Equal, Safe and Strong: Actions and milestones

The achievement of sustainable change relies upon the extent to which our workforce connects with the benefits of gender equality.

The Gender Equality Communication and Engagement Strategy will strengthen knowledge and attitudes that support gender equality.

Explicit intersectional focus

• Develop, execute and evaluate whole of organisation Gender Equality Communication and Engagement Strategy

Informed by the Gender Equality Communication and Engagement Strategy, MCED will develop internal communications and apply a gendered lens across all internal and external communications.

Explicit intersectional focus

• Co-design, execute and evaluate internal communications, tools and tactics
• Adopt best practice gender equality advice to build gender attuned capability across MCED

The place-based gender equality pilot will identify local opportunities to strengthen a safe, inclusive and respectful workplace culture.

Explicit intersectional focus

• Design, deliver and review pilot station action plans
• Develop recommendations for inclusion in a gender attuned leadership capability framework

Equal access workplace projects will target workplaces where unequal representation is most prevalent to identify and address core drivers of inequality.

• Design, deliver and review tailored interventions
• Develop recommendations for inclusion in a gender attuned leadership capability framework

Increasing the diversity of representation in governing bodies will enhance organisational capability by ensuring that key decisions which impact our employees are reflective of our entire workforce.

Explicit intersectional focus

• Identify key governing bodies and develop processes to improve their diversity

The Gender Equality Act 2020 requires that a Gender Impact Assessment is applied to all new and amended policies and programs. A suite of tools will be built to support policy and program developers to apply a gendered lens.

Explicit intersectional focus

• Design and deliver a suite of tools
• Integrate Gender Impact Assessment into existing processes

In order for the Victoria Police Manual to reflect a gendered understanding, processes will be established to ensure a Gender Impact Assessment is undertaken for all new and amended policies.

Explicit intersectional focus

• Co-design (with HRC) tools for policy review
• Integrate Gender Impact Assessment into existing policy development processes

In order for Victoria Police training programs to reflect a gendered understanding, processes will be established to ensure a Gender Impact Assessment is undertaken for all new and amended training programs (including content and delivery).

Explicit intersectional focus

• Co-design (with HRC) tools for training review
• Integrate Gender Impact Assessment into existing training review processes

This action will ensure that Victoria Police planning processes include a tangible gender equality focus by incorporating this as a specific requirement in annual action plans.

Explicit intersectional focus

• Co-design and establish processes to support gender equality inclusion in action plan development
• Embed a gender equality focus into the Planning Community of Practice to inform annual planning

A Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) framework will assess the organisation’s material progress towards sustainable gender equality utilising Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for each action in the action plan.

Explicit intersectional focus

• Establish and monitor KPIs twice yearly
• Develop annual progress reports
• Utilise learnings to inform 2024–2027 action plan

The attitudes, skills and knowledge required to respond effectively to gendered violence rely on our organisational understanding of gender inequality.

This action will ensure that a gendered lens is applied to the training of our supervisors, frontline and detectives.

Explicit intersectional focus

• Review and enhance relevant learning outcomes for current training
• Review and enhance competency testing into existing training modules

Strengthening promotion and progression at SOCITs and FVIUs to ensure a gendered understanding is a key leadership capability within these units.

This will improve community confidence in our specialist responses to gendered violence and increase gender balance in leadership positions.

• Develop inherent requirements of officer in charge (OIC) roles, with a focus on capabilities required to lead victim-centric teams and to improve the rate of brief authorisation
• Work in partnership with HRC to improve the attraction, selection and retention of OICs with required capabilities, including exploring centralised panelling, amendment of position profiles and descriptions, and consistency in selection of candidates for higher duty opportunities

The new Victoria Police brand campaign proposes a tailored and candidate-centric approach so that a diverse range of applicants can see themselves in the role.

This action has an explicit focus on attracting female applicants.

• Develop and execute a segmented approach to creative development and media buy, underpinned by research and analysis
• Review campaign effectiveness

This action seeks to counter the detrimental impact of backlash that women experience upon promotion.

We will support retention and amplify early performance through a proactive manager-led structured onboarding program.

• Identify opportunities to address barriers to early performance in newly promoted employees
• Design suite of onboarding tools and integrate into existing processes

To ensure police promotions prioritise the capabilities required at each rank, applicants will need to demonstrate suitability for promotion prior to applying for a specific role.

Applicants will be assessed according to more consistent and objective rank requirements, reducing backlash and reinforcing leadership competencies.

