Diversity Essay: How Frasers Property Australia Achieved Gender Equality Award?
Question
Task: Write a well researched and detailed diversity essay on a company who has managed to achieve an award due to its great workforce diversity.
Answer
Introduction
The main concern of this diversity essay is to present a critical discussion on the various aspects of diversity whichis an important term, especially in the globalized world, where no community or region is left from integration to a world of communication, trade, and commerce. While the whole world is learning to integrate people from all cultures and languages, to make a complex network of exchange, the spaces of employment should not be left behind. About this, the essay discusses a company that has won an award of eminence due to its advanced and integrating policies which have given its employees a space of inclusivity, growth, and justice.Managing a cross-cultural and diverse workforce takes a crucial role in most countries because diversity has a direct impact on the performance of an organization and various conflicts can arise due to misunderstandings among the culturally diverse workforce.
Overview
Frasers Property Australia (FPA) is one of the country’s leading property groups, which was established in the 1920s with activities across Australia and predominantly covering the development of residential land, housing, and apartment, commercial, retail and industrial properties along with investment in property management.Fraser’s Property Australia has received the award for Dame Quentin Bryce Gender Equity Award for its efforts in uplifting and encouraging women to take up challenging roles and training men on lessening the patriarchal traits and developing non-discriminating attitudes toward women (Frasers property 2020a).
Dame Quentin Bryce Gender Equity Award becomes crucial in all the categories of the Hall of Fame, simply because it identifies and celebrates the contribution and recognition of the 50% of the population on the planet and contextually in the country; Women. Frasers property Australia claims to be one of the diversified companies that are "Local at heart and, international of mind".
Analysis of Intercultural management Approaches
In the rapidly changing global workplaces, intercultural inclusivity and diversification have become one of the major concerns that have developed in the last decade (Workplace Gender Equality Agency, 2019). The intercultural management tools and methods have become a key topic of modern management to handle interactions and personal systemsto operate on a global, multi-cultural market.
About this, Frasers Property Australia has bagged one of the most prestigious awards of the country- AHRI Awards 2019 in the category of Gender Equity. According to Work Place, Gender Equality Agency report the gender gap in the Australian workforce is still prevalent which makes it an issue of significance. In this scenario, FPA has also achieved the Employer of Choice for Women in the WGEA citation (Australian HR Institute 2019).
There have been conscious steps taken by the company to create an environment of inclusivity irrespective of gender which is two-fold:
- Improvement of day-to-day workplace experience for women
- Increase representation of women in roles of impact and leadership
The approach of the company in including and engaging employees has been initiated through Property Champions of Change (PMCC) which is led by the CEO of FPA.
This has been initiated through several changes in the policies, education, training of employees, investment in female talent and especially focusing on how these are tracked or measured to have continuous progress. The company has normalized parental leave, not only for women but also for men, which has seen an increase from zero in 2014 to nine in 2019. They also provide superannuation payments for primary carers for the unpaid period of the parental leave, up to 12 months (Frasers Property 2020b). Men included in senior/leadership roles have increasingly started accessing this aid, accepting their vital role in parenting as a father. 86.24% of employees acknowledge the liberty that their workplace provides in managing their professional duties along with childcare responsibilities.
These citation holders of the WGEA Report have together tried to reduce the gender pay gap over 5 years as well as trying to place women in all managerial levels. They also have a higher proportion of women working full-time (57%) which is substantially more than the percentage of the general workforce – 39%. As per the WGEA's report of 2018-19, Frasers Property Ltd has formal policies and strategies in the field of recruitment, retention, performance management processes, promotions, and Talent identification/identification of high potentials to support gender equality in the workplace. The recruitment composition of their workforce overall is 42.9% females and 57.1% males, which is impressive. But the female chairs of existing governing bodies under FPA indicate the predominance of male employees and an evident absence of a target set to increase the female representation.
As per remuneration, the company has both the policies of review processes and action plans to avoid any pay gap based on gender. Data of the WGEA report of 2018, in terms of promotions, show exceptional performance. 60.4% of the employees who were awarded promotions were women while 39.6% were men. 65.4% of all managerial promotions were awarded to women. 55.6% of all non-manager promotions were awarded to women.
Evaluation
Breaking Down Barriers
It was identified that in the WGEA reports from 2015- 2015 that the female workforce only comprised 33% of the total employee base while they only represented 23 % in managerialpositions. Thus, the workplace lacked diversity as no female was part of the Key Management Personnel Team thus initiating for removing the inequalities was reframing policies and workplace flexibilities.
Fraser's Property aimed at increasing the representation of women in the nontraditional business sector for reflecting on the communities for recognizing and recruiting women in leadership roles. In addition to this, the Property Council of Australia has been co-founded by PMCC for addressing challenges of gender industry in the industry with consideration of scope and structure of the individual organization. In addition to this, a partnership with a specialist organization like Symetra was initiated to raise awareness about the unconscious biasness within the working culture while other initiatives included mentoring of women in mid-senior designations along with sponsoring females in 500 Women in Property Program Compass(Frasers property 2020a). The awareness and policies were also shaped in recruitment advertising, flexible work practices, and parental leaves. Fraser Property Australia also leveraged industrial networks in committees like Diversity Committee, Property Council Of Australia, and others.
Benefits for Company Culture
In alignment with WGEA standards of 65%, around 90% of the employees feel their immediate seniors do not discriminate between men and women in their workplace. Though there has been a slight decline in female presence in senior managerial roles, the first year Graduate Program (2017) has observed 75% of women participation, 80% in 2018, and 100% in 2019, which open impressive prospects for the female employees in the future (Frasers property 2020a). The diverse culture inclusion in the workplace has helped the company in increasing productivity and retention intentions.
The company has moved beyond measuring workplace environment to take concerns of personal experiences of their employees. As per the 2019 Cultural Survey, feedback from the employees revealed that Fraser Property has a zero-tolerancepolicyfor domestic and familial violence, thus providing for their employees a safe space by encouraging and supporting victims of such kind.
Mutual Benefit Outcomes
It was noticed that policies undertaken by the company leveraged substantial growth at key managerial positions thus a slight decline in senior managerial level has been balanced by female representation. There was an increase in parental leaves that was previously absent in 2014- 2015 for both men and women. The increase in leave applications for both men and women will help in balancing work-life responsibilities thus enhancing the overall productivity of the organization.
In addition to this, Qantas Airways had won Dame Quentin Bryce Gender Equity Award in the year 2018. The company was facing an extreme financial crisis in the year 2014 due to which they focused on implementing gender diversity policies. The company has devised a plan for addressing organizational and personal barriers thus elevating importance on varied leadership roles that were majorly dominated by men counterparts(AHRI2018). Due to efficient planning processes, the company achieved targets of increasing females in leadership roles by 35%. It can be said that similar strategies have been undertaken by Fraser Property. The company still lacks a measure of performance after implementing gender diversity norms and policies that will help in devising adequate strategies thus improving operational and finances. The company is also recommended to collaborate with several other organizations and platforms for improving gender diversities on a community level.
Conclusion
The diversity essay has discussed Intercultural Policies that were undertaken by Fraser Property Australia that established workplace culture for gender equality and broader inclusion on the societal level. The company has already achieved understanding benefits of a gender-inclusive workforce that can be extended by employing several other strategies in the future. Thus, the report clearly shows the company’s efforts in acknowledging women’s efforts and giving them adequate responsibilities according to their skills.
Reference List
AHRI2018,Dame Quentin Bryce Gender Equity Award: Qantas Airways, viewed 9 February 2021,
Australian HR Institute 2019, 2019Dame Quentin Bryce Gender Equity Award WINNER: Frasers Property Australia, viewed 9 February 2021
Frasers property 2020a, Our Overview, viewed 9 February 2021
Workplace Gender Equality Agency, 2019, Public Report, viewed 9 February 2021,
