[email protected] ONLINE PLATFORM

What is the [email protected] online platform?

The [email protected] online platform is a system of gender equality indicators in companies and organizations (herein referred to as “organizations”)1  that seeks to characterize, quantify and provide evidence regarding the degree of equality and gender gaps that exist between women and men in the workplace. The evidence is obtained through the generation of quantitative and qualitative information about the organizations that participate in the Gender Equality Seal (GES) programme or are willing to implement gender equality policies.

Through the regular observation of indicators, this platform seeks to create an up-to-date and comparable source of information that allows for the monitoring of organisations that are in the process of achieving higher levels of gender equality and, ultimately, reducing gender gaps.

Having a unified measuring system allows organisations to have comparative scenarios at a sector-wide, national and regional level. The periodicity of the system allows each organization to construct active mapping of their own evolution in terms of gender gaps, which facilitates the closure of said gaps by providing concrete goals. Similarly, [email protected], in addition to having comparable variables across countries, constitutes a primary source of information that helps to build sector/industry benchmarks based on sex-disaggregated KPIs to track gender equality in the workplace.

1. The [email protected] online platform is intended for both private businesses and non-profit organizations (e.g., public institutions/businesses, nongovernmental organisations.

What are its main characteristics and functionalities?

  • Intuitive platform, easy to use, highest security standards, fully web-based.
  • Integrates quantitative and qualitative information to reveal and characterize gender gaps, which are translated into a set of KPIs.
  • Makes it possible to conduct a self-assessment with simultaneous integration of personnel opinions regarding gender equality in the workplace.
  • Produces an automated report with a battery of more than 50 KPIs that measure gender gaps, and simultaneously integrates the results of the self-assessment and personnel opinion survey.
  • Each indicator has a benchmark, providing a BSC for gender equality in the organization so informed decisions can be made regarding gender equality.
  • Allows organizations to establish concrete goals on the path to gender equality and measure their progress.
  • Provides key inputs for establishing an Organizational Diagnosis with a gender perspective, as well as formulating a more assertive Action Plan to bridge strategic gender gaps.
  • It features a technical support team that guarantees the accuracy of the information uploaded by delivering a validation process. This team will also analyse the information to provide key recommendations for the formulation or re-orientation of the action plan.

Who uses it?

The main users of [email protected] are organizations that wish to create a baseline for their situation regarding gender equality or those organizations that have been recognized with a Gender Equality Seal and want to monitor their gap-closing processes. In this sense, it is they who contribute the information needed for the assessment of individual, local, regional and global indicators.

What is the structure of the platform?

The structure of [email protected] is based on seven components of organisational analysis called pillars:
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    Organization profile and productivity (OP)
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    Personnel profile (PP)
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    Recruitment, selection and hiring (RSH)
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    Professional development and performance (PDP)
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    Remuneration (R)
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    Prevention of harassment in the workplace (PH)
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    Work-life balance with shared social responsibility (WLBS)
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    Communication (COM)
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    Supply Chain (SC)

Each pillar is tied to basic gender equality indicators and has a series of sub-pillars that define the components to be analysed.

(OP) ORGANIZATION PROFILE AND PRODUCTIVITY

This set of indicators comprises a number of variables and facts about a company or organization including location, size, industry, type of organization and financial metrics. It also contains gender-sensitive productivity indicators such as absenteeism and turnover

SUBPILLARS

  • General descriptive data on the company or organization
  • Financial metrics (Return on Equity, Return on Invested Capital, Return on Sales and others)
  • Gender-sensitive productivity indicators

(PP) PERSONNEL PROFILE

Gathers the perspective and experience of employees in a company or organization, specifically pertaining to the presence or absence of women in relation to men on a variety of levels (e.g. the ratio of men and women in leadership positions, departments, or members of the Board of Directors).

SUBPILLARS

  • General ratio of men and women in a company or organization (participation rate by sex)
  • Horizontal distribution (sex-disaggregated by occupation and department)
  • Vertical distribution (sex dissagregated by level of responsibility)
  • Gender gap in management and other positionsDistribution of employees by type of contract
  • Distribution of employees by type of work day

(RSH) RECRUITMENT, SELECTION AND HIRING

Information which enables the evaluation of recruitment, selection and hiring processes in companies from a gender perspective, assessing whether they produce gender gaps.

