CEW
RESEARCH
Explore our thought leadership and research material.
2021: CEW and Bain & Company: Equitable Flexibility: Reshaping our Workforce
Sam Mostyn AO and Agathe Gross call for action amongst organisations to embrace equitable flexibility that is to be:
- Practiced at scale rather than with an ad-hoc approach
- Encouraged without judgement/preconditions
- Adopted by women and men at all levels of the organisation
- Without barriers to workplace progression or participation
The report also notes the double-edged sword of flexible work for gender equality, which would produce benefits of a better work-life balance, greater autonomy, and increased workplace productivity. Although flexible workers are also perceived to be less committed to their roles, which has been addressed in this report.
2020: KPMG, The Child Care Subsidy: Options for increasing support for caregivers that want to work
As we look to rebuild the Australian economy, affordability of childcare looms as one of the key factors in parents’ ability to secure their desired place in the workforce.
Parents of young children who want to contribute more to household income too often find themselves considering an insufficient financial reward when taking on extra work, once out-of-pocket childcare costs are deducted. This occurs across all family income levels. In particular, it is currently women’s workforce participation that suffers most when childcare is unaffordable.
2020: Flex for Success: Five practices that build a flexible workforce
CEW in partnership with Bain & Company and the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA). Covid-19 has forced changes in the workplace that both illustrate the value of flexibility and create an opportunity for a permanent shift.
The five best practices for workplace flexibility are:
- Ensure flexibility is actually flexible, with limited barriers for gender equality progression
- Link flexibility to strategic goals and the consumer
- Model flexibility
- Encourage and enable team flexibility
- Support individuals to work flexibly
2019: CEW & Bain: Better Together: Increasing male engagement in gender equality efforts in Australia
CEW and Bain and Company’s seventh report on gender parity in Australia explores which men are taking action, and questions why some other men do not take action. The report clearly outlines how three in four (roughly 76%) Australian men support gender equality, yet most of them do not take any action to advance it with only 17% prioritising action.
Bain & Company and CEW together surveyed almost 2,000 Australians across more than 14 industries to understand the current levels of male engagement with gender equality initiatives, the most effective motivators to increase it and the barriers preventing uptake.
2018: Building the CFO Pipeline Report
According to CEW’s annual ASX 200 Executive Census, only a small number of women hold ASX200 Chief Financial Officer (CFO) positions (9% in 2017 and 12% in 2018). This is despite a large number of women entering the workforce with a finance background.
In 2018, CEW interviewed 10 ASX CFOs and four former CFOs, whose insights have demonstrated that whilst many organisations are actively creating pipelines for female finance talent there are still gaps. This has demonstrated that proactive leadership is needed to increase the women in senior financial roles in the near future.
The report provides pragmatic recommendations for both Boards and Senior Executives to assist them in building the female finance pipeline.
2018: CEW & MCC: Backlash & Buy In: Responding to the challenges in achieving gender equality
CEW and Male Champions of Change (MCC) report in 2018 responds to the challenges in achieving gender equality provides valuable insights. In a challenging period for organisations and leadership in Australia, a focus on advancing gender equality remains key the future economic prosperity and social cohesion of Australia. Despite advancements, gender equality will only be achieved if there is better engagement of stakeholders, on both the need and the pathway to gender equity.
This report acknowledges that backlash and resistance are a natural part of change which are necessary to understand to improve gender equality. It identifies underlying drivers of resistance and explains what leaders can do to address resistance and advance gender equality
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