Ombudsman for Equality

How to draw up a gender equality plan

The equality plan shall be drawn up in collaboration with personnel representatives.

The Act does not define the representatives of the personnel or forms of collaboration in more detail. If the plan will be incorporated into a personnel or training plan or the occupational health and safety action plan, the provisions of the Act on Cooperation within Undertakings shall be applied. Other local agreement procedures may be applied as well, if such procedures are in use or otherwise agreed upon at the workplace.

Those responsible for drawing up the gender equality plan should represent all personnel groups and both women and men should be involved in the planning process.

A separate plan or as part of other plans?

According to the Equality Act, the gender equality plan can be drawn up as a separate plan or be incorporated into a personnel or training plan or the occupational health and safety action plan.

A separate gender equality plan is supported by both studies commissioned by the Ombudsman for Equality and experiences of the Ombudsman of equality work carried out at workplaces. It appears from the studies by the Ombudsman for Equality conducted in 2003 and 2005 that separate gender equality plans include more concrete measures to promote equality than plans that are merely part of a personnel or training plan or the occupational health and safety action plan.

Furthermore, new requirements for the content of gender equality plans speak for the fact that gender equality plans should be a separate entity. The plans shall consist of the parts provided by the Act: an assessment of the gender equality situation in the workplace, measures planned for introduction or implementation and a review of results achieved.

A separate gender equality plan and incorporating the plan into a personnel or training plan or the occupational health and safety action plan are not, however, mutually exclusive procedures. Because equality work should be an integral part of normal personnel policy, it is only natural that once the gender equality plan has been drawn up, measures planned for introduction or implementation will be included in other personnel documents, such as a training plan.

According to the Ombudsman for Equality, the gender equality plan shall be, irrespective of its concrete form, a clearly outlined entity that is readily available for presentation and that contains the parts provided by the law (assessment, measures, review).

At what level of organisation should the plan be prepared?

There are many different kinds of employer organisations, and also the organisation structure may affect the preparation of gender equality plans. When considering the level of organisation at which the gender equality plan should be drawn up, one of the most important factors is the way decision-making concerning personnel administration is organised.

There are small businesses where all employer obligations are, as a rule, taken care of by a certain unit. On the other hand, there are employers with several sub-organisations and decentralised decision-making power. In case of a large multi-level organisation, a gender equality plan concerning the whole organisation is not sufficient. Instead, goal-oriented and systematic equality work calls for equality planning and monitoring that is carried out in sub-organisations as well.