As required by the Terms of Reference, this report assesses the effectiveness of WGEA’s existing practices in the promotion and improvement of gender equality in Australian workplaces, and identifies areas of future focus for WGEA. In line with the Australian Government’s deregulation agenda the WGEA Review has also identified opportunities to reduce the reporting burden on business.

The recommendations of the WGEA Review propose legislative and policy work by Commonwealth departments, and implementation work by WGEA. To fully realise the potential of the reforms for employers and their workplaces additional investment in WGEA will need to be considered by the Australian Government (Recommendation 9.1).

This report proposes suggestions to improve how WGEA’s legislation operates and is understood. It is recommended that the title of ‘Director of WGEA’ change to Chief Executive Officer (CEO). (Recommendation 9.2). This is to avoid confusing the role with that of company directors in a business setting. The recommendation aligns with the language of business and is also used by Government (e.g. Safe Work Australia).

WGEA’s Employer of Choice for Gender Equality (EOCGE) citation identifies and recognises leading practice employers. Relevant employers who are compliant with the Act are eligible to apply for the citation by demonstrating how they meet the EOCGE criteria. Each year WGEA increases the criteria for the EOCGE citation in order to ‘raise the bar’ for leading practice and reflect what works for improving workplace gender equality.

However, stakeholder consultation during the review, and employer feedback previously provided to WGEA, identified frustration among some employers who are interested in seeking the citation, but are not yet able to achieve the ever increasing high bar of the EOCGE criteria.

WGEA currently collaborates with other organisations that provide gender equality workplace citations and have additional reporting frameworks. WGEA shares insights from WGEA data and other datasets relevant to gender equality. For example, WGEA is part of a data working group with SAGE (Science in Australia Gender Equality) and the Victorian Commission for Gender Equality in the Public Sector in order to improve and streamline data collection, particularly with institutions who are accredited under the SAGE Athena Swan Accreditation Framework and who report through the Victorian public sector reporting scheme. Some stakeholders have called for harmonising these data reporting requirements and datasets, with the possibility of allowing employers to report the data once and have data sharing between governments.

WGEA has an ongoing process for consulting on and considering improvements to the EOCGE citation criteria and approach. WGEA has recently sought feedback on an approach whereby employers have a pathway into the EOCGE program, by first meeting rigorous but ‘entry level’ criteria which increases over time ensuring they continue to make progress in gender equality outcomes.

To accelerate progress on workplace gender equality outcomes, it is recommended that WGEA review the effectiveness of the EOCGE citation as a motivator for more employers to implement gender equality policies and take practical action (Recommendation 9.3). This could involve assessing the viability of mutual recognition arrangements with other workplace gender equality citation schemes to reduce duplicate effort for employers.

There are concrete actions for WGEA to undertake to continue to improve the way it supports employers advance gender equality in their workplaces. These are set out at Recommendation 9.4. The measure of success for these actions is that employers use the full range of WGEA’s tools and supports and find them helpful to improve gender equality in their workplaces.