The citation recognises employer commitment and best practice in promoting gender equality in Australian workplaces. Particular focus areas include leadership, learning and development, gender remuneration gaps, flexible working and other initiatives to support family responsibilities, employee consultation, preventing sex-based harassment and discrimination, and targets for improving gender equality outcomes.
Unilever Australian and New Zealand (ANZ) CEO, Clive Stiff said: “The citation is a reflection of our progress in driving change in our own organisation, as well as playing a key leadership role to promote gender equality across the industry and in the wider community.
“Empowering women is not only the right thing to do, but also makes good business sense. In fact, over 70 per cent of our consumers globally are female and we want to build an organisation that reflects and understands the needs of the people who buy our products.
“Leadership and accountability are essential if real progress is to be made, which is why we are remain committed to building a balanced and inclusive organisation. Women make up 48% of all employees and 52% of management positions at Unilever ANZ.
“We continue to focus on improving our gender balance in key areas of our business such as supply chain, sales and our local executive leadership team. One way we are addressing gender balance is through declaring “all roles flexible” to enable our people to balance their personal commitments and work in a way that meets both their needs and the needs of the business.
“In particular, we want to normalise flexible working for men which is key to managing caring responsibilities and empowering women and we’re proud to say we have some great examples of men in our business leading the charge on this.
‘We have also achieved pay parity and launched a domestic violence policy to support employees affected by abuse and help break the social stigma around the issue.
“Externally we use our scale as a force for good. Last year, we launched the Unstereotype Alliance to eradicate outdated stereotypes in advertising and all brand led content, in partnership with UN Women, WWP, IPG, Google, Mars, Microsoft and J&J.”
Unilever is deeply invested in promoting gender equality in Australian workplaces and believes business can play an important role in creating a fairer, better and more equal world.
To find out more about how Unilever’s commitment to making gender equality commonplace and empower 5 million women by 2020 visit: Unilever