Auckland Council is the largest public service employer in Auckland and we serve one of the world’s most diverse cities.
Today, on International Women’s Day, we are taking a special look at how the council is progressing in its goal of becoming a recognised diversity and inclusion leader for Auckland.
What are we doing? We’re doing a lot!
We adopted a comprehensive Diversity and Inclusion Framework (Inclusive Auckland Framework) because we wanted to grow into a more inclusive organisation. Here is a snapshot of our gender equity initiatives:
- We are a Gender Tick recipient
- We are doing well in the area of pay equity and we hold a bronze gender pay award. Our monitoring of gender pay parity across our workforce has not identified significant differences in pay for male and female staff doing the same roles
- We have identified the primary gender pay issue for the council relates to fewer women in senior leadership roles, so we have set gender, Maori and ethnicity targets for the makeup of our senior leadership team
- We have implemented the Living Wage. Many of our lower paid workers are women and this will have a positive impact on gender pay parity
- We recently affirmed our commitment to advancing the goals of the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) including six-monthly progress reports to council’s Community Development and Safety Committee and communicating our support for CEDAW to the Hon Julie Anne Genter, Minister of Women
- We are working hard to encourage Auckland’s diverse peoples to engage with the upcoming local government elections and to ensure we have a diverse pipeline of applicants for the Boards of our Council Controlled Organisations.
What’s new?
Today, we announced the launch of ‘He Ata’ - the council’s Female Accelerated Leadership Programme. He Ata will help us develop a more diverse pool of talented female leaders ready for senior leadership roles at the council.
Fezeela Raza, Auckland Council's Principal Advisor, Diversity & Inclusion, is proud that the council has such a strong commitment to creating a senior leadership team that reflects the city it serves.
“I believe this commitment is critical to better connect us to the people of Auckland while recognising that gender and ethnic diversity in leadership give us a performance and innovation advantage.”
He Ata has been designed to provide participants with the development and exposure needed to progress to Enterprise Leadership roles within council; aligning strongly with our organisational goals for more diversity in our senior leadership.
