By
La Trobe Financial has been recognised as a complying organisation when it comes to the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012 (the Act), but this comes as little surprise to the specialist lending group.
“Most of our successful employees as ranked by our Company Awards each year have been women,” says Brian Ford, La Trobe Financial’s COO.
“Out of our 120 staff, we have 30 employees that have worked with us for over 10 years and 19 of them are women. That says a lot for the company.”
The Act was established to promote and improve gender equality and was designed for organisations to close the gap between the genders in the workplace, including full and part-time employees, occupation and remuneration.
La Trobe says that, for over 60 years, the company has recognised that its employees are the very core of the company’s successful existence, regardless of gender. The company has had a long history of ensuring women in the workforce are given equal opportunity with male counterparts, having started a female superannuation fund for all female staff in 1968.
The Act introduces a new reporting and compliance framework. This, says La Trobe, is an important initiative which aims to reduce the regulatory burden on employers, encourage measures that improve gender equality outcomes and provide a rich data set that the Workplace Agency will analyse to develop industry-based educational benchmarks and future strategies to improve general equality in Australian workplaces.
“Our staff are our greatest ambassadors,” says Greg O’Neill, La Trobe Financial’s CEO.
“All employees are treated as individuals, deserving the respect of their subordinates, peers and superiors. Without each other’s support and commitments, we would not be one of Australia’s leading credit specialist fund managers.”
