Gender Equality Policy

This policy is intended to guide us in further strengthening the mainstreaming of gender equality within our organisation and services with a purpose to provide equality, fairness and respect for all in our employment, whether temporary, part-time, consultant or full-time employees.

Preferred by Nature is a multicultural, multinational organisation. By end of 2019 we had 265 permanent staff in 34 countries over 6 continents. Close to 55% of our staff are female and 45% male.

While Preferred by Nature maintains a good overall gender balance across the organisation - with historically more women than men employed in total – there is room for improvement at achieving better gender equality at various levels of the organisation (for example, administrative, senior management, board of directors, etc.). As an organisation we are used to working across a large variety of cultures, each with their own perspectives on gender equality.

Guiding principles for Gender policy

1. We are committed to encouraging equality and diversity among our staff. In our recruitment and management of our staff we aim for staff to be truly representative of all sections of society and our stakeholders, and for each employee to feel respected and able to give their best.
2. We want our staff to reflect the diversity of the society in which we work and actively recruit based upon qualifications regardless of personal background, be it age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race (including colour, nationality, and ethnic or national origin), religion or belief, sexual orientation and gender.
3. We are committed to preventing discrimination. If we become aware of discrimination within our organisation, we are committed to dealing with it promptly.
4. We want to provide equality, fairness and respect for all in our employment.
5. We actively promote equality and equal opportunities for our staff including pay and benefits, terms and conditions of employment, dealing with grievances and discipline, dismissal, redundancy, leave for parents, requests for flexible working, and selection for employment, promotion, training or other developmental opportunities.
6. We insist on a working environment free of bullying, harassment, victimization, and discrimination.
7. We want to promote and treat each other with dignity and respect for all, and be an organisation where individual differences and the contributions of all staff are recognised and valued.
8. We will develop an action plan to ensure a better gender balance across all levels of the organisation.

Monitoring, reporting, and revising

We will monitor and report annually on

• The diversity of our staff
• The gender balance across all levels of the organisation
• Activities taken to fulfil our policy objectives
• Any complaints received under the policy and with respect to confidentiality and sensitivities
• The effectiveness and impact of this policy
• We will revise and improve this policy based on an open and transparent assessment of our annual reporting against the equality policy

Complaints

Any complaints of bullying, harassment, victimisation and discrimination by fellow employees, customers, suppliers, visitors, the public and any others in the course of the organisation’s work activities will be taken seriously, and handled in accordance with our Dispute Resolution Policy which can be found here.