Enhancing the skills and abilities of people not only has the potential to add value to the organisation but it also builds employee confidence and engagement. Committed and involved employees give organisations their competitive edge.

• How you could analyse your workplace to identify any training and development issues for women.

• Suggested actions you could take to address the training and development issues for women you have identified.

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

• consult with your employees. Identify not only their training needs but also preferences in delivery methods, timing and location of training sessions. This is particularly important for older workers or employees with caring responsibilities.

• examine your existing training and development policies and practices. Different organisations have different opportunities, depending upon their business needs. However, some examples are:

  -         Formal courses (held internally and externally) -         Critical task force involvement -         Mentoring schemes -         Peer support programs -         Graduate development programmes -         Leadership development -         Job rotation and multi-skilling -         Job-sharing as a method of knowledge transfer -         Secondments -         Development assignments -         Shadowing assignments -         Temporary transfers and acting roles -         Multi-disciplinary teams -         Internships

Are decisions made about who attends training transparent and gender and age-neutral' Would decision-making processes withstand the rigour of a review by an independent third party'

Are you using skills audits to identify existing skills of employees that could be tapped for professional development and organisational benefit' (eg. language skills/cultural experiences of women of diverse backgrounds')

Is training offered on the basis of identified training needs, for example, through performance appraisals, training needs analyses, etc'

Is there a culture where learning is seen as ongoing and part of everyone’s job'

Do your role descriptions focus on skills needed to perform the role rather than on years of experience'

Are the percentages of female, male, pregnant and temporary employees who receive training representative of their employment in your workplace'

Are similar resources invested in developing your female staff compared with your male staff, in a given organisational area, level or age group'

Are percentages of female and male employees who are studying externally comparable'

Are the courses being undertaken by women in traditionally female-dominated or ‘soft skill’ areas only' Are women equally represented in business, professional skills, finance and management disciplines'

Are you certain that all women within your organisation understand that they can apply for learning and development opportunities' Is there the belief that they will not get accepted because of their status, gender or age causing them not to apply'

Do both women and men get high-risk, high-visibility development assignments'

Are people able to access a range of training opportunities for example, technical and management training, regardless of their gender, age, work status or family or other responsibilities'

Do less than full-time staff or those working flexibly get trained equitably compared with their full-time peers'

Do women with caring responsibilities have the same access to training and development as their female and male colleagues without caring responsibilities'

Are your take-up rates for female employees and their male colleagues similar for all types of training and development, including leadership and supervisory programs and in traditionally male-dominated areas'

Is there a consistent, formal approach to offering training and development across the organisation'

Are training and development opportunities allocated to staff objectively (eg. on the basis of their duties, skill development needs, career interests, etc)'

Is training held at a time when employees with family or other responsibilities (for example, related to community responsibilities or religious practice) will easily be able to attend'

Is training offered on alternate dates and times to allow those working less than full-time hours to attend'

If your organisation has a High Potential Employee programme are percentages of male and female participants comparable'

Is training delivered in appropriate formats to take account of different learning styles, e.g. regarding language or age'

• 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 general policy on how training and development opportunities are provided.

• The policy could also include an organisational commitment to training about workplace diversity issues (such as valuing employee differences, managing diversity and work/life balance).

• The policy should take into account workforce planning and organisational strategy, and be formulated with an awareness that the organisation will need to access women’s skills increasingly in a shrinking labour market.

• Develop a quality, consistent process for providing training and development opportunities (eg. linked to performance appraisals or skills audit etc).

• Ensure that training and learning programs are delivered in a variety of ways to take into account different learning styles, eg. older or linguistically diverse workers.

• Monitor both female and male employees’ access to training and development opportunities to identify inequities which may be experienced by particular groups of women, for example, women with language difficulties and disabilities, or mature-aged women.

• Ensure that the training policy gives recognition to prior experience and learning outside the organisation, and beyond previous job performance or formal (ie. academic or trade) qualifications.

• Ensure that managers who make decisions regarding access to training and development opportunities are well versed in the policy and understand the process for providing equitable training and development opportunities.

• Review the emphasis you place on different courses (for example, people management, core technical and business skills training) for both your female and male employees.

• Ensure that the training policy provides training which can enable all employees to access possible development and promotional opportunities.

• Identify the jobs women and men choose not to do and investigate why these choices are being made (eg. sales jobs with bonus schemes which encourage staff to poach customers from each other, inappropriate entertaining venues being used for customers, a perceived amount of unnecessary travel, etc).

• Survey employees about the equity of training and development opportunities.

• Identify who is and is not taking up training and development opportunities. Make sure that access to opportunities is not impeded by unintentional barriers, such as limited English language skills preventing an employee from upgrading other skills, or the supposition that staff working less than full-time are unable to attend training, or that if you work part-time, you will not be offered learning and development opportunities .

• Require that all staff have a career discussion with their manager or supervisor that includes an annual training and development plan.

• Ensure that training needs are an integral component of performance reviews.

• Train your managers to effectively and objectively use the performance and development process for both women and men (eg. how to give positive and negative performance feedback to female and male staff).

• Encourage managers to discuss training and development interests and opportunities for the future with both female and male employees.

• Hold managers accountable for implementing the development plan by including it in their workplace and/or performance agreement.

• Challenge management assumptions about why women are not provided with the same access to training and development as their male peers.

• Provide employees with access to different modes of training (eg. on-the-job, rotation, coaching, and distance education).

• Encourage staff to participate in learning experiences that build diverse skills and broaden career options.

• Provide managers and employees with diversity training, covering diversity awareness and diversity management issues such as teamwork, conflict resolution and interpersonal skills.

