The finalists for the Most Improved Gender Equity Award are Brown-Forman, Pernod Ricard and Australian Vintage Limited with the winner to be announced at the Drinks Association’s International Women’s Day to be held in Sydney on Tuesday 8 March, 2022.
Each of the three businesses have demonstrated improvements in achieving equitable gender workplace composition at both an overall level and in leadership, through the implementation of policies and initiatives creating tangible change in their businesses.
The Gender Equity Award has evolved and been re-named this year to be the Most Improved Gender Equity Award. It will be presented alongside the two other coveted Contribution to Industry awards: the Corporate Social Responsibility Award and the Inclusive & Diverse Workplace Award.
There are several factors that led to the decision to evolve the Gender Equity award:
- To reduce duplication between the Gender Equity Award and the Inclusive & Diverse Workplace Award
- To allow for greater clarity distinction between the aforementioned awards
- To ensure a level playing field for large and small organisations so that organisations can be considered alongside each other.
Embrace Difference Council Chair, Diageo’s Chris Shaw said, “The creation of the Embrace Difference Scorecard and the latest iteration allows us to track progress and bring rigour towards our goals. It also allows us to bring facts to our awards and the Most Improved Gender Equity award is based upon real tangible improvements from member companies.”
Pernod Ricard’s HRD, Christian Campanella explained, “This new award measures progress in D&I using measurable data points based on the WGEA model. So, it’s not about where you are at but rather the progress you have made.”
The process to decide on the Most Improved Gender Equity Award is as follows. Firstly, objective data is captured:
- by the Embrace Difference Council’s Industry scorecard which includes data from member organisations with more than 100 employees. (Data is sourced from Workplace Gender Equality Agency [WGEA] metrics.)
OR
- from the voluntary submission of data from organisations with less than 100 employees. Data is provided to the Embrace Difference Council by member organisations for inclusion in the industry scorecard.
From the industry scorecard the following data points are identified:
- Highest percentage improvement of overall gender workplace composition
- Most % improved Senior leaders gender workplace composition
- Largest number of policies implemented (or revised) – as long as the policies are above benchmark (in relation to primary and secondary leave).
Finally, the finalists identified from the data review, are invited to submit answers to a number of questions to share the strategies employed by their businesses to achieve those improvements.
Submissions are reviewed by an industry judging panel. This will take place early in 2022 along with judging on all of the Drinks Association’s Contribution to Industry Awards, namely the Corporate Social Responsibility and the Inclusive & Diverse Workplace Awards. All will be announced by the Embrace Difference Council Chair, Chris Shaw, at the International Women’s Day lunch.
“In a year like no other, we have received a record number of submissions for these awards. Gender equity, D&I, and environmental and social responsibility are now entirely embedded within the day to day operations of Australian drinks businesses,” said Drinks Association CEO Georgia Lennon.
“It has been a transformational year and our judging panels certainly have their work cut out for them given the exciting and inspiring initiatives that have been implemented over the past year by our member organisations.”
The Corporate Social Responsibility Award recognises an organisation's unique initiatives and strategies demonstrating a commitment to socially responsible principles, such as responsible drinking, environmental sustainability or community, charity and corporate values. The award is sponsored by Endeavour Drinks Group.
Inclusive & Diverse Workplace Award: recognises organisations that prioritise diversity and recognise the value of an inclusive workplace for individuals and their organisations. The award is sponsored by Coles Liquor again this year as it was in 2019.