Explicit intersectional focus

• Design suitability assessment process aligned with existing capability frameworks and qualifying programs
• Commence and review phased roll out of suitability assessment process

Position profiles and descriptions significantly influence the candidate pool.

Through the application of a Gender Impact Assessment, we will remove gendered barriers to the application process, whilst ensuring promotion decisions reflect the inherent requirements of the role.

Explicit intersectional focus

• Co-design (with HRC) tools for review of position profiles and descriptions
• Integrate Gender Impact Assessment into existing review processes

Victoria Police does not have a formal definition of merit, leading to subjective and inconsistent assessment of capability in opportunities for progression.

This action will establish a clear and explicit set of rules for how merit should be applied across the employee lifecycle.

Explicit intersectional focus

• Consolidate evidence on best practice and current state
• Develop definition and integrate into relevant policies and legislation

In order to ensure that practice and culture reflect the organisational definition of merit, this action will implement changes to policy, procedure, training and communications.

Explicit intersectional focus

• Identify and amend relevant policy and procedures
• Implement communication and training initiatives

Strengthening the composition of selection panels through a more diverse range of expertise and perspectives will reduce the impact of biases and improve the panel’s capability to assess applicants according to organisational requirements.

Explicit intersectional focus

• Develop best practice panel composition model
• Amend relevant policy and processes

Workplaces that value and support the role of all parents are far more likely to retain high performing employees and sustain the wellbeing, resilience and motivation for service.

This action seeks to improve support of employees who transition to parenthood and other caring roles.

• Build manager-led best practice transition program
• Amend existing policy, programs and recording processes

The gendered nature of flexible work reflects the continued influence of stereotypes in relation to caring roles.

By re-designing flexible work practices, including policy, process, rostering and recording, this action will ensure consistent and equitable access to flexible work.

• Design and deliver best practice
  approach to flexible work, including changes to policy, process, rostering and recording
• Implement communication
  and engagement approach

Career progression is improved through the availability of higher duties opportunities.

This action will develop a best practice organisational approach to higher duties to support equal access to career progression, whilst meeting workplace capability requirements.

Explicit intersectional focus

• Design and deliver best practice approach to higher duties assignments, including standardised decision-making and recording
• Amend existing policy and processes

At Victoria Police the gender pay gap is more significant for VPS than for police, driven primarily by gendered disparities in negotiated start salaries.

This action will implement remedies to address these disparities.

Explicit intersectional focus

• Design and deliver processes to strengthen consistency in VPS starting salaries
• Integrate impact of new processes into annual gender pay gap review

Existing training on gendered workplace harm is siloed, impacting the capability of managers to respond effectively.

Through an organisational learning framework, this action will identify gaps and build an evidence informed approach to improve learning outcomes.

• Identify overlap and gaps in centralised learning offerings on gendered workplace harm and related behaviours
• Identify learning outcomes and enhance existing training opportunities
• Build business case to deliver organisational learning framework

An important part of delivering an accessible, transparent, victim centric and remediation focussed complaints and discipline system, is ensuring it recognises and respond to the needs of victims of gendered workplace harm and gendered violence.

This action will ensure a gendered lens is applied to all elements of system and process reform.

Explicit intersectional focus

• Develop and implement processes to build gender attuned capability into complaint and discipline reforms

This action will enable the organisation to predict risk indicators of gendered workplace harm for victims, offenders and workplaces.

An intelligence-led approach will provide predictive models for targeted workplace interventions.

• Develop process for analysis and compilation of profiles
• Establish governance mechanisms to support intelligence led interventions

Employee exit is a key change point in the employee lifecycle that can identify opportunities for improved practice and culture, including interventions to prevent workplace harm.

A structured, consistent approach to exit surveys will provide actionable intelligence about areas at
risk of workplace harm.

Explicit intersectional focus

• Design and implement best practice exit processes, including changes to policy, process and centralised recording
• Establish governance mechanisms to support intelligence led interventions

The Gendered Harm Strategic Review Working Group will coordinate and analyse intelligence to identify workplaces and employee cohorts at risk to support targeted interventions.

This will increase opportunities for prevention, reporting and accountability of workplace managers.

• Establish working group structure and governance. Develop process for the collection and analysis of data sources relating to gendered harm
• Develop suite of intelligence led interventions and accountability processes

• Work with internal and external partners to explore an intervention program for employees investigated for family violence and gendered workplace harm and to identify arrangements for its delivery.