Westfield Corporation | Sustainability Report 2018 | 41
DIVERSITY
(CONTINUED)
5.2 OUR PEOPLE
• The “Diversity and Inclusion Team” launched
in 2016 and renamed ‘WestfieldLife’ in 2017,
expanded its membership to 21 employees
(from 13 in 2016) with employees representing
all business units with 48% female
representation. This team continued to address
priorities established in its formation and
through employee survey data and developed
25 recommendations relating to diversity,
inclusion and attrition opportunities which are
being implemented.
FLEXIBLE WORK
PRACTICES
COMMITMENT
The development of flexible work practices to
ensure a consistent approach.
Implementation of flexible work practices through
targeted initiatives.
ACHIEVEMENTS
• Flexible work arrangements continue to be a
focus throughout the organisation.
• Flexible work arrangements are offered to all
women returning from maternity leave.
• The revised policies and protocols to support
working families delivered a positive result with
100% of all employees in 2017 returning to
work from maternity leave.
• 73% of employees completed a phased return
to work from maternity leave.
• 100% of employees who requested flexible
working on return from maternity leave, had
their request approved.
• In 2017, paid-paternal leave was increased
from two-weeks to four-weeks which had
100% take up in its first year.
• Company Shared Parental Leave Pay was
introduced in 2016, which is a form of leave
available to eligible mothers, fathers, partners
or adopters, enabling them to choose how to
share time off work after their child is born
or placed. This means that parents are able
to ‘share a pot of leave’ – a maximum of 52
weeks leave and 39 weeks pay can be shared.
• 79% of new parents were entitled to enhanced
Company Shared Parental Leave Pay and to
date 40% of these parents have opted to take
it, with a potential further 40% in 2018.
• To support employees before maternity leave,
and to aid their return to work, a one-to-one
coaching program was launched in 2017 which
has seen a 92% uptake.
• A new ‘Family Buddy Scheme’, which brings
together Westfield parents and new parents
together is in place. Workshops are also
available for new parents, specifically for
fathers and partners. In addition, all working
parents are invited to attend the ‘Work/Life
Balance for Successful Working Parents’
course.
• ‘Bring Your Children to Work Day’ was
launched in 2017 in the UK which offered all
parents the opportunity to bring their children
aged up to 16 to work. 51 families took part in
the day which included a series of activities for
children, as well as the opportunity to shadow
their parents for the day.
In 2017 Westfield Europe:
• Achieved Top 30 status in the United
Kingdom’s ‘Working Families Benchmark’ of
employers who enable the best quality of work
life balance and career development. This
award was also received in 2016.
• Continued to encourage and provide
employees the tools and initiatives for a
healthy work-life balance through its wellbeing
program, ‘Flourish’
Throughout 2017 Westfield US:
• Continued focus on development and
implementation of flexible working practices
for all employees such as remote working
arrangements, flexible schedules, alternate
work hours and modifications to our Paid Time
Off (PTO) policies.
• Offered a wellbeing program, ‘Thrive’, to all
employees to encourage and provide the tools
and initiatives for a healthy work-life balance.
These initiatives include a broader spectrum
of programs including health and wellbeing,
fitness, stress management, personal financial
and group activities.
EDUCATION
COMMITMENT
Implementation of ‘Diversity and Inclusion’
education programs for senior management.
Expand the WISE (Women in Science,
Technology and Engineering) Mentoring program
on a