Commonwealth public sector entities will voluntarily report their gender equality data to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA, the Agency) for the first time in 2022.
The decision follows the Commonwealth Government commitment to update the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012 to require public sector reporting to WGEA by 2022-23 as part of its response to the Respect@Work report (2021). The States and Territories joined this commitment in late 2021, making an in-principle agreement at National Cabinet to provide public sector workforce data to WGEA.
The WGEA Commonwealth public sector reporting period will run from 15 July to 21 October 2022.
WGEA will be working with States and Territories to explore the running of a limited pilot program later in the year.
The benefits of public sector reporting
Public sector entities that participate will gain a better understanding of their progress against key metrics and the ability to benchmark their performance against other organisations in their industry.
In doing so, these entities will be better placed to identify gender equality challenges and put action plans in place.
Your participation and feedback from the 2022 pilot will be instructive for WGEA to better tailor the program to the needs of the public sector going into the future. The Public Sector Reporting Program will also contribute to the Agency’s world-leading dataset, helping us build a clearer picture of the state of gender equality across Australian workplaces.
Who can report?
This initial 2022 WGEA public sector reporting period covers Commonwealth Government entities under the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013.
State and Territory governments will work with WGEA on a limited pilot program later in the year.
What you need to report your data
To report your public sector data to WGEA you will need:
- approval from your leadership
- to register your organisation
- A Digital Identity (myGovID)
The approval process
Before you begin the 2022 WGEA Public Sector pilot you will need to secure your leadership's approval to participate.
You should have an information pack in your email that will explain what steps you need to take and the data required.
How to set up your Digital Identity login
To access the WGEA Portal to submit your data you will need to set up a Digital Identity login (such as myGovID). To set up your digital identity go to: digitalidentity.gov.au
Your credential must then be authorised by your organisation, refer to the Relationship Authorisation Manager website for instructions - info.authorisationmanager.gov.au
For any help and assistance setting up myGovID head to: mygovid.gov.au/help-proving-your-identity
Step-by-step public sector reporting process
The core data components for the submission are:
- the questionnaire
- workforce management statistics
- workplace profile.
WGEA has worked with the Australian Public Service Commission (APSC) to facilitate sharing of workforce data already collected by the APSC. This means that Commonwealth public sector organisations that employ staff under the Public Service Act 1999 may have the option to have Workplace Profile data and questions 1-4 of the Workforce Management Statistics data uploaded on their behalf by the APSC with your permission.
Step 1: Register your organisation
To participate in the 2022 Public Sector reporting program you will need to register the details of your organisation(s) in the WGEA portal.
If you employ your staff under the Public Service Act 1999 you must select ‘yes’ to the ‘bulk upload’ options.
Upon successfully registering, the APSC will contact you asking for your permission to share data for the purposes of WGEA reporting.
Find out more about the steps for registration
Step 2: Obtain a Digital Identity (such as myGovID) to access the WGEA Portal
You will need a Digital Identity that is authorised to act on behalf of your organisation. Visit https://www.digitalidentity.gov.au/ to set up your credential.
Your credential must then be authorised by your organisation. Refer to the Relationship Authorisation Manager website for instructions.
For any help and assistance setting up myGovID go to: https://www.mygovid.gov.au/help-proving-your-identity
Once you have logged into the WGEA portal with an authorised credential you will be able to begin your submission and complete each section.
Step 3: Fill in the Questionnaire
The Questionnaire is an online survey related to your organisation’s policies, strategies and actions on gender equality. It is the first of three major components of the report that your organisation will submit to WGEA.
You can prepare your answers using the Word document template below. When you have finished, enter your responses onto the webform within the portal.
Find out more about the WGEA public sector reporting questionnaire
Step 4: Upload your Workforce Management Statistics (WMS)
The WMS is an Excel worksheet designed to collect information about your employee movements, including appointments, promotions, resignations, and parental leave.
Download the spreadsheet below:
If the APSC is providing data for your organisation, questions 1-4 of this worksheet will be provided for you. You will only need to complete questions 5-7 in this file.
When you have finished entering your data into the workforce management statistic spreadsheet, you will need to upload it within the portal.
Find out more about the WGEA public sector reporting Workforce Management Statistics
Step 5: Complete the Workplace Profile (WPP)
The WPP is an Excel worksheet designed to collect information about workforce composition, salaries and remuneration.
If the APSC is providing data for your organisation, the data for the entire Workplace Profile will be provided for you. You will not need to complete this section.
If not, there are two types of Workplace Profile worksheets to choose between when completing your submission:
- a simplified unit level profiler
- a calculated payroll/STP aligned profile.
When you have finished entering your data into the workplace profile spreadsheet, you will need to upload and submit it in the portal.
Download the simplified unit level Excel file
Download the circulated payroll/STP aligned Excel file
Find out more about the Workplace Profile
Step 6: Review and approval before submission
When all sections of your report are complete you will be able to generate reporting documents that cover the data in your submission for review and approval.
For organisations where the APSC is transferring data – you must complete the questionnaire and questions 5-7 of the Workforce Management Statistics section and allow 12-24 hours for the transfer to take place, all sections will then be marked in the Portal as ‘completed’.
On the reporting home page where you completed each section is an option to generate your reporting documents.
Within 10-15 minutes your documents will generate and be available to download in the ‘Data and Insights’ tab of the Portal under ‘Reports’.
The following documents generate:
- public questionnaire – displays all of the required questionnaire responses
- public workplace profile table – displays the composition information of your employees
- public workforce management statistics table – displays the movements of your employees over the reporting period
- confidential workplace profile table – displays the salary and remuneration averages of each employee occupational group, this data is the basis for any pay gap calculation.
You will need to take a copy of each of the four documents to your SES/leadership for review and approval before lodging the data with WGEA.
When approval has been given, return to the WGEA Portal and complete the final declarations and consent checkbox section.
The last option is to give your consent to publish your organisational level public data (displayed in the ‘public’ reports listed above) – this is voluntary.
When the first two mandatory declarations are checked the final submit button becomes available.
If you click submit your data is lodged in full.
You can find all the steps to report here: client-portal.wgea.gov.au/s/article/What-are-the-steps-for-Public-Sector-reporting
You can use the submission approval form below if you need to report to your data approval to your management..
How do I see my gender pay gap summary?
Public sector entities that participate in the 2022 reporting will be able to generate a Summary Report that contains a data overview and pay gap information.
The gender pay gap summary report report is generated along with your other documents. This report is not required to be used to seek approval to lodge your entire report. You can also generate it any time after you have submitted your data. Once you have completed all the reporting sections, the option to generate documents from the reporting home page will also generate the Summary Report.
You can find the Summary Report in the ‘Data and Insights’ tab of the portal under ‘Reports’. The option to generate is below the declarations and consent section of the reporting home page.
Read more about how your gender pay gap is calculated
How can I get help with reporting?
You can view our published articles that provide an overview to the reporting process for the public sector on WGEA's online knowledge hub.
WGEA has also established a small support team to assist participants in the 2022 pilot register and submit their data in the portal.
You can contact this team by:
- submitting a support request through the WGEA portal or ‘contact us’ page and using the ‘Public Sector Reporting’ case type
- sending an email to publicsectorsupport@wgea.gov.au