Gender
diversity
Downer’s total workforce profile is 36 per cent female and 64 per cent male. In FY19, Downer has increased female participation in the workforce by one per cent. With a stable workforce size, this is a significant achievement within a
12-month period.
As at 30 June 2019, our female employee metrics, including Spotless, were:
Gender metrics
As at 30 June 2019
Role
Incl. Spotless
Executive*
21%
Management
22%
Workforce
36%
*Executive refers to CEO, Key Management Personnel and Other Executives/General Managers, as defined in the Workplace Gender Equality Agency Reference Guide to the workplace profile and reporting questionnaire (WGEA Reference Guide).
Overall, women in management positions remained stable and the recruitment and promotion of talented women will continue to be a focus for the next period to enable progress towards targets. This is reflected in the proposed initiatives to support diversity and inclusion for FY20.
Our gender focus enabled Downer to realise a number of objectives around increasing female participation and engagement. In FY19, Downer:
- Created active talent profiles and development plans for all employees CEO -2 and high potential female employees to provide direction and opportunity as part of Downer’s Talent Management and Succession Planning strategy
- Had seven female executive leaders participate in Downer’s Executive Development Program (ExeLD) which is delivered by the Australian Graduate School of Management (AGSM) and builds further capability for high potential leaders, enabling them to have an identified pathway towards the next level of key management positions. AGSM is the only Australian school included in the annual Financial Times combined rankings of the world’s best executive education programs
- Successfully launched our New Zealand team’s Women in Leadership Downer (WILD) program in Auckland to help develop authentic women leaders while recognising the challenges of working in a male-dominated organisation. The group of 20 talented women left with clear action plans to develop their leadership journey and a network to support their continued development
- Had two Executive leaders participate in the Chief Executive Women (CEW) development program. CEW is the pre-eminent organisation representing Australia's most senior women leaders across private and public sectors and provides opportunities for external networks to be developed and relationships formed with senior leaders across industry and government sectors
- Refreshed and relaunched the Downer Mentoring program, with 30 mentoring relationships established including 15 high-performing female leaders. The participants were able to utilise a mix of senior male and female leaders across the Downer Group as mentors
Downer added an additional Non-Executive Director in May 2019. Three of the seven Non-Executive Directors on the Downer Board are women as at 30 June 2019.
