Ombudsman for Equality

Content of a gender equality plan:
assessment, measures and review

The Act on Equality between Women and Men defines the minimum content of a gender equality plan. The gender equality plan shall include:

1. an assessment of the gender equality situation in the workplace, including details of the employment of women and men in different jobs and a survey of the grade of jobs performed by women and men, the pay for those jobs and the differences in pay;
2. necessary measures planned for introduction or implementation with the purpose of promoting gender equality and achieving equality in pay; and
3. a review of the extent to which measures previously included in the gender equality plan have been implemented and of the results achieved.

Assessment of gender equality situation

The aim is that the gender equality plan includes measures that are considered essential for promoting equality from the point of view of each particular workplace, its current situation and circumstances. Therefore, the gender equality plan shall be based on an assessment of the gender equality situation in the workplace. The assessment is part of the background information to be compiled for the purpose of equality planning. The gender equality plan and the assessment conducted as the basis of the planning process shall cover all personnel of the employer and the plan shall, if necessary, contain measures concerning all employees.

According to the Equality Act, the assessment of the gender equality situation shall include details of the employment of women and men in different jobs and a survey of the grade of jobs performed by women and men, the pay for those jobs and the differences in pay. In other words, the Act requires that the assessment of the gender equality situation in the workplace covers pay issues. This is addressed in more detail under
Pay Survey

Pay is not the only issue to be examined in the assessment of the gender equality situation. The assessment may also address issues such as recruitment procedures, division of work between genders, career advancement, working conditions, personnel training, participation in working groups, opportunities for reconciliation of work and family life by, for example, parental leaves and working hour arrangements in support of them, working climate, incidence of sexual harassment and gender-based harassment, attitudes to gender equality, management and occupational health and safety.

The assessment can make use of existing human resources statistics that are broken down by gender. It is also important to examine the extent to which employees experience that equality has been achieved at the workplace. The perceptions of employees can be surveyed, for example, by personnel questionnaires and discussions on gender equality in departmental and workplace meetings. A survey of gender equality may be conducted separately or be incorporated into another working climate survey at the workplace. 

The gender equality plan shall be drawn up annually but the assessment of the equality situation and the pay survey as part of the plan may be prepared once every three years, if agreed locally.

Measures

On the basis of the assessment, the employer shall decide in cooperation with the employees on the necessary measures planned for introduction or implementation during the next period with the purpose of promoting gender equality. A review of the assessment of the gender equality situation and decisions on future measures are the most important stages in equality planning.

The Equality Act states separately that the gender equality plan shall include measures to achieve equality in pay. This means that if no concrete measures concerning pay issues are recorded in the gender equality plan, there is reason to justify this in the plan.

The measures included in the plan shall be concrete and realistic. Another important factor is that the implementation of these measures can be monitored. It is advisable to define a deadline for carrying out the measures and specify the persons or organisations responsible. Usually, the party with the primary responsibility for implementing the measures is the supervisor bearing responsibility for a particular area. Incorporating the implementation of the planned measures into supervisors' performance targets is recommended.

Equality planning being a continuous process, it is advisable to concentrate on a few targets for development at a time. As for big challenges, deciding on smaller intermediate targets and drawing up a timetable for their implementation is well advised.

Review of the implementation of measures

A gender equality plan must contain a review of the implementation and results of the previous year's plan. This review shall be used to monitor the implementation of the gender equality plan and as a basis for the next plan.

The gender equality plan shall specify the person or organisation responsible for monitoring and determine the criteria and indicators for assessing the development of the equality situation and the implementation of the planned measures.

When reviewing the measures, it may be examined whether the measures taken have been sufficiently effective and what the reasons for not achieving results are, if that is the case. This is the basis and starting point for decisions on new targets and measures. Drawing up an entirely new gender equality plan each year is not necessary. Equality planning is, rather, a continuous process where the plan will be updated annually on the basis of the achieved results and reviews.