Reviewing Current Conditions of Service
Reviewing Remuneration, Allowances and Benefits
Communicating Conditions of Service

Reviewing Current Conditions of Service

• Investigate the effectiveness of existing conditions of service (eg through survey, focus groups, exit interviews, reviewing usage rates etc). You could, for example, look at whether:
  • Both female and male employees are aware of conditions of service.
  • Both female and male employees believe conditions of service are applied equitably and accessible. For example, do existing policies accommodate different definitions/types of families? Are company benefits extended to same-sex relationships? 
  • Employees have suggestions for cost-effective conditions of service, which may assist the organisation address equal opportunity issues for women.
• Consider introducing or revising conditions of service to enable female and male employees to balance work and family or other cultural commitments.
  • Some examples could include part-time work, home-based work, flexible working hours, telecommuting, access to a telephone for employees to check on family members at home, different types of leave, parental kits, dependant care help lines, work-based child-care, school holiday care, etc. 
  • Your organisation would need to consider which option(s) would be the most resource effective way to address equal opportunity issues for women in the workplace.
• Include an anti-discrimination or equal employment opportunity clause in your workplace agreement/s.
• Consider offering long-term casual employees (both female and male) the opportunity to access regular part-time arrangements that attract pro-rata conditions of service of full-time, permanent staff.
• Consider opening up workplace flexibility for employees when agreement making.

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Reviewing Remuneration, Allowances and Benefits

• Review how remuneration, allowances and benefits are allocated to identify any equal opportunity issues for women.
• Develop a remuneration policy with clear and transparent processes, and objective criteria (for example, performance, job requirements, etc), for allocating bonuses, rewards, incentives, allowances and benefits.
• Link remuneration to objective performance measures.
• Train staff in how to use performance measures.
• Review employee remuneration to ensure female and male employees generally receive comparable pay for equivalent performance in similar roles.
• Consider implementing performance pay across all organisational areas and levels, rather than in only traditional areas/levels (for example, sales positions, senior management).
• Ensure both men and women, including pregnant women, and women on maternity leave, are included in any pay review process.
• Compare uptake rates for external study assistance between men and women. Remember, some women may be less assertive (eg, for cultural or linguistic reasons) in putting themselves forward for study assistance.
• Ensure managers provide access to study assistance to both female and male employees.
• Ensure company provided clothing is inclusive of the needs of both female and male employees (for example, safety footwear, maternity uniforms).
• Identify skills of both female and male employees (for example, through a skills audit, or a part of performance appraisal process) and ensure comparable skills used and performance achieved is attracting comparable remuneration and benefits.
• Embed the principle of “equal remuneration for work of equal value without discrimination based on sex” into your agreement/s and core people management policies.
• Examine the fairness and efficiency of current superannuation arrangements for both the organisation and its employees.
  • Are there ways you could make the scheme/s more portable, particularly for your female and casual staff?

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Communicating Conditions of Service

• Be prepared to communicate flexible workplace policies at the time of recruiting new employees. Companies benefit by investing in work-life balance and differing needs of employees. 
• Seek input from all employees – female and male, when your organisation reviews new working conditions (for example, through surveys or the agreement making process).
• Ensure that a diversity of women (including part-timers and casuals) are represented in any consultations about proposed changes to conditions of service.
• Ensure that women (including culturally and linguistically diverse women) are represented on the bargaining team for workplace agreements.
• Ensure relevant awards, agreements and policies are readily accessible to all staff, including those who are on long-term leave (for example, maternity/parental leave) or working from home.
  • Does each work-site have at least one copy of each in a central and easily accessible place?
  • Is information about conditions of service communicated in a range of ways (for example, staff newsletters, billboards)?
  • Do human resource staff visit other areas of the organisation to help employees and managers understand their conditions of service?
  • Are information sessions on matters that potentially impact on female and male employment conducted?
• Develop an induction package, which includes information on conditions of service, for new employees.
• Use training forums for managers and staff to ‘mainstream’ EEO issues (for example, cover “valuing and managing difference through conditions of service” in induction training
• Encourage managers to discuss conditions of service issues when providing feedback or conducting performance appraisals.
• Ensure both female and male employees, and employees on long-term leave have access to the information on changes to conditions of service.
• Educate managers on how to implement conditions of services effectively and in a non-discriminatory way.
• Encourage managers to lead by example when accessing conditions of service.

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