Questionnaire sections

The Questionnaire is divided into sections. When all sections are marked as ‘done’ the Questionnaire will have a status of ‘completed’.

Throughout the Questionnaire, you will be asked whether your organisation has formal policies and/or strategies on a range of topics related to workplace gender equality. If you indicate that your organisation has a particular policy/strategy, you will often be asked to specifically indicate whether this is a policy, a strategy or both. So, it is important to understand the difference.

A policy or strategy are written documents, approved by management. A strategy can exist without a policy and a policy without a strategy. But both can coexist and support each other. They may be standalone or included in your broader diversity and inclusion strategy or policy.

The definitions of a ‘policy’ and ‘strategy’ are given, below.

	What it is	What it includes	What it is not
Policy	The guidelines, rules and procedures developed by an organisation to govern its actions (often in recurring situations). They define the limits (do’s and don’ts) within which decisions must be made. They are widely communicated and available and accessible to all staff.	Policies include applying gender equality principles and practices to: recruitment retention performance management promotions identification of talent and high potentials succession planning training and development resignations key performance indicators (KPIs) for managers remuneration.	An informal: description of the way an organisation operates undocumented process or set of best practices or tips for improvement.
Strategy	A plan of action designed to achieve one or more of the organisation’s objectives. A strategy fills the gap between “where we are” and “where we want to be”, that is, “how are we going to get there?” It relates to how an organisation allocates and uses materials and human resources and requires an executive approval.	Strategies generally include: a vision or mission values or principles strategic objectives specific actions approaches, methods or enablers risk and success factor measures or milestones.	A business case A SWOT analysis

What it is

What it includes

What it is not

Policy

The guidelines, rules and procedures developed by an organisation to govern its actions (often in recurring situations).

They define the limits (do’s and don’ts) within which decisions must be made.
They are widely communicated and available and accessible to all staff.

Policies include applying gender equality principles and practices to:

recruitment
retention
performance management
promotions
identification of talent and high potentials
succession planning
training and development
resignations
key performance indicators (KPIs) for managers
remuneration.

An informal:

description of the way an organisation operates
undocumented process or
set of best practices or tips for improvement.

Strategy

A plan of action designed to achieve one or more of the organisation’s objectives. A strategy fills the gap between “where we are” and “where we want to be”, that is, “how are we going to get there?”

It relates to how an organisation allocates and uses materials and human resources and requires an executive approval.

Strategies generally include:

a vision or mission
values or principles
strategic objectives
specific actions
approaches, methods or enablers
risk and success factor
measures or milestones.

A business case
A SWOT analysis

How do I know if I have a strategy?

For APS agencies, you may respond "Yes" when asked if you have a strategy if:

your organisation has an Agency-level Gender Equality Action Plan that implements the APS Gender Equality Strategy 2021-26 in your organisational context; and
the Action Plan covers the relevant topic in the question being asked.

Workplace overview

Governing bodies

These questions are about the gender composition of your governing bodies and what policies/strategies you have in place around gender equality in your governing bodies.

Governing bodies are the group of people who endorse policy and direct and oversee the conduct of an organisation, supported by the organisation’s managers.

A governing body may be a:

Board of directors
Management committee
Council
Other governing authority.

It is important to note that governing bodies are not:

a diversity council or committee
a global diversity and inclusion team.

For Commonwealth Government Agencies/Departments, this may be an Executive Management Board/Committee, the Accountable Authority or a Strategic Leadership Committee.

Action on gender equality

This section of the Questionnaire focuses on the actions an employer has taken to address gender equality issues.

Gender pay gaps

These questions are about the policies and strategies you have in place related to equal remuneration, and whether you have analysed and responded to remuneration gaps between men and women.

Employee consultation

These questions are about if and how you have consulted employees about workplace gender equality issues, and whether you have a gender equality consultation policy or strategy in place.

In this section, we also ask about whether you have shared last year’s public reports with employees, employee organisations and shareholders, and whether you have shared last year’s Executive Summary Report and Industry Benchmark Report with your governing body. This is to check your compliance with the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012.

Flexible work

This section of the Questionnaire focuses on the flexible work arrangements available in your organisation. If you have a policy/strategy on flexible work arrangements, it asks you to specify what this includes. It also asks whether specific flexible working options are available to managers and non-managers in your workplace, and whether these differ for women and men.

Employee support

This section of the Questionnaire focusses on employee supports, including paid parental leave and support for carers.

Paid parental leave

These questions are about whether you have employer-funded paid parental leave, how many weeks it is, what it covers, how it’s paid, whether it includes superannuation, who has access to it, how long the qualifying period is and whether it needs to be taken within a certain time period.

Note that the Maternity Leave (Commonwealth Employees) Act 1973 sets out baseline parental leave entitlements for Commonwealth employees. Many public sector organisations have additional parental leave provisions set out in Enterprise Bargaining Agreements. Please respond to the following questions in this section based on your total provisions, inclusive of the conditions set out in the Maternity Leave Act.

Support for carers

These questions ask how you support employees with family or caring responsibilities, including through formal policies and strategies as well as other specific support mechanisms.

Harm prevention

This section of the Questionnaire is about harm prevention policies, strategies and actions you have in place, including those relating to sexual harassment and discrimination in the workplace and family and domestic violence.

Sexual harassment and discrimination

These questions are about whether you have a policy/strategy, grievance process and training for managers regarding preventing and responding to sexual harassment and discrimination, as well as a grievance process. They also include voluntary questions on how your CEO/governing body, or equivalent, communicate about their expectations for a safe workplace, as well as processes for disclosing harassment/discrimination, supports for disclosing employees, whether you collect data about reports and if/how this data is provided to your CEO/governing body or equivalent.

Family or domestic violence

These questions are about if you have a policy/strategy in place for supporting employees affected by family or domestic violence, and support mechanisms for these employees. They also cover whether you have paid family and domestic violence leave in place and how many employees took this leave (the question about how many employees took this leave is voluntary).