The EBN Secretariat aims to be a place of equality and mutual respect among employees, who shall be treated fairly and enjoy equal opportunities. Staff at the EBN Secretariat shall not be discriminated against based on gender, and have equal access to advancement, training, and responsibility.
1) Publication and official endorsement of the GEP
The GEP plan is a strategic document owned and implemented by the whole EBN secretariat. Once the GEP is approved and signed it will be published on the organisation’s website. Each year there will be a progress report when the process manager presents to the CEO qualitative and quantitative data and might propose additional or deepen of current points of GEP. Moreover, this report will be included in the management report which is submitted to the Board.
2) Resources
EBN will allocate the time of a senior function(s) to endorse this policy by emphasizing that promoting gender policy is the responsibility of every staff member. EBN will raise awareness to increase staff sensitivity to gender equality topics by bringing this topic during EBN team meetings at least twice per year by discussing following topics: – unconscious bias, recruitment and career progression, work-life balance, gender sensitive communication…
3) Data collection and monitoring
EBN is already collecting data on the gender and by contractual relation to the organisation of their staff. EBN also pays attention while preparing physical or online events to respect gender balance. EBN will start collecting data on gender in recruitment.
Another data and metrics that EBN can consider collecting in the future:
- Numbers of women and men having left the organisation in the past years, specifying the numbers of years spent in the organisation.
- Number of staff by gender applying for parental leave, for how long and how many returned after taking the leave.
- Gender balance during EBN events.
- Number of training hours attended by gender.
The EBN GEP is a recent policy which will evolve, and different priorities could be identified and added. The current EBN GEP focuses around these 2 aims:
A. Work-life balance and organisational culture
B. Gender equality in recruitment
A. Work-life balance and organisational culture
A key component of an organisation’s culture for advancing gender equality is work-life balance. Work-life balance is relevant for both women and men and involves ensuring that all staff are properly supported to advance their career alongside personal responsibilities that they may hold outside of the workplace, including caring responsibilities.
EBN work-life balance policies and practices include:
- Different type of leave policies
For more information, please check here: https://www.belgium.be/fr/emploi/conges_et_interruption_de_carriere or speak with CEO or CFO, who can provide information also in English.
- Workplace flexibility
Flexible hours are the core of workplace flexibility. This lets employees create their own schedule as long as they still maintain the same level of productivity, adhere to due dates, and still turn in quality work that meets expectations.
Main tools to achieve workplace flexibility in EBN are:
- Flexitime with core hours
The standard number of working hours per week amounts to 37.5h. Full time employees perform their jobs during the standard working hours which are as specified in their working contract from 9:00 – 17:30. Employees should be in the office and/or reachable (in case of teleworking) at least during the following core hours:
- 9H30/12H30
- 14H30/16H30
Moreover, they need to also respect the following:
- The working day should not exceed 9h of working per day.
- Employees can choose the length of their lunch breaks between 12:30-14:30.
- The minimum weekly working hours amount to 25h and should not exceed more than 45 h per week.
- The total amount of worked hours should correspond to the total amount of days worked during the month multiplied by working days. Ex: 20 working days = 20*7.5= 150h average.
- Any exception to this rule should be discussed with the CEO.
- Teleworking
During teleworking employees can manage their working time. However, they need to take in consideration their deadlines and participation in meetings and events. As well the fact that we are a small team and often working together. Employees need to take in consideration standard working hours while planning their work and interaction with their colleagues. They also need to make sure that their tasks are fulfilled and delivered on schedule. Full-time employees are allowed to telework:
- 2 days per week (days of teleworking to be written in outlook agenda at least one, ideally 2 weeks in advance).
- 15 working days in a year in total abroad. No more than 10 days in row.
B. Gender equality in recruitment
Women face discrimination and structural barriers along their career path. Recruitment, selection, and career progression measures aim to ensure that women and men get equal chances to develop and advance their careers.
As a first step EBN will focus on gender equality in recruitment and will take following measures to achieve its goal:
- Use gender sensitive communication in recruitment advertisement and educate the whole team, but mainly the communication unit, about this topic.
- Prefer open and publicly advertised recruitment and selection procedures over closed ones.
- Keep data about the number of participants and their sex during the selection process.
- Ensure that recruitment panels are gender-balanced or if not possible, including a minimum number of women.
This policy shall be evaluated every year during the progress report and if necessary, it will be amended. Process manager is responsible for initiating the revision work.
This policy is approved by CEO for implementation 1/9/2022.
entation 1/9/2022.