Gender Diversity Policy in Wesfarmers: A Critique and Recommendations

This article discusses the gender diversity policy of Wesfarmers, a popular supermarket chain in Australia. It critiques the policy and provides recommendations to improve it. The article also highlights the importance of workplace diversity and equal opportunities for both male and female employees.

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Emotional intelligence
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Workplace diversity must be inculcated by all the industries in their organization so that
they can provide an employee friendly environment. It is the duty of the organizations to make
sure that they are being able to follow both an employee friendly and also customer friendly
approach. Therefore it is essential for all the industries to make sure that they are being able to
provide a proper set of opportunities to both the male and the female employees without making
any discrimination between them. Wesfarmers is one of the most popular super market chains of
Australia (sustainability.wesfarmers.com.au.2019). They make sure that they are giving full
representation to their female employees within their organization so that they can retain the high
performing employees and also be able to achieve their goals and objectives in the long run.
Wesfarmers makes sure that they are giving all possible efforts to develop an inclusive work
culture.
Wesfarmers have tried their level best to make sure that there is no partiality or biasness
followed in the organization and also they try to appoint equal number of female and male
employees (sustainability.wesfarmers.com.au.2019). Wesfarmers always try to maintain parity
between the male and the female employees because they want to satisfy a double purpose from
this. In other words, they try to make sure that they are being able to generate the most
innovative ideas for the betterment of their organisation. (Sipe et al. 2016) has stated that
Wesfarmers have been able to develop an inclusive work culture by focusing on the equal
representation of women in their organization. They make sure that all the female employees are
getting equal opportunities for promotions and also being given the equal amount of privileges
that are being entitled to the male employees. Wesfarmers always try their level best to empower
women through their constant efforts. They want to make sure that the female employees are
getting complete right to voice their opinions and their feedbacks in all the different business

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decision process. Adesoye et al. (2017) have agreed in the similar context that one of the other
unique and innovative feature that is seen within the work culture of Wesfarmers is that they
have developed their talent acquisition and talent management process in a proper manner. They
have made sure that none of their employees are discouraged to take part in all the business
decision activities. They always ensure a proper skill training and management system for the
purpose of develop a very broad and unique diversified pool of talent.
Cundiff and Vescio (2016) have argued in the similar context that there are still several
instances where female employees have complained regarding the negligence or the ill practices
that they have to come across during the time of the recruitment or promotions in the
organizations. This is because of the fact that the average income of male employees in Australia
remains higher than the female employees. In other words, the amount of difference that has
been seen in the income that is being earned by the male and the female employees are about
female employees by $241. It has been seen that the full-time average weekly earnings of women
in any of the business organizations is at $1,484.80 when they are compared with $1,726.30 for
men (wow2016cr.qreports.com.au. 2019). Thus it is seen in the similar context there are still
some issues that needs to be solved so that there is no further discrimination among male and the
female employees in any grounds (Martin & Ball, 2019). As per the opinion of Trevino and
Nelson (2016), many of the well known companies in Australia are taking this issue in a very
serious manner and are trying to bring some kinds of policies that would make sure to safeguard
the rights of the female employees. Woolworths is one among such organizations that have
started taking a proper care of the gender discrimination and the pay gap issue in the salary of the
male and the female employees.

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The information about the diversity of the company have been collected from the
different secondary sources like the company website, the annual reports and the other such
authentic websites that are talking about the different ways in which the gender diversity policy
is being used in the company.
The gender Diversity policy is already implemented in the organization and the company
is trying their level best to make sure that they are able to follow the same. A critique of the
diversity initiatives of the company shows that there have been some issues that are still
prevalent in the company. However at the same time, they have to make sure that the policy is
being followed properly. There are some instances where the female employees are still
neglected. There is the lack of female employees in the higher management posts. This shows
that female
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The company will have to follow some recommendation measures in order to face thee issues.
 The company must make sue to re-assess the Gender Diversity policies so that they can
be properly carried on in the organization.
 They will have to develop many new kinds of workshop or scenarios so that they are
being able to train their employees so that they can understand and also work properly on
the gender diversity issues

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 Horizontal communication system is to be developed so that they can take a regular
feedback from all the female employees to know if the policy is being maintained
properly or not.
The additional sources on which the recommendations will be made based on the
implementation of the gender diversity policy and the employee feedback system. This is
because they will be able to understand about the different complaints and the issues that the
female employees are facing. This in turn will be helping them to take up the right measures to
solve the issues.
Wesfarmers take a multidisciplinary approach for providing protection to the rights of
their female employees. They have made sure that they are conducting an in depth research and
analysis in order to find out the best opportunities that they can get for developing the condition
of the female employees (sustainability.wesfarmers.com.au.2019). In 2018, independent external
gender audits were conducted that helped the company management in finding out many
different kinds of opportunities that could develop the gender balance.
Porter and Kramer (2019) has opined in the similar context that availability of resources
is one of the most essential aspects that is needed for the purpose of supporting the needs and
demands of the employees. In order to do so the organization has developed a proper tool kit that
can act as a resource base and can be used by the organization for rendering equal help to their
make and their female employees for the purpose of understanding the different ways in which
they can help themselves and can gain the apt knowledge that is needed to overcome the gender
discrimination issues.

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Wesfarmers Gender diversity policy is also one of the most essential steps that have been
taken by the company. This is helpful as it has created many new opportunities for helping the
female employees to work for their own rights and to protest against any kinds of issues that are
being created in the organization. Crane et al. (2019) has argued that there is the lack of
sufficient representation of female employees in the senior management roles. In order to deal
with this issue, the company has started to work over the same. They have started developing
new vacant posts in the senior managerial and operational levels so that they can appoint the best
candidate at the best role. Female employees are equally welcomed to voice their opinions, their
feedbacks or any other kinds of challenges that they perceive in front of them.
Thus it can be concluded that Wesfarmers is slowly taking its march towards achieving a
proper inclusive work culture. They are working over all other drawbacks in their organization
and trying to overcome the same.

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References
Adesoye, T., Mangurian, C., Choo, E. K., Girgis, C., Sabry-Elnaggar, H., & Linos, E. (2017).
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citizenship and sustainability in the age of globalization. Oxford University Press.
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disparities in the workplace. Sex Roles, 75(3-4), 126-138.
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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/15/australias-gender-pay-gap-still-14-
with-men-earning-240-more-a-week-than-women
Porter, M. E., & Kramer, M. R. (2019). Creating shared value. In Managing sustainable
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study of university students’ changing perceptions of gender discrimination in the
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https://sustainability.wesfarmers.com.au/our-principles/people/diversity/gender-balance/

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Trevino, L. K., & Nelson, K. A. (2016). Managing business ethics: Straight talk about how to do
it right. John Wiley & Sons.