Equality plans
Equality plans
Company equality plans are essential for staying up-to-date on employment matters and preventing gender discrimination. Current laws make it compulsory for certain companies to have an equality plan in place.
At Melt Group we want you to have detailed knowledge of what an equality plan is, why you need to have one and how we could help you put it in place.
What are equality plans?
The company equality plan contemplates a series of measures to be adopted to guarantee gender equality in the workplace. The aim is to put an end to the gap that limits true equality between a company’s male and female workers.
In Spain, equality plans were reflected in Organic Law 3/2007, which has been updated by Royal Decree Law 6/2019. With this Royal Decree, new obligations came into force to ensure workplace equality plans are drawn up correctly.
Which companies are requiredto put in place a gender equality plan?
Until the application of the new RD, in Spain, companies with fewer than 250 workers on their workforce were not required to present an equality plan. Obviously, if a company wanted to do it, it could. Now, any business organisation with more than 50 employees is obliged to implement an equality plan.
At Melt Group we’ll tell you how to draw up an equality plan for your company, so you can always adapt to current legal requirements. Current regulations state that Spanish companies have a maximum period of time to come into line with equality policies in the field employment.
The deadlines for preparing the equality plan and putting it into operation are as follows:
- Companies with 150-250 employees: before 7 March 2020.
- Companies with 100-150 employees: before 7 March 2021.
- Companies with 50-10 employees: before 7 March 2022.
Objectives of the equality plan in companies
- Promote gender equality, that is, between male and female employees, in the work environment. Men and women who work in the same company will have the same opportunities, the same treatment and similar salary.
- Integrate a real gender perspective in the company’s Human Resources department.
- Avoid the infamous gender pay gap.
- Equality plans should improve the work/life balance.
- Prevent communication using sexist language.
- Application of the equality plan in different areas of the company, depending on the needs of each department.
- Generate a business culture that enacts real values of equality.
- Personnel selection processes must be equal, without discrimination.
- Some jobs are often feminised or masculinised. The development of the equality plan aims to put an end to this.
- Equality plans must guarantee training for company employees in these issues.
- Equal opportunities for men and women.
- Prevention of sexual harassment.
Key points of gender equality plans
- Recruitment and selection of company personnel.
- Business hiring policies.
- Definition of professional categories in the workplace.
- Clarify working conditions within each organisation.
- Work/life balance policies.
- Harassment prevention plans in the company.
How is an equality plan produced?
Once everyone is clear about what an equality plan is and what aspects it must contain, it’s time to start developing and applying one for the company. At Melt Group we offer you a complete service for the preparation and implementation of the equality plan, enabling your company to be in line with the current situation and comply with the regulations in force.
The 5 phases of an equality plan
1. Setting up the gender equality committee
The equality committee must have the same number of female and male representatives from the company’s workforce. This committee will meet regularly to reach agreements regarding the company’s equality policies.
2. Company situation
To prepare the equality plan, a complete business diagnosis must be carried out, including a salary audit. In this phase, existing gaps in terms of discrimination are analysed. This is the time to set out a range of proposals that guarantee equality in the workplace.
3. Development of the equality plan
Having set clear objectives, the written equality plan must put in place a range of measures to be applied gradually in the company. The company has to provide resources to enable compliance.
4. Implementation
The documents should be recorded in the Equality Plans Register. The company is obliged to notify staff about mandatory compliance, in addition to providing external transparency. At this point, the measures developed in phase 3 are put into effect.
5. Constant monitoring
It is essential to monitor the equality plans, in order to analyse their results and verify that compliance is actually happening. Here at Melt Group we help you in the process of developing your company equality plan from start to finish, assuring you an easier and more professional process.
Diagnosis for the equality plan
The initial diagnosis is an essential part of developing the equality plan. In this phase, Human Resources experts analyse the company’s situation, taking numerous factors into account:
- Analysis of the workforce.
- Analysis of the recruitment and selection processes within the company.
- How the internal promotion processes work.
- Analysis of training resources in the company.
- Detailed review of the remuneration system.
- Study of possible cases of workplace harassment based on gender causes.
- Complete analysis of the atmosphere in the workplace.
The Equality Plans Register
The requirement to register your equality plan is mandatory to ensure compliance with current legislation. This is done by means of a register set up by REGCOM. If you’re unsure how to do this, don’t worry because at Melt Group we also take care of registering and validating the document.
Companies with more than 50 employees must have an equality plan in place. In fact, there are penalties for non-compliance with the rule. The penalties range from 626 euros to 187,515 euros in the most serious cases. In addition, not complying with the regulations would imply the loss of any bonus, benefit or subsidy for the company.
Implementing the equality plan
The reality is that the implementation of equality plans in companies is a labour-intensive process. In fact, a few months may pass from the time the plan is developed to when it starts being applied as part of the normal running of the company.
The implementation of the equality plan depends, to a great extent, on the size of the company. Organisations with fewer workers will need less time to get it up and running.
In our Human Resources Consultancy we have extensive experience in the preparation and development of a company equality plan. To speed up deadlines and avoid unnecessary use of resources, you can take advantage of our experience.
How much does the equality plan cost?
If your question is how much an equality plan costs, the reality is that giving you an answer is somewhat complex. The investment required to implement equality plans depends on many factors, such as the size of the organisation and the type of measures that must be adopted to ensure compliance. Companies already taking gender equality measures will have to invest much less in implementing the equality plan, as they will already have travelled part of the way.
The budget for a company equality plan is divided into three major blocks:
- Training
- New measures to implement.
- Outsourcing the service.
How can we help you?
At Melt Group we analyse your individual case and offer you a tailor-made quote for developing your company’s equality plan. The cost will vary depending on your requirements and the phases of the equality plan in which we need to intervene. Our HR consultants offer you experience and quality, so you don’t have to worry, that’s why we’re here.
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Contact
Teléfono : + 34 963 919 661
Email : info@meltgroup.com
