“The availability of information on gender performance under these new reporting frameworks will facilitate better informed discussions in the investment context. It will mean gender will play an important part in discussions about an organisation’s performance and its management capability,” director of WGEA Helen Conway said at a conference in Melbourne.
From next year, under the Act, organisations with 100 or more employees have to report against a set of standardised gender equality indicators, including the gender composition of their workforce.
WGEA will aggregate the data it collects from organisations by industry and organisation size, and develop benchmarks so that investors will be able to determine whether a company’s gender performance compares favourably to its industry peers.
Women In Super (WIS), the national advocacy and networking group for women employed in the superannuation and financial services industries, said it welcomed the new reporting requirements.
“Australian superannuation funds have been at the forefront in adopting the United Nations Principle of Responsible Investment. The new diversity data and benchmarks will enable funds to elevate the importance of diversity when assessing company performance,” chair of WIS Cate Wood stated.
However, the lobbyist body urged Australian superannuation funds and their service providers to go further and adopt gender targets to boost women in managerial and executive roles.
“As major institutional investors, super funds are in a position to put pressure on other businesses to improve gender diversity. But in order to do this, they need to get their own backyard in order first,” Ms Wood said.
“Targets are the next step for the super industry – we need to continue to lead on this issue and if funds want to deliver the best results for members, we can’t afford to ignore half the talent pool.”
While there are no requirements to set gender diversity targets under the Act, WGEA have recently launched a toolkit to help organisations in setting realistic and achievable objectives for gender diversity.
