Sydney, 13 March 2012: Clayton Utz has been named an Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency (EOWA) 2012 Employer of Choice for Women (EOCFW) in recognition of the firm's continued investment in initiatives to support women in the workplace.
Among the firm's initiatives or programs in support of women are:
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paid parental leave benefit of up to 36 weeks' leave for eligible employees, introduced in May 2011, and a formal 'buddy' program to help ease the transition back to work for employees returning from parental leave;
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inclusion of gender pay equity in our remuneration strategy and supporting practices to ensure men and women who perform similar work and contribute at the same performance level, are paid the same;
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our national women lawyer's network, MOMENTUM, which supports women at Clayton Utz to build successful careers by providing professional and personal development opportunities;
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accreditation through the Australian Breastfeeding Association as a Breastfeeding Friendly Workplace;
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the launch in 2011 of a new national training program,
[email protected] Utz, which includes a range of professional and personal development programs in areas including career planning, delegation skills, resilient leadership, diversity awareness, and managing time and maintaining balance;
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introduction of a market-leading Partner Excellence and National Partner Mentoring Programs; and
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Flexible Work Practice policies and Toolkits to help partners/managers and employees openly discuss flexible work options.
Clayton Utz Chief Executive Partner Darryl McDonough said the firm was proud to be recognised as a 2012 EOWA Employer of Choice for Women.
"Clayton Utz is committed to fostering an environment in which our women can succeed and reach their full potential. Creating market-leading career paths for our women is clearly articulated as a fundamental plank of our Firm strategy, with a unswerving commitment to increase the number of women in senior roles, and the number who return to work at the firm following parental leave. We are committed to Clayton Utz being the Firm of Choice for women lawyers.
"In 2011, we introduced an enhanced paid parental benefit as part of our commitment; we are also continuing to explore ways to strengthen our flexible work arrangements. Currently 16 percent of Clayton Utz employees are employed part-time and an additional 101 employees work under other flexible work arrangements such as our formal work-from-home scheme, variable start and finish times and job share arrangements," said Mr McDonough.