Study on non-legislative initiatives for companies to promote gender ...

Gender equality initiatives 91
employees, performance with regard to family friendly measures and activities, family
friendly corporate culture). The responses are consolidated into an index value
between 0 (“not family friendly at all”) and 100 (“very family friendly”). Although the
index is mainly used for the internal evaluation of enterprises it is part of the auditing
process of the work and family audit (see chapter 2.2 labels).
In Spain “Top 5 de las empresas modelo de igualdad” (Top 5 of model companies
in equality) has been created to promote and evaluate the implementation of the
“Equality Law”, launched in 2007 with the aim to install equality plans in all companies
and foreseeing compulsory equality plans for companies with more than 250
employees. The initiative is part of a project with the aim to analyse the implementation
of the law by the means of a qualitative (interviews and discussions with experts,
lawyers, HR managers) and quantitative (survey among enterprises with more than 50
employees) study. The ranking presents five model enterprises in the field of gender
equality and is based on the HR managers’ opinion which company except its own is a
role model in implementing the equality law. The information was gathered via
interviewing more than 100 companies and the results of the study can be downloaded.
Besides highlighting role model enterprises the questions in the survey have been
assessed by the interviewed enterprises as being a “guide” for applying the law and
understand its principles.
2.6 Compendium of good practices
In the framework of research studies, network activities and projects dealing with
gender equality, sometimes one outcome is a compendium of good practices. This
means that a number of enterprises which have an outstanding commitment in terms of
gender equality in the workplace are presented in detail in a publication and/or on a
website. The main reason for providing such compendia of good practices is to set
examples for other enterprises and to share knowledge. Presenting good practices in
terms of gender equality in the workplace have the potential to be an inspiration for
other enterprises and workplaces. They may help to raise awareness and change
social norms in order to minimise and/or eliminate gender inequalities. Frequently,
compendia of good practices arise from competitions for prizes / awards, where good
practices of winning or participating enterprises running for a prize / award are integrated
in a publication or success stories are collected on a website.
16 initiatives could be identified: Among these, the largest group are compendia in the
field of equal opportunities for women and men, including thematic issues such as
recruitment, training and career opportunities, salary as well as combining work and
private life.
Portugal has a guide called “Boas Práticas de Conciliação entre Vida Profissional e
Vida Familiar. Manual para as Empresas” (good practices for reconciling work and
family life. Guide for companies) published by the Commission for Equality in Labour
and Employment. The guide lists a range of principles and practices that promote
gender balance by allowing women to allocate more time to their careers and men to
devote more time to family life. The enterprises included in the guide are selected from
those awarded with the prize “Prémio Igualdade é qualidade” (equality is quality).