EOWA - Employer of Choice for Women

Kimberly-Clark Australia recognised as Employer of Choice for Women

28 March 2008

The Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency (EOWA) recently released the 2008 EOWA Employer of Choice for Women List.

Kimberly-Clark Australia was among the list of organisations recognised.

Our recognition in this prestigious award can be largely attributed to the following major initiatives:

  • Increasing the level of female capabilities throughout the business by investing in leadership training and development available at all levels of management. Women make up 20% of participants in the senior leadership programmes and 50% in line management programmes.
  • Introduced paid maternity leave of 12 weeks. Additional special maternity leave is available during the pregnancy and if the employee suffers an illness related to the pregnancy and is not on maternity leave.
  • Streamlined internal advertising of vacant positions – internal applicants are encouraged to apply and all applicants go through a consistent recruitment process. We now have increased women in leadership positions by 10%.
  • Ensuring that we have a work-life balance for all employees by implementing the Flexible Work Arrangement policy. We have increased part-time employees, particularly women coming back into the workforce after maternity leave. Increased part-time managers from none to 5.
  • Implementing a more rigorous Career Development process including individual development plans ensuring a fair and equitable process for both the development opportunities and promotion.

The EOCFW citation is awarded to non-government organisations with more than 80 employees that have demonstrated that they have policies and practices that support women across the organisation and these have had a positive outcome for both women and the business.

Director of EOWA, Anna McPhee acknowledged all the companies recognised and said: “All organisations should use the EOWA Employer of Choice for Women requirements to benchmark their own policies and workplace environment. If every organisation could meet this minimum standard we would be going a long way towards creating true equity for women in the Australian labour force.”