Developing Policy and Procedures
Reviewing Promotion, Transfer and Termination Opportunities
Developing High Potential Employees
Supporting High-potential Employees
Supporting Terminated Employees
Communicating about Promotion, Transfer and Termination

Developing Policy and Procedures

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

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Reviewing Promotion, Transfer and Termination Opportunities

• 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.
• Review job descriptions to ensure all skills relevant to the position are properly recognised and rewarded.
• Ensure 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).
• Conduct skills audits across your organisation to ensure that the skills of men and women are valued equally – including skills of employees from different cultural backgrounds.
• Monitor attrition rates for both men and women. 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.
• Ensure performance standards are transparent and equitable, and that outcomes for men and women are comparable.
• Survey employees about the equity of promotion, transfer and termination procedures.

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Developing High Potential Employees

• 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.
• Provide both female and male employees with high profile development assignments/projects.
• Conduct skills audits across your organisation to identify high potential female and male employees who are interested in promotion opportunities.
• 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).
• Include both female and male employees in these key development roles.
• When implementing leadership development programs ensure 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 challenging assignments.

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Supporting High Potential Employees

• Provide leadership coaching to female employees to assist them to succeed in 'pioneering' roles.
• Develop a mentoring program.
• Develop alternative communication networks that enable both men and women to access information available through key informal networks (for example, 'old boy' network).
• 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).
• Secure senior management support for EEO/diversity development and promotion initiatives by making them accountable through performance goals and incentives.

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Supporting Terminated Employees

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

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Communicating about Promotion, Transfer and Termination

• Advertise jobs or call for expressions of interest for promotion or transfer opportunities as widely as possible within your organisation.
• Publicise your promotion policy widely in the organisation.
• Ensure both female and male employees, and employees on long-term leave have access to the information on promotion, transfer and termination policies and procedures.
• Train managers on promotion, 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.

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