• Ensure that this training highlights the value that recognition of diversity can bring to the organisation.

• Provide training when both your female and male employees can access it, for example, during normal work hours.

• Consider paying for or subsidising dependant care costs, if staff have responsibilities that prevent them from attending training held outside normal work hours.

• Hold training courses on days when employees who work flexibly can be available for training. 

• Consider different ways of providing training for example, distance or online programs that do not require staff to be at work to complete.

• Encourage managers to coach talented female and male employees in their group.

• Shift behaviours and attitudes by encouraging senior women as well as senior men to mentor and coach female and male employees.

• Use a tracking system to identify talented female and male employees and assist them to gain a broad range of experience that will help their career advancement.

• Ensure that both female and male employees get on-the-job experience in functional and line management positions.

• Encourage women and men to consider a wide range of career options within the organisation, such as in non-traditional areas.

• Provide both female and male high potential staff with training and development experiences that will assist them, where appropriate, to fast-track their career.

• Ensure that you do not, deliberately or otherwise, support an ‘up or out’ policy. Also ensure that your programs acknowledge that some people may not be wanting to advance through the organisational structure at certain times, and may prefer to plateau for a while instead. Spread the message that this preference does not in any way affect those employees’ performance in his or her current role, nor the contribution they make to the organisation.  

• Provide internal and/or external career development training.

• Tailor additional training to address any skill gaps identified in skills audits.

• Allow all staff a particular allocation of training of their choice.

• Support both female and male staff wishing to take on formal study, for example, paid study leave or financial assistance.

• Make managers accountable for developing both female and male staff through their performance appraisal or bonus system.

• Ask senior managers to act as mentors to both female and male employees. Consider the benefits of having mentors from different backgrounds available to provide mentoring support.

• Put mechanisms in place to hold managers accountable for supporting employees when they are placed in a new assignment (eg. regular feedback sessions and personal development plans).

• Ask senior women to act as role models to encourage women to continue to train and develop. Again, consider the benefits of being able to provide role models that correspond to women’s diversity.

• Support attendance at women’s network functions, or set up your own women’s network where female staff can hear from, meet and be inspired by a range of other women.

• Check that you are investing in both female and male staff of all ages to improve their effectiveness in their current job and enhance their future development.

• Conduct skills audits to identify existing skills of employees that could be further developed for professional and organisational benefits (eg. recognise and develop second language skills of women employees who do not speak English as a first language).

• Review requirements for formal qualifications. Ensure that these and/or other credentials are not an unnecessary barrier to further training and advancement. Consider qualifications acquired overseas where relevant.

• Recognise prior learning, including existing skills and informal education.  

• Review your processes to ensure they are inclusive of women’s life experiences and skills as well as men’s.

• Advertise training opportunities widely, not just within those areas judged to be immediately relevant.

• Provide training for managers and supervisors on work/life issues (eg. needs of part-time and shift workers, and flexible work considerations).

• Use training forums to ‘mainstream’ EEO issues (eg. cover ‘valuing and managing difference’ and ‘harassment-free workplaces’ in induction training and ongoing management or leadership training modules).

• Communicate company commitment to valuing and managing differences through induction training, and by providing diversity training for managers and employees at all levels of the organisation.

• Encourage managers to discuss training and development opportunities and interests when providing feedback or conducting performance appraisals.

• Publicise your training and development policy and procedures widely within the organisation. Consider making them available in other languages for employees who have difficulty with English language fluency.

• Ensure that both female and male employees, and employees on short-term and long-term leave have access to information on training and development policy and procedures. Educate managers on how to allocate training and development opportunities effectively and in a non-discriminatory way.

• 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 training and development.

• 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, engineers, corporate lawyers, banking.

• Problems retaining female employees.

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

Is information about training available and accessible'

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

Are trainers and training materials non-sexist'

Have you identified the training needs of all staff'

Have you trained all employees on the nature and purpose of an equal opportunity program' Are employees supportive of this program'

Have you introduced cross-skilling and job rotation'

Do you encourage women to do in-house training'

Do you encourage women to attend management courses'

Do you encourage and support women attending professional development training'

Are all managers trained in issues of diversity, EEO and gender' Do they encourage women to participate in learning and development'

Do you have a mentoring scheme for women'

Do women access training in a proportion that is reflective of the total number of women employed'

Would it be useful for women staff to attend training on identifying and valuing their skills'

Are there particular female-dominated occupations that have less access to training' If so, can anything be done to rectify this'

Do you have funding allocated for training'

Do women of all ages attend and receive training'

Do you have a process in place to provide recognition of the skills of older workers as they may not have formal qualifications but have on the job experience'

• Conduct a review of all training and development systems to ensure that there is no bias or unfairness that inhibits the training and development of women in the workplace.

• Work with team leaders and managers to identify specific training and development needs within the local work groups and assist them to overcome the blockages to training and developing team members.

• Link the training and development of men and women to the overall goals of the business and the success of local teams.

• Develop and implement a training process that is linked to performance and the needs of the individual, their job and the business.

• Re-visit current policies to ensure that they reflect current training practices such as online training, project based on-the-job training etc.

• Provide development opportunities for top performers including work experience in the corporate office, executive team meetings and meetings with CEO.

• Hold managers and team leaders accountable for the training and development of all staff within their work group. As part of the appraisal process, ensure that they are able to demonstrate how they have supported and encouraged staff to access the appropriate training to meet their needs.

• Each year, ensure that the training and career development of “high potential” staff are reviewed by the management team.

• Organise mentoring and/or coaching of high potential staff by executives.

• Conduct 360⁰ leadership assessments at all levels of management.

• Select high achievers to manage projects.