A recently released report, titled The Advancement of Women in the Workplace, details the findings of a survey of 5949 people in 31 countries conducted by global recruitment agency Hays from December 2014 to January 2015.
According to the report, 37 per cent of workers in the resources and mining industry indicated that the sector had formal gender diversity policies and practices in place, placing it second behind the public and not-for-profit sector (50 per cent) and just above financial services (36 per cent).
Advertising and media was found to be the lowest ranking industry, with only 17 per cent of employers having formal gender diversity policies in place.
This seemingly positive result is not the end of the story, though. Despite ranking highly for having gender diversity policies in place, the resources and mining sector ranked poorly in putting them into practice, with 22 per cent of its employees indicating that their workplace did not actually adhere to their own formal gender diversity policies.
Hays’ managing director for Australia and New Zealand, Nick Deligiannis, commented, “The resources and mining sector has done a lot in terms of developing policies and practices that will enable it to attract and retain talented female employees but it seems the industry is failing at a practical level to implement these policies. Managers on the ground need to action these policies if they are to have any real impact.”
The report stated that fostering gender equality in the workplace and increasing the number of senior female professionals could be particularly helpful for industries suffering from skill shortages, with Deligiannis agreeing there are “real benefits” to be gained from encouraging gender diversity.
“Of course their [female employees] own career benefits but the organisations they work for also benefit from having the best person in the best job – regardless of gender – and retaining them by rewarding both genders equally,” he said.
The full report is available via www.hays.com.au