Equal Employment Opportunity Annual Report – 2000 Evaluation of the Program

Key Indicators

The data and analysis set out below, together with statistics in Appendix 2, provide a measure of progress of the four designated EEO groups within the Bank, and a benchmark for appropriate future action. In the following analyses, occupational groupings have been determined using the Australian Standard Classification of Occupations (ASCO) codes from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. These are described more fully in Appendix 2.

Overall staff numbers declined this year by 72, which represents a slower decline than in previous years of larger scale restructuring. The reduction occurred largely as a result of a redundancy program in the business services area. In November 1999, the Bank announced the impending closure of the Brisbane, Melbourne and Perth Branches, as well as the cessation of the Bank's cash operations in Adelaide and Sydney. This round of redundancies should be completed by March 2001.

Women

  • As at 30 June, women represented 44% of the Bank's staff, consistent with the representation levels of recent years. When the EEO statistics were first collected in 1987, 48% of staff were women. This gradual decline has been largely due to the impact of technology and the resultant loss of clerical jobs. Only 34% of the Bank's staff are engaged in clerical occupations. Of these 67% are held by women compared to 87% in 1991.

    Graph Showing Representation within Occupational Groups by Gender
  • 64% of the Bank's staff are in managerial or professional positions. 34% of these positions are held by women. The percentage of management positions filled by women (Level 5 and above) increased from 24% as at 30 June 1999, to 26% as at 30 June 2000. In June 1991 only 8% of management positions were held by women.
  • Resignations and retirements are shown in separate tables in Appendix 2. Of the 181 staff who resigned from the Bank this year, 48% were women, compared to last year's 51%. Involuntary redundancies account for 43% of all resignations. Analyses of exit interviews indicated that the main reasons given for resignation for both men and women are concerns about career progression (promotion opportunity, long-term career path) and job specific issues (recognition given, nature of duties, level of responsibility).

  • As a group, female staff are younger than male staff, but the difference continues to narrow. At year end, 45% of Bank staff were under the age of 35.51% of women, compared to 40% of men are under the age of 35. Of total staff, 44% have been in the Bank for less than ten years. This is similar for both men and women.

    Graph Showing Age Distribution of Staff

People from Non-English Speaking Backgrounds

  • The representation of people from non-English speaking backgrounds (NESB1 and NESB2) has increased from 28% last year to 30% of staff overall. In 1991 it was 19%.
  • Overall, 21% of total Bank staff are in management positions (Level 5 and above). The proportion of management positions filled by staff from non-English speaking backgrounds is 15%.
  • 53% of the staff from non-English speaking backgrounds are in professional/associate professional occupations, which is comparable to staff as a whole, where 55% are in these occupations.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People

  • The representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people has remained similar to last year.

People with Disabilities

  • The representation of people with disabilities has remained the same as last year.
  • The analysis on the representation of people with disabilities may be conservative since the definition of a disability is subjective, reflecting the opinion of the individual completing the survey. Furthermore, fear or embarrassment may reduce the number who are willing to identify themselves. Also a disability acquired after commencing employment is not included in the analysis as the data is only collected at the recruitment stage.

Staff Selection

  • 110 staff were recruited this year. Of these, 47% were women, 41% were from non-English speaking backgrounds, and 1% were Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander people. No people with disabilities were recruited over the year, despite the active encouragement, and processing, of several applications. In the year ahead increased attention will be given to encouraging applications from people with disabilities who have the skills required for vacancies that arise.
  • Women represented only 28% of the applicants for graduate positions but they performed strongly through the selection process and represented 39% of the final intake. This was a significant increase on last year.
  • The Bank offered 12 places under the Australian Traineeship Program during the year. 7 recruits were women and 10 were from non-English speaking backgrounds.
  • The number of promotions over the reporting period totalled 84, of which 40% were awarded to women.
  • During the year 111 staff selection panels convened for positions advertised internally and/or externally. 98% of panels included a female member and 33% were chaired by a woman. This is an increase on last year's figures where 92% had a female member and 25% were chaired by a woman.

Career Development & Staff Training

  • To further enhance the data provided on study assistance, information has been included this year on staff qualifications, that is, the highest education level attained. 39% of Bank staff have a post-secondary or tertiary qualification. Of these, 64% are bachelor degrees whilst 24% were post-graduate/doctorate degrees. 31% of women, compared to 46% of men, had some form of qualification. However, within the management levels (Level 5 and above) women equalled, and in some cases exceeded, the percentage of men with qualifications.

    Graph Showing Qualifications
  • Overall 11% of staff received study assistance, which remains unchanged from last year. 12% of women received assistance compared to 10% of men. This is an improvement from last year where 9% of women received assistance. Post-graduate study is now the most popular form of study.

  • 80% of staff attended some form of training during the year. 57% attended some formal in-house training, an increase from 50% last year. 50% or more of all the EEO groups attended in-house training. In addition staff used computer and internet based training.

    Graph Showing Study Assistance
  • 43% of staff attended external training. 40% of women and 45% of men attended external training. In response to the gender imbalance noted in last year's external training participation, a review was conducted of external training attendance during that year. The analysis showed that this outcome was largely due to a higher level of attendance at more senior levels, where men are more strongly represented.
  • This year 14 women attended one or more overseas course(s) or conference(s). An analysis demonstrated that at each salary level, the representation of men and women at overseas courses or conferences was consistent with their representation at that level.
  • 13 women attended the Springboard program and one female staff member was a mentor for the program. Since 1993, 72 women have attended this course with an average of 8 attending each year.

  • There were 99 formal internal staff transfers during the year, an increase from last year's 82. The overall transfer rate was 13% for women and 11% for men. In addition there were 10 internal secondments.

    Graph Showing Transfer Rates Within Classification Levels
  • During the year 2 employees were seconded to other employers within Australia and another 2 were seconded overseas. Half of these secondees were women.

Conditions of Employment

  • 6% of women and 3% of men took paid parental leave during the year. 38% of women who returned to work from parental leave did so within 12 months of commencing the leave. Men were away for an average of 4 days. The available paid paternity entitlement is 5 days.

    Graph Showing Women Completing Parental Leave
  • 89% of women completing parental leave during the year returned to work. This is a significant increase on last year when only 42% returned, and is the highest rate ever recorded by the Bank.
  • Of the women who returned to work at the end of parental leave, 75% returned part-time and 25% returned full-time.
  • During the year 6% of staff received approval to work part-time. This comprised 44 women and 4 men from salary Levels 1 through to 7. There were 22 instances of women working part-time contiguous with parental leave. There were a further 15 instances of employees working in a permanent part-time capacity and 16 instances of temporary part-time work. Some women took more than one form of part-time work during the year. 2 women resigned from part-time work.
  • There were five job share arrangements over the year, four of which were in Head Office and one in a branch. As at 30 June, 4 staff were on the job share register, indicating their interest to job share.
  • 37% of staff took carer's leave during the year. This leave was used equally by men and women and the average number of days taken was 2.5.