22 March 2022 – International design, engineering and advisory company Aurecon has been recognised again as an employer of choice for gender equality by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA), for its visible commitment to the cause and progress achieved over the past two years.

To obtain the highly coveted acknowledgement, Aurecon met all criteria set out by WGEA across seven focus areas, including developing a gender-balanced workforce, mainstreaming flexible work, leadership, strategy and accountability, supporting for caring and gender pay equity.

Over the past two years, female representation at Aurecon has steadily increased across both manager and non-manager levels, by 3 per cent and 6 per cent, respectively. In terms of business disciplines, the numbers of women have also seen growth since 2019 across Engineering, Geospatial, Technical and Clients & Markets.

Delighted at the recognition, William Cox, CEO of Aurecon said, “Operating within some of the most gender-imbalanced industries in Australia, we are keenly aware of the unique challenges facing engineers around gender equality. However, this also means opportunities for us to make a real difference.

“With gender equality being a fundamental pillar in our diversity and inclusion strategy, we are committed to improving gender representation in both the workforce and leadership, through initiatives with clear objectives, including pay parity, recruitment and gender targets and ongoing investment in our people.”

Other recent initiatives Aurecon has taken to further gender equality include:

• Respect@Work – an actionable workplan to respond to recommendations from the Sex Discrimination Commissioner, to raise awareness of behaviours and language that constitute sexism and sexual harassment, and highlight appropriate responses and pathways to support.

• Courageous conversations – mandatory leadership development training on gender equality across Australia and New Zealand to drive conversations that progress diversity, equity and inclusion at the leadership level

• Parental leave and working part-time – targets set to encourage men to take parental leave and increase the proportion of male part-timers, to reduce stigma and drive systemic change. Story-telling sessions are held for individuals to share personal experiences and encourage other men to take extended paid parental leave.

“Improving gender equality also means a cultural transformation, and it is often reflected in incremental changes over time. It’s fantastic to see continuous progress made through the team’s concerted effort,” added Cox.

“For example, four of our five regional managing directors across Australia and New Zealand now are female, and we’re seeing more and more people at Aurecon be able to articulate why and how we should support change, which signals a strong shift from a few years ago.”

Aurecon has been an Employer of Choice for Gender Equality citation holder since 2016. It was also recently named as the Most Popular Engineering Employer 2022 by the Australian Financial Review, and an Inclusive Employer 2021-2022 by Diversity Council Australia.