SUBPILLARS

  • Recruitment and selection
  • Hiring
  • Personnel assessment/perception of recruitment, selection and hiring processes

(PDP) PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND PERFORMANCE

Gathers the perspective and experience of employees in a company or organization, specifically pertaining to the presence or absence of women in relation to men on a variety of levels (e.g. the ratio of men and women in leadership positions, departments, or members of the Board of Directors).

SUBPILLARS

  • General ratio of men and women in a company or organization (participation rate by sex)
  • Horizontal distribution (sex-disaggregated by occupation and department)
  • Vertical distribution (sex dissagregated by level of responsibility)
  • Gender gap in management and other positionsDistribution of employees by type of contract
  • Distribution of employees by type of work day

(R) REMUNERATION

Compiles information that allows for evaluation of whether the remuneration that women and men receive from companies and organizations in their receipt of fair wages according to the principle of equal pay for work of equal value.

SUBPILLARS

  • Remuneration
  • Personnel assessment/perception of wage policy

(PH) PREVENTION OF SEXUAL AND SEX-BASED HARASSMENT IN THE WORKPLACE

Compiles information needed to measure the existence or lack of measures to prevent and act upon cases of sexual and sex-based harassment in the workplace, the ratio of cases that occurred to those reported, and the impact of addressing and resolving those cases.

SUBPILLARS

  • Sexual and sex-based harassment
  • Personnel assessment/perception of harassment prevention policy
  • Personnel assessment and degree of knowledge of the effectiveness of mechanisms that companies or organizations facilitate to prevent and act against this type of gender-based violence (sex-based and sexual harassment)

(WBLS) WORK-LIFE BALANCE WITH SHARED SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

Assesses whether work-libe balance policies with shared responsibility offer equal opportunitiy for men and women, or if a gender bias exists. Measures the existence, degree of knowledge and rate of utilization of work-life balance measures

SUBPILLARS

  • Paid leave (maternity and paternity)
  • Unpaid leave (temporary leave of absence to care for dependents and other measures)
  • Flexible working arrangements including workspace and schedule
  • Personnel assessment/perception and degree of knowledge of the work-life balance policy

(COM) COMMUNICATION

This set of indicators measures the degree of gender equality in the management of internal and external communications

SUBPILLARS

  • Internal communication without gender bias
  • Assessment/perception of communication and channels/mechanisms for internal communication
  • External communication without gender bias
  • Assessment/perception of communication and channels/mechanisms for external communication

(SC) SUPPLY CHAIN

Companies which are not well informed about the context and the conditions of the actors within their supply chain are more likely to be reinforcing and legitimizing inequalities, in particular against women workers. Ensuring a gender perspective crosscuts the supply chain matters to the business sector because women make up the majority in the lowest paid and most precarious jobs in the supply chain – particularly migrant women, domestic workers, and those employed in low-skilled jobs; and are increasing their participation in global primary production chains. It also matters because women face workplace discrimination, sexual harassment, and other forms of violence, to a much greater extent than men, particularly in global supply chains.

The business sector also should care about their gender impacts across their value chains because women owned businesses, most of them SMEs linked to their supply chains, have much less access to business development opportunities. Women-owned businesses, mostly micro and small businesses, face a wide variety of financial and non-financial barriers that prevent their development and full participation in the formal economy and supply chains, particularly in global supply chains. Promoting women owned SMEs access to procurement opportunities not only enables more business opportunities for women, but also provides the buying companies with greater opportunities to access the best and most suitable suppliers. Undoubtedly when buying companies ignore the economic potential of women owned businesses, and the obstacles and challenges they face to access supply chains, they lose enormous commercial opportunities.

Some actions or measures that organizations can implement include:

  • Integrating gender equality into the company’s supply chain management and communicating its commitment to gender equality and women’s empowerment to its suppliers.
  • Diversifying its suppliers base or increasing its purchases from women owned business.
  • Influencing (informing, sensitizing, prioritizing, demanding) the way in which providers of goods and services treat their staff, particularly women. This influence can go from communicating and raising awareness among suppliers, to prioritizing those suppliers that meet certain criteria, or even insisting that their suppliers meet certain criteria in order to continue working with them.
  • Establishing alliances with third party entities such as, NGOs, unions, business organizations, and supporting processes and projects that promote gender equality and the empowerment of women in the value chain

Based on the information provided by the organisation on its structures, realities and practices with regard to the eight pillars, [email protected] generates automated gender equality impact KPIs that allow for the evaluation of the organisation in terms of gender gaps and the degree of equality achieved.

