financial and nutritional wellbeing. And Megaport offer six free and confidential counselling sessions after early loss bereavement leave and stillbirth parental leave per year under their employee assistance program. Not only is this service available for Megaport’s employee’s, but their immediate families too.
A comprehensive Mental Health and Wellbeing Program through their EAP provider is now also on offer for Rheinmetall employees. Offering additional programs including crisis support, nutrition guidance, coaches, legal services and a management support program for our leaders for extra guidance both personally and professionally.
Other notable trendsetters in this area were Toyota who offer zero interest employee loans for those in need, and Exa Product Development who updated their personal leave policies to expressly state that mental health-related time off is covered under “sick leave”. Now, mental health days are encouraged within their team culture AND their policies.
Is your workplace ready to join the conversation and help raise organizational standards for all women?
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*by women, we mean all who identify and/or experience oppression as a woman (including cis, trans, intersex, non-binary or gender non-conforming individuals).