Tags: employment equity, ee report, employment equity policy, offers of employment, gender transformation, department of labour, employment equity act

Ensuring your business meets the Department of Labour's employment equity requirements is a massive task. And while most businesses focus on the BEE or race aspect of employment equity, the Commission for Gender Equality has issued a reminder that you also need to implement meaningful gender transformation. It's done this because of the recent Mbombela local municipality hearing. The municipality failed attempts to address transformation in the workplace. Here's how to ensure your EE policy takes gender transformation into account.

When the Minister of Labour, Mildred Oliphant, released the Commission for Employment Equity's (CGE) 2012 Report, she said that while EE figures were improving in the employment of blacks at top senior management levels, there was still a gross under-representation of women in the workplace, says The Labour Bulletin.

Now, the CGE has emphasised that businesses need to achieve meaningful gender transformation, says Bizcommunity.
Mbombela's municipal manager Xolani Mzobe said at a recent hearing that the municipality had employment equity targets based on gender transformation, but actual results fell below these goals.

While the municipality managers are now liable for criminal charges, the CGE won't pursue the matter provided the municipality co-operates with the commission in future.

Here's how to make sure your job vacancy ads and offers of employment are gender neutral!

The easiest way to make sure you don't contravene the Employment Equity Act is to have a look at the way your company phrases its job vacancy ads.

If your offers of employment aren't gender neutral, you could face penalties of up to R900 000, says the Practical Guide to Human Resource Management.

But you can get around mentioning gender in a job vacancy ad by focusing instead on the minimum skills required to do the job.
Implement this tip today to start employing meaningful gender transformation in your workplace.

Author: Leigh Andrews