Developing the skills and talents of women within your workplace has a positive impact on your organisation’s ability to recruit and retain talented women in an environment that is highly competitive.

• How you could analyse your workplace to identify any promotion, transfer and termination issues for women.

• Suggested actions you could take to address the promotion, transfer and termination issues for women you have identified.

• How issues regarding the training and promotion of existing employees are integral to workforce planning and future organisational goals and strategies.

• revisit your workforce profile to find where your female employees are.

• consult with your employees.

• examine your existing promotion, transfer or termination of employment policies and practices.

• integrate policies in this area with workforce planning and overall organisational strategies.

In your organisation, are women promoted in the same proportion as their male colleagues'

Are women promoted beyond certain critical job grades at a similar rate to men'

Are women transferred horizontally across your organisation at a similar rate to men'

Are women provided with opportunities for decision-making at a similar rate to men'

Are women who work less than full-time hours being promoted'

If these rates differ between female and male employees, why is this so'

For example, are women being provided with training and development opportunities that will assist them to improve their performance and develop skills required'

How have you identified female employees who are and are not interested in career opportunities, including promotion'

Are women working less than full-time hours included in high potential employee and leadership programmes,  and provided with access to learning and development opportunities which will allow them to gain the skills needed to be promoted'

Is your promotion process transparent and does it deliver promotions for both your best female and male employees'

Have skills audits been conducted across all levels and all departments of your organisation'

If so, have high potential female and male employees interested in promotion opportunities been identified'

And have you examined the findings to see whether ‘women’s’ jobs and skills are valued as highly as ‘men’s’'

Are both female and male employees able to access career paths, incremental advancement, increased responsibilities or development opportunities (for example, high-profile projects)'       

Would your promotion processes and decisions withstand the rigour of a review by an independent third party'

Are women applying for, and gaining places on, leadership and other skills development programs at a rate similar to men' 

Are leadership development programs available for both women and men' 

Are women working less than full-time hours provided with leadership opportunities'

Does your organisation have women represented at senior levels and across all functional elements' Are they encouraged to mentor more junior women'

Is there mobility between different departments and sections within your organisation'

Are female and male employees gaining both functional and line experience early in their careers'

Can women and men transfer to roles in non-traditional areas to get a broad range of experience'

Do you regularly review statistics on the number of female and male promotions, termination and transfers'

• Not all of these actions may be relevant to your organisation. You will need to decide whether you choose to do all, some, or none of the suggested actions and whether you wish to tailor suggested actions to suit the needs of your workplace.

•  If your workplace analysis demonstrates your organisation has no issues for women in this employment matter, you would not need to take any actions.

• Put in place a policy requiring promotion based on performance and merit.

• Develop a quality, consistent process for promotion.

• Implement a quality, consistent process for providing transfer opportunities.

• Implement non-discriminatory termination policies and procedures.

• Supplement these steps with an organisational commitment to valuing diversity.

• Monitor and compare the promotion and transfer rates of female employees and their male colleagues.

• Identify promotion blockages where women find it very difficult to advance (for example, to supervisor level on the factory floor, or to partnerships in law firms).

• Encourage an organisational culture that accommodates differences in employee needs and workplace practices. For example, challenge the culture of long working hours that disadvantages employees with a different working style.

• Encourage all employees to recognise the value of balancing family and life commitments with work.

• Review job descriptions to ensure all skills relevant to the position are properly recognised and rewarded.

• Ensure that “communication and people management skills” are formally recognised, and that job descriptions are based on job analysis. Ensure job descriptions are regularly reviewed.

• Ensure that both female and male employees are recognised when roles and responsibilities expand and positions are reclassified as more senior.

• Monitor career paths to ensure both female and male employees’ changing responsibilities and roles are recognised and rewarded (for example, through expanded job title and accompanying remuneration changes).

• Be aware of changes in attitudes to work where employees often value recognition and relationships and the chance to expand skills as well as formal titles and remuneration.

• Conduct skills audits across your organisation to ensure that the skills of women and men are valued equally – including skills of employees from different cultural backgrounds.

• Monitor attrition rates for both women and men. If rates differ, you could:

  -         conduct confidential exit interviews – this is often more effective with an            independent third party. -         analyse the data trends and share them with your senior management            team. -         survey employees to understand the different experiences of those staying and            those leaving.

• Ensure performance standards are transparent and equitable, and that outcomes for women and men are comparable.

• Ensure that performance reviews are formalised and regular, and that Human Resource staff and managers from outside particular work areas are involved in performance reviews.

• Survey employees about the equity of promotion, transfer and termination procedures.

• Provide both female and male employees with opportunities to ‘grow’ into newly created, more senior positions. Make sure that different work styles are not impediments to employees accessing opportunities.

• Consider filling temporary or fixed term vacancies at a higher level on rotation between promising staff (ie. for 3 months each for a 12-month vacancy).

• Provide both female and male employees of all ages with high profile development assignments and projects.

• Conduct skills audits across your organisation to identify high potential female and male employees who are interested in promotion opportunities. Ensure that this is not age-biased towards younger workers.

• Ensure that employees on extended leave, such as parental leave, are included in and advised of development and promotional opportunities.

• Recognise the value of life experience as well as formal training and qualifications.

• Put in place a process to identify talented female and male employees early in their careers and place them in key development roles. For example, you could develop female and male employee talent and improve promotion opportunities through:

  -         new project teams. -         a broad range of rotations in functional and line management roles. -         preparing staff for rotation into line management positions by giving them            the opportunity to gain hands-on experience first (for example, by working            for several months attached to the line area before taking on a line            position). -         providing access to successful female and male employees within and            outside of your organisation as mentors.

• Include both female and male employees in these key development roles.

• When implementing leadership development programs, ensure that the programs:

  -        are inclusive of the needs of female employees, including women of
            different backgrounds.

  -        provide relevant experience.

  -        provide role models that build confidence and lead to new and challenging
           assignments.
  -        are available during timeframes that suit those working less than full-time
           hours.

• Provide leadership coaching to female employees to assist them to succeed in ‘pioneering’ roles.

• Consider employing the services of outside facilitators or coaches, perhaps from a non-traditional background.

• Develop a mentoring program.

• Recognise the value of senior women mentoring junior women and men.

• Develop alternative communication networks that enable both women and men to access information available through key informal networks (for example, the ‘old boys’’ network).

• Ensure that relevant information regarding opportunities is always made available formally (ie. via email or notice).

• Encourage senior management to challenge inappropriate assumptions made by line managers about female employees (for example, the ‘job was done differently’ rather than ‘the outcome was achieved’, ‘those working part-time are not committed to the organisation or their careers’, or ‘those with families will not be willing to travel’).

• Secure senior management support for EEO and diversity development and promotion initiatives by making them accountable through performance goals and incentives.

• Assist female and male employees to develop new skills and improve business employability, so they can adapt to changes in business objectives rather than take voluntary redundancy or termination. This is particularly important for older workers.

• Ensure that access to appropriate services and financial information (for example, redeployment or voluntary redundancy) is available to and accessed by both women and men.

• Ensure that managers are aware of the laws regarding unlawful termination on discriminatory grounds.

• Formalise termination procedures.

• Ensure that employees whose work performance is poor are counselled and given a chance to respond and improve. Take into account life circumstances which may impact on work performance.

• Ensure that termination is not discriminatory (eg. ensure that women employees with caring responsibilities are not terminated because they are not able to travel on business or to work weekends.

• Advertise jobs or calls for expressions of interest in promotion or transfer opportunities as widely as possible across your organisation.

• Publicise your promotion policy widely across the organisation.

• Ensure both female and male employees, and employees on short and long-term leave have access to the information on promotion, transfer and termination policies and procedures.

• Ensure older workers are encouraged to apply for and participate in promotions, transfers and learning and development opportunities.

• Train managers on promotion, EEO and diversity, and transfer and termination policies and procedures.

• Hold managers accountable for developing female and male employees by including this requirement in managers’ workplace and performance agreements.

• Encourage managers to lead by example with respect to providing equal opportunity in promotion, transfer and termination.

• A lack of applications from female employees.

• A low proportion of women in management.

• A low proportion of women in non-traditional occupational categories eg. trades, labouring, plant and machinery operators, engineering, corporate law, banking.

• Problems retaining female employees.

• Low-level representation of women at graduate level or in training program intakes despite larger numbers of female graduates and applicants.

Are all staff given access to career development training'

Are women and men assessed on the same competencies'

Is length of service a criteria for promotion'

Have you introduced cross-skilling and job rotation'

Have you identified a gap in skills and/or experience of women wanting to progress into management'

Are mature women promoted'

Do you encourage women to attend management courses'

Do you provide paid study leave' Is that available to all age demographic groups equally'

Do you have a mentoring scheme for women'

Can you implement a ‘women in management network’'

Do you offer paid parental leave'

• Introduce a formal corporate Succession Planning process with plans in place for each budget centre. Ensure that the plans are inclusive of all employees and are reviewed on a regular basis.

• Require managers to identify talented women and minority groups, and to track their progress.

• Conduct a census within the organisation to identify current opportunities and challenges to the promotion, transfer and termination of women within your workplace.

• Set monthly targets for Managers to ensure effective management of career planning and development.

• Encourage and support making opportunities for “acting up” in absence of manager available.

• Develop your strategy for action and link this with the goals, values and strategies of the business.

• Recruit the support of champions for change within the organisation.

• Establish a Diversity Council who will support and promote all aspects of Diversity, including issues of promotion and transfer of women of all ages within the organisation.

• Promote your activities to support women in the workplace ie. flexible work options, paid parental leave.

• Educate and inform all managers and others who are involved in the promotion, transfer and termination process.

• Promote and advertise what is working well, using case studies and examples of women in non-traditional roles.

• Establish a mentoring program that is inclusive of women and men, ensuring that the needs of mature-aged employees are recognised and integrated into this process.

• Ensure that all new female executives are provided with coaching and/or mentoring to assist with their transition.

• With regard to ongoing education consider providing:

  -         Study assistance and scholarships -         Virtual university courses -         National secondment opportunites -         Planning for Promotion workshops