GM Holden Awarded 'Employer of Choice for Women' Citation in Australia for Fourth Year in a Row

2008-03-04 -- The Federal Government’s Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency (EOWA), announced today that GM Holden is one of only 99 organisations in Australia to be awarded the 2008 “Employer of Choice for Women” citation.

This is the fourth year in a row GM Holden has received the prestigious award and is a particular achievement this year with the EOWA introducing six new pre-requisites.

The new requirements include offering a minimum of 6 weeks paid maternity leave which GM Holden comfortably met with their 2002 policy offering the primary care giver 14 weeks paid maternity leave.

GM Holden was also able to comply with the new conditions by ensuring female managers have the ability to work part-time and with 18% of managers being female it exceeded the industry average of 15%.

Furthermore, GM Holden had to undertake a pay equity analysis and any gap identified had to be less than the industry average. GM Holden performed particularly well in this area achieving a 3% pay equity gap compared to the manufacturing industry average of 18%.

Over and above these criteria, this influential citation is awarded to companies that have demonstrated that they have policies and practices that support women across the organisation which have resulted in a positive outcome for both women and the business.

To support this notion, the GM Holden Women’s Council was established in January 2005 with a mission ‘to drive Holden business performance and brand by championing the contribution of women’.

Since the introduction of the Council, GM Holden has achieved some key goals in the area of employment of women. These include:

* Since the introduction of 14 weeks paid maternity leave in 2002 and the availability of flexible work options for parents returning from parental leave, return from maternity leave rates increased from 67% to nearly 90%.
* Over 50% of all women who return after maternity leave have returned to some form of flexible arrangement.
* In 2007, 25% of all new hires were women, up from 24% in 2006, this included 27% of all new salaried hires and 21% of all new hourly position hires.
* GM Holden’s Women Council have organised special events including a “Women in Engineering” day and other breakfast and lunchtime events featuring high profile guest speakers including GM’s Global HR Vice President, Katy Barclay.
* A lactation breaks policy was implemented in April 2005 and a lactation room was opened in Holden’s new Port Melbourne head office in June 2005.

Women’s Council President and Director of Body Interior Exterior & Dimensional Engineering, Judy Brennan, described the citation as an excellent result particularly in light of the new, tougher criteria.

“We’re thrilled to be receiving this award for a fourth year as it firmly cements the fact that GM Holden are leading the way, particularly in the manufacturing sector, when it comes to supporting the huge contribution women make in the workplace,” Brennan said.

“Through GM Holden’s Women’s Council, we continue to strive for equality in an accepting and flexible culture which can positively influence all areas of our business, internally and externally.

“The requirements put forward by the EOWA are great benchmarks and we want to ensure that we continue to not only meet these criteria but exceed them to make sure we remain an employer of choice.”

Source: Holden

Bookmark/Search this post with:

 •    •    •    •    •    •    •    •    •    •