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Pursuing Gender Equality in the Workplace During COVID-19

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ATTRIBUTES
  • Leadership
  • Organizational Culture

SOURCE
  • Global Compact Network Canada

TYPE OF RESOURCE
  • GGuide

TARGET AREA
  • Employee Support, Implementation

TARGET UNIT
  • All Management, All Units, CEO, Senior Leadership

LINK TO RESOURCE

Pursuing Gender Equality in the Workplace During COVID-19

Global Compact Network Canada
This resource provides recommendations and resources specific to the Canadian Private sector on forwarding the pursuit of gender equality in the workplace during COVID-19. Diversity and inclusion and gender equality from the organizational perspective can be leveraged as a strength during the pandemic, allowing companies to recover faster while increasing their representation and inclusion. Some of the recommendations expanded on in the resource include:

  • Assess your organization’s response to COVID-19 using the Target Gender Equality Quiz.
  • Show empathy and compassion towards your employees during this time.
  • Ensure all genders are represented and included in all planning and decision making.
  • Adapt new measures to improve organizational culture.
  • Build capacity and raise awareness.
  • Be aware of unintentional harmful gender stereotypes in internal and external communications.
  • Maintain a diversity lens in talent management to ensure that diversity isn’t lost.
  • Support working parents, bearing in mind that the majority of unpaid care work falls on women.
  • Help address the unintended consequences and challenges of stay-at-home measures, especially for vulnerable groups such as victims of domestic violence.
  • Support women-owned businesses.
  • Partner with government and other organizations to tackle COVID-19.

To learn more, click here.

People Want Their Employers to Talk About Mental Health

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ATTRIBUTES
  • Organizational Culture
  • Workplace Wellbeing and Safety

SOURCE
  • Harvard Business Review

TYPE OF RESOURCE
  • AArticle

TARGET AREA
  • Implementation

TARGET UNIT
  • CEO, Diversity & Inclusion, Human Resources, Senior Leadership

LINK TO RESOURCE

People Want Their Employers to Talk About Mental Health

Harvard Business Review
This article discusses how organizations can use an intersectional lens to approach and normalize conversations about mental health in the workplace.

In addition, this article includes a list of private sector good practices:

  • Start at the top: Encourage executive teams and senior management to share their experiences about mental health with their teams and employees.
  • Invest in education: Use training programs to equip managers and employees with the knowledge and resource to identify, normalize, and navigate mental health in the workplace.
  • Provide support: Ensure that employees have access to a variety of mental health benefits and related programs, and ensure that policies are communicated throughout the organization.

To learn more, click here.

What Will it Take? Promoting Cultural Change to End Sexual Harassment

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ATTRIBUTES
  • Organizational Culture
  • Workplace Wellbeing and Safety

SOURCE
  • UN Women

TYPE OF RESOURCE
  • RReport

TARGET AREA
  • Strategy

TARGET UNIT
  • CEO, Human Resources, Legal, Senior Leadership

LINK TO RESOURCE

What Will it Take? Promoting Cultural Change to End Sexual Harassment

UN Women
This discussion paper provides guidance and insights to help employers prioritize the needs of the victim–survivors in sexual violence, harassment, and discrimination incidents. UN Women describe practical measures for cultural change, international normative standards, as well as several case studies of how organizations are approaching sexual harassment in the workplace. For instance, this paper states that establishing zerotolerance for sexual harassment in the workplace is critical and must be woven into the culture of an organization. Essential elements of zero-tolerance practice in an organization include always supporting individuals who report harassment, refusing to sanction perpetrators, and ensuring that equality and non-discrimination are integrated into its policies and practices.

UN Women identify five areas of work for lasting cultural change:

  1. Victim-focused work
  2. Training
  3. Collective ownership
  4. Zero tolerance
  5. Make reporting rational

To learn more, click here.

Dealing with Sexual Harassment When Your Company Is Too Small to Have HR

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ATTRIBUTES
  • Workplace Wellbeing and Safety

SOURCE
  • Harvard Business Review

TYPE OF RESOURCE
  • AArticle

TARGET AREA
  • Implementation

TARGET UNIT
  • CEO, Senior Leadership

LINK TO RESOURCE

Dealing with Sexual Harassment When Your Company Is Too Small to Have HR

Harvard Business Review
This Harvard Business Review article discusses what small companies can do to prevent and address sexual harassment.

Some of the recommendations discussed are:

  • Leaders should be conscious of the factors promoting a toxic work culture (e.g. predominately male executive staff, layers of hierarchy in power, indifference).
  • Leaders should establish clear policies outlining what constitutes sexual harassments, which behaviours will not be tolerated, and what employees should do if they see or experience misconduct.
  • Leaders should enforce these rules by designating clear roles for people within the organization.

To read the full article, click here.

A 15-Point Plan for Boards and CEOs to Eradicate Sexual Harassment in Their Organizations

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ATTRIBUTES
  • Leadership
  • Workplace Wellbeing and Safety

SOURCE
  • Forbes

TYPE OF RESOURCE
  • AArticle

TARGET AREA
  • Implementation

TARGET UNIT
  • Board of Directors, CEO

LINK TO RESOURCE

A 15-Point Plan for Boards and CEOs to Eradicate Sexual Harassment in Their Organizations

Forbes
This resource provides a list of actions that leaders of organizations should take to eliminate sexual harassment in their workplaces.

  1. Establish accountability.
  2. Immediately request an audit of every open case of sexual harassment and a 5-10-year look-back of every closed, settled, sealed or discarded case ever brought to the organization’s attention.
  3. Introduce a sexual harassment hotline that bypasses HR, is administered by an outside provider, and is reported directly to the board.
  4. When a credible accusation is made, the accused should be put on a paid leave of absence while an investigation ensues.
  5. Do not dismiss, deny, defend, or blame the victim.
  6. Maintain and defend a pristine due process.
  7. Make it explicit in every way you can that harassment, abuse, or misbehaviour will not be tolerated.
  8. Be proactive.
  9. Put incentives in place.
  10. Clarify the role of HR in sexual harassment cases.
  11. Promote a “see something, say something” environment.
  12. Conduct bystander training throughout the organization.
  13. Leaders should actively protect someone that might be in danger.
  14. Get more women on boards and in C-suites.
  15. Beware of backlash.

To read more about this article, click here.

Sexual Harassment in the Workplace: How Companies can Prepare, Prevent, Respond and Transform their Culture

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ATTRIBUTES
  • Intersectionality
  • Organizational Culture
  • Workplace Wellbeing and Safety

SOURCE
  • Catalyst

TYPE OF RESOURCE
  • RReport

TARGET AREA
  • Strategy

TARGET UNIT
  • CEO, Human Resources

LINK TO RESOURCE

Sexual Harassment in the Workplace: How Companies can Prepare, Prevent, Respond and Transform their Culture

Catalyst
This report discusses the action organizations can take to create a safe and fair work environment for all employees beyond policies and training. According to Catalyst’s report, these are four important actions:

Prepare

  1. Cultivate a zero-tolerance policy for sexual harassment. Take proactive steps to make this policy and your company’s commitment visible.
  2. Set guidelines to help employees understand appropriate norms for human interaction and affection in the workplace.
  3. Create processes to consider how sexual harassment affects women of colour and other marginalized groups in your organization.
  4. Educate yourself about your organization’s policies and procedures for when the board should be involved with or notified of sexual harassment complaints.
  5. Galvanize across functions to help employees have quick access to resources.

Prevent

  1. Accelerate parity in representation of women at all levels, including your Board of Directors.
  2. Educate and train leaders on forms of sexual harassment – including how to escalate.
  3. Focus on effective anti-sexual harassment training.

Respond

  1. Reinforce your company’s zero-tolerance policy for sexual harassment and retaliation.
  2. Investigate all claims promptly and fairly.
  3. Honour the target of sexual harassment and follow up accordingly.
  4. Allow space for support, understanding, and, ultimately, compassion.

Transform

  1. Build a climate of respect and accountability.
  2. Evaluate your company’s dominant business culture.
  3. Address heavy alcohol consumption at work functions.

Additional sexual harassment resources from Catalyst can be found here or at the links below:

It’s Time: 5-Step Sexual Harassment Risk Mitigation Strategy for Employers

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ATTRIBUTES
  • Organizational Culture
  • Workplace Wellbeing and Safety

SOURCE
  • McInnis Cooper

TYPE OF RESOURCE
  • AArticle

TARGET AREA
  • Strategy

TARGET UNIT
  • CEO, Human Resources, Legal

LINK TO RESOURCE

It's Time: 5-Step Sexual Harassment Risk Mitigation Strategy for Employers

McInnis Cooper
This resource provides an overview of several provincial and federal occupational, health, and safety laws, human rights laws, employment standards laws, and criminal laws. It also details the importance of understanding business and financial liability risks, complaint mechanisms and systems, as well as the roles of perpetrators, victims, and employers. Canadian law firm McInnis Cooper has created a five-step risk mitigation plan to help employers minimize the growing legal, financial liability, and business risks of workplace sexual harassment. These steps include:

  1. Admit that sexual harassment can happen in any workplace.
  2. Make it a (high priority) corporate governance matter – the risks warrant it.
  3. Assess your current situation – and the current sexual harassment and violence risks.
  4. If you have a workplace sexual harassment policy, review and revisit it; if you don’t, develop and implement one now.
  5. Document everything and maintain the records (for a long time).

To learn more, click here.

A Manifesto for Change: A Modern Workplace for a Flexible Workforce

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ATTRIBUTES
  • Organizational Culture
  • Workplace Flexibility

SOURCE
  • Timewise & Deloitte

TYPE OF RESOURCE
  • GGuide

TARGET AREA
  • Strategy

TARGET UNIT
  • All Management, CEO, Senior Leadership

LINK TO RESOURCE

A Manifesto for Change: A Modern Workplace for a Flexible Workforce

Timewise & Deloitte
This resource summarizes the need for workplace flexibility and identifies the key demands of the manifesto that can help the workplace adapt a flexible workforce. The resource is based on a survey of flexible workers and in-depth interviews with pro-flex business leaders across the UK.

  1. Leaders must provoke cultural change: Challenge the status quo

Make flexibility a strategic issue and champion flexible working, question cultural norms, and men must challenge stereotypes.

  1. Flexible working to be gender neutral: Emphasize the value of male and female role models

Male and female leaders must walk the talk, men need to talk about flexibility and parental leave to normalize it, senior male role models are essential but so are people across every level.

  1. Design flexibility into jobs as standard: Ask “why not” rather than “why”

Make flexible working the norm for everyone not just parents and carers, systemize flexible working through guidelines for managers, one size does not fit all, and measure performance not hours.

  1. Influence attitudes and actions of managers: Permission and support

Give managers permission, training, and tools for flexible work; and call out managers and leaders who undermine flexible workers.

  1. Collect data: Measure success

Measure formal and informal flexible work, and share across teams, set targets, and track progress by including metrics as part of managers’ performance review.

To learn more, click here.

Developing a Flexible Working Arrangement Policy

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ATTRIBUTES
  • Workplace Flexibility
  • Workplace Wellbeing and Safety

SOURCE
  • Workplace Gender Equality Agency (Australia)

TYPE OF RESOURCE
  • TToolkit

TARGET AREA
  • Development, Institutional Policies

TARGET UNIT
  • All Management, All Units, CEO, Diversity & Inclusion, Human Resources

LINK TO RESOURCE

Developing a Flexible Working Arrangement Policy

Workplace Gender Equality Agency (Australia)
This briefing note provides guidance on the key features of a flexible working arrangements policy. Organizations leading the way in workplace gender equality have in place a policy that specifically supports flexible working arrangements for all employees.

The key features of a flexible working arrangements policy are:

  • Statement
  • Purpose
  • Guideline (i.e. definitions, eligibility and exclusions, process, and performance and review)
  • References and resources (i.e. existing legislation and internal policies)

To learn more, click here.

Flexibility Business Case – Building Your Business Case for Flexible Work Through Workforce Metrics

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ATTRIBUTES
  • Workplace Flexibility

SOURCE
  • Workplace Gender Equality Agency (Australia)

TYPE OF RESOURCE
  • TToolkit

TARGET AREA
  • Strategy

TARGET UNIT
  • All Management, All Units, CEO, Diversity & Inclusion, Human Resources

LINK TO RESOURCE

Flexibility Business Case – Building Your Business Case for Flexible Work Through Workforce Metrics

Workplace Gender Equality Agency (Australia)
This toolkit aims to help organizations identify the areas where flexibility could positively influence an organization’s productivity and employee engagement.It alsoprovides advice on how to measure the business benefit for flexible working through workforce metrics.

Specifically, this toolkit aims to:

  • Identify workforce metric categories and metrics to measure the benefits of flexible working
  • Provide steps on building your business case for flexibility through workforce metrics
  • Provide templates to collect and calculate workforce metrics

Metrics can be developed from the following categories:

  • Uptake and perceptions of flexible work
  • Attraction of employees
  • Employee retention
  • Training investment
  • Productivity and engagement
  • Absenteeism
  • Employee wellbeing
  • Office space accommodation costs
  • Workforce composition

To learn more about each category and their metrics, click here.