How do you use the [email protected] online platform?

Three sources of information, or tools, feed into the platform:
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    1. Basic information form

    Completed by the organization. Obtains general information about the organization (descriptive data).

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    2. Gender Equality Self-Assessment (59 Questions)

    Seeks to obtain information about the reality of the organization: personnel data, description of management methods and human resources policies.

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    3. Gender Equality Personnel Opinion Survey (28 questions – 15 minutes)

    Obtains information about the personnel’s assessment/perception of the organization regarding gender equality, effectiveness of policies and integration of the gender perspective into human resources management practices. The organization invites employees to fill-out the survey directly above through the platform.

Who completes the [email protected] basic information form and Gender Equality Self-Assessment?

The self-assessment must be completed by only one person who, within the organization, is designated to collect the data and complete the forms. The person must have the approval and endorsement of senior management or the corresponding body within the organization to perform this kind of task.

Who completes the [email protected] Gender Equality Personnel Opinion Survey?

The Gender Equality Opinion Survey is completed by all personnel at the organization and will either be forwarded to their emails or an individual code will be provided to access the survey through a web link. In the case of personnel who do not have email, the organization must still ensure the survey is completed. The organization may also propose a representative stratified random sample of its personnel to complete the survey. UNDP may provide support to calculate this sample.

Steps to use the [email protected] online platform

To begin using the platform, the interested organisation should contact UNDP. Once this occurs, the process will move forward in the following manner:
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Reports delivered by the [email protected] online platform

Reports delivered by the [email protected] online platform The online platform delivers the following products to the organisation immediately after the information tools are completed:

1. Gender Equality Index (GEI)

Is a composite index that measures the relative performance of the company against a set of benchmarks established to measure the degree of gender equality of the organisation. Each of the benchmarks has a range for positive, intermediate, and negative values. A score of a 100 is given when the value for the organisation scores within the positive range, and 0 when scores within the negative range. The overall index is calculated on a simple average of all scores giving the same relative weight to all the benchmarks within the same dimension or pillar and giving differentiated weights to each dimension depending on its complexity.

2. Gender Gap Report

Based on the results of the organisation’s self-assessment, basic information form and Personnel Opinion Survey, the online platform generates up to 52 automated gender gap indicators divided among the pillars that reflect the organisation’s situation under each of them.

The report shows the result of the Gender Equality Index (GEI) and provides an outlook of all the indicators by using a tree map. It also uses a three-band color system that helps to identify indicators with good (green), intermediate (yellow) or negative performance (red).

The platform also presents a summary for each pillar or component with the results of the Gender Equality Index (GEI) through a radar or spider chart.

It then breaks down the indicators pillar by pillar, defining each gap that was measured, the purpose of the indicator, and the indicator’s result. It graphically shows the values disaggregated by sex, or any other applicable variables.

One of the central elements of this report, when determining an organisation’s situation against each of the indicators, is the visual representation of the “speedometer”, which indicates whether the organisation is in a positive (green), intermediate (yellow) or negative (red) position depending on the indicator range and the optimum reference value. This graphical tool allows the organization to quickly identify the areas of improvement to prioritize with a view to progress in the effective closure of gender gaps.

By clicking the bar with the summary of the indicators, which contains the benchmarks for the interpretation of the indicator, the organization have access to all the indicators of a particular component.

3. Gender Equality Management Self-Assessment Report

The report is produced with the information provided for the employment policies section of the self-assessment. This qualitative information is of vital importance when evaluating the effectiveness of the policies implemented in the organization by knowing and verifying, in a strictly confidential way, whether it is necessary to delve more deeply into the aspects reflected in the survey. The results of the self-assessment will help the organization to compare the effectiveness and degree of knowledge of its policies according to the opinions expressed by its employees. The results are shown following the structure of the pillars. A graphical synthesis of the set of responses for each of the pillars is also included.

4. Employee opinion survey report

This report is produced with the data gathered from the Employee Opinion Survey. It contains demographic data of characterization of the personnel who answered the survey. Each of the questions can be filtered either by pillar or component, or by demographic criteria such us sex, age, ethnic group or disability.

Note: The English version of this document was produced in collaboration with Christina de Paris and Shannon Kirby, UN Online Volunteers.