Why performance indicators?

- Performance indicators make it easier to follow up gender equality work
- Performance indicators allow you to make comparisons between organisations
  and over time
- Performance indicators provide a concrete basis for analyses and learning
- Performance indicators rouse people to act

In seeking to provide good indicators, W2T and the Key Ratio Institute have studied a number of projects on gender equality and ways of measuring performance. We have sought to identify a limited number of indicators that can be incorporated into pay and HR systems in a simple, straightforward manner and which reflect gender equality both qualitatively and quantitatively. We eventually settled for the 3R system, which deals with both these aspects. The three ‘Rs’ are: Representation, Resources and Realia. We call our performance indicator GenderKey.

What is GenderKey?
GenderKey (‘Gender Index’) comprises nine performance indicators that measure different aspects of gender equality in an organisation. These indicators can be combined to form a gender equality index – a measure of the extent to which gender equality has been achieved. Briefly, the nine indicators showing progress in this field are as follows:

- Occupation – do the various occupational groups in the organisation enjoy
  gender equality?
- Leadership – does gender equality prevail at the top?
- Management – do women and men have the same chance of becoming managers?
- Pay – is it equal for women and men?
- Ill-Health – is the rate of illness-related absence from work the same for women
  and men?
- Parenthood – do the men take parental leave?
- Part-Time Work – is the employment rate the same for women and men?
- Job Security – do women and men have the same form/terms of employment?
- Gender Equality Plan – does the organisation work actively to implement the plan?

We use three performance indicators to determine representation and gender structure: jobs in which women and men are equally represented, the proportion of women at the top, and the proportion of women managers. Representation at senior level and in other managerial posts also serves as a measure of women’s advancement opportunities in the organisation.

To illustrate the distribution of resources between the sexes we have chosen the three indicators Pay, Job Security and Part-Time Work. The latter two relate to the form/terms of employment and the person’s position in the labour market. Regarding the Pay indicator, we use women’s pay as a percentage of men’s, in the full knowledge that this ignores differences between the types of work involved. This indicator nevertheless allows us to obtain an overall picture of the gender equality situation in the organisation, and to identify changes in other areas (more women in managerial posts, for instance, should show up in pay levels).

The third R, Realia, refers to the qualitative aspect and to the climate. What values, norms and quality criteria govern the organisation’s activities, and whose needs are being met? How actively is gender equality being promoted? The three performance indicators Ill-Health, Parenthood and Gender Equality Plan may give an idea of the situation. Ill-Health is about long-term absence from work, while Parenthood refers to the amount of parental leave fathers take.

Gender Equality Plan is the only performance indicator that cannot be dealt with via HR systems. Here, sixteen questions are answered concerning how gender equality work is being pursued. In the Key Ratio Institute index, scales are shown for each performance indicator. These are based on the outcome for the participating organisations. The ‘worst’ performance yields zero points and the ‘best’ 20 points. The points are then added together for each indicator, resulting in an index. Thus the best possible outcome is 9 X 20 = 180 points.

An individual organisation can follow up its gender equality work by studying how the nine performance indicators develop.

Definitions

Click here for more detailed descriptions/instructions concerning these definitions.

Form
The form specifies what data is to be included so that the performance indicators can be properly calculated. It also shows how the calculation is to be done in each case.
Download form.

In-depth questions
Figures and tables alone are not enough. If you want far-reaching change, you have to analyse the causes behind the figures and you have to put new questions. You also have to follow up the work of changing structures and norms on a continual basis. Here are som questions that may help you in this task.
Download in-depth questions.

Other projects relating to gender equality and performance indicators
Several other actors have been or are concerned with the theme of gender equality performance indicators. One of them is described below:

Gender Equality and Profitability, NUTEK 1999
Almost 14,000 enterprises took part in this study. The basic material refers to the years 1995-96, and the study applied the 3R method developed by the Swedish Association of Local Authorities. A gender equality analysis is conducted from three perspectives:

1. Female and male representation
2. Distribution of resources
3. Realia, i.e. the conditions or climate at a qualitative level.

1. Representation
This part of the analysis examines how representation in the enterprises corresponds to the overall situation in society as regards women and men in different educational categories. The study used 16 different categories and compared the gender distribution in each with distribution in the same categories in society at large. This criterion was used to show whether the enterprise admitted women and men to the same extent.

2. Job structure (Resources)
This shows what advancement opportunities women have in the company. The study used distribution of income in each enterprise as a rough guide to the distribution of women and men in employment positions. This variable reflects aspects of both resource distribution and advancement opportunities, and also shows the extent to which women and men are represented at different levels in the enterprise.

3. Level of parental leave (Realia)
Reflects attitudes and the gender equality climate within the enterprise. The study measured the number of days of unplanned parental leave claimed by female and male employees respectively.

Jämställdhet och lönsamhet NUTEK (1999), Stockholm, NUTEK. The report’s conclusions in English, Gender Equality and Profitability, can be downloaded here.

Read about the 3R method and gender mainstreaming here: