At Google Australia, we are committed to fostering a workplace where everyone feels they belong. This commitment extends to gender representation and pay equity and we’re proud to have this as a core focus of our DE&I plans both globally and within Australia.
While we have maintained a strong focus on this work for well over a decade, we know there’s always more that can be done. We are committed to reviewing our progress continuously, and have a number of programs and initiatives in place to help us advance gender representation and progression at Google.
Throughout 2022 and 2023, we introduced initiatives focused on attracting and retaining women at Google Australia and we have seen progress on women representation overall, including at senior leadership levels. These initiatives have also helped foster a thriving and more equitable environment.
Key initiatives:
- Across Google, parental leave has been expanded to 18 weeks for all parents (up from 12 weeks).
- We support new mums with our Ramp Back Time program, which started even before the pandemic. This allows mothers to work a minimum of 50% of their regular weekly working hours while still being paid their regular weekly salary during their first two weeks back at work, allowing them to adjust to their work gradually. We also offer three months of full work from home to returning mothers at the end of their maternity leave.
- We have continued to embed our Time Flex Program, which gives Googlers in Australia increased access to part-time and job share arrangements (including improved job design to facilitate the change). This is important as research shows that access to part-time work and ensuring these arrangements are equitably designed are key retention tools for women.
- ERGs: We launched a new Employee Resource Group (ERG), the Parents and Caregivers ERG, that now has over 500 community members.
- In addition, we continued to increase membership of our Women@ ERG by +6% to over 800 community members, and both of these help provide opportunities for women across Google to connect, share experiences and learn from each other.
- Our Women@Google ERG supported over 100 Googlers to undertake career-focused coaching, sponsorship and mentoring programs. And a number of these women reported greater career satisfaction and growth.
- We’ve also seen more men join and participate in Women@ activities creating a culture of allyship while also raising awareness of issues impacting women.
- Our talent engagement and recruiting teams have identified and engaged underrepresented talent and supported initiatives to upskill hiring managers, including the introduction of inclusive hiring training.
Areas for improvement
While we are proud of our progress, we recognise a key area for improvement is the underrepresentation of women in technical and senior leadership roles. To address this, we have taken targeted actions:
- In 2023, we partnered with external organisations to help us understand systemic barriers for women in technology, and to create policies, processes and programs that encourage a more diverse talent pipeline.
- Our talent engagement team provides year-round opportunities for women in tech to upskill and network, catering to professionals from entry-level to experienced. Highlights include our Women in Cloud and International Women's Day events hosted onsite.
- We successfully launched local programs for approximately 14 senior level females in engineering which focused on career development and advancement.
- In 2023, we hosted LIFT, an internal Women in Tech career development program across Asia Pacific, with more than 70 women in Australia taking part.
Compensation at Google
For the purposes of the 2022-23 WGEA analysis, we have been required to compare the overall median earnings for men and women, meaning job level, performance, tenure, and role have not been factored in. It also means that men and women, in all roles, be it technical and non-technical, have been compared when considering median total and base compensation.
Google does conduct a global pay equity analysis annually. Our pay processes are designed to be fair and equitable and are an important part of our commitment to improve diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI). It’s important however to outline that the gender pay gap – the difference between men and women’s median total or base pay – is not the same as equal pay where everyone who does a job of equal value must earn the same pay.
At Google, we compensate Googlers based on what they do, not who they are. When we calculate employee pay, our teams consider variables such as the market rate for individual roles, their level within the company, promotion history, and their performance rating.
During our annual pay equity reviews, we search for any unexplained discrepancies by gender. If we find any, we make upward pay adjustments before an employee's compensation goes into effect. This helps us to prevent pay disparity, remove bias from our rewards system, and ensure that remuneration packages accurately reflect the individual efforts of those working with us. Our approach means we can be confident that there are no statistically significant pay differences between individuals based on gender, when accounting for factors such as role, job level and performance.
Commitment to the future
All of the above has been aimed at creating an environment in which everyone feels they belong. Specifically, gender representation remains a core focus of both our global and Australian DE&I (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) Councils, and we pledge to continue working diligently towards a fully inclusive workplace. We are keenly aware that true representation and equity is an ongoing journey and one that we’ll continue to address at Google Australia at all levels over the coming year. To learn more about our efforts to promote diversity, equity and inclusion, head over to belonging.google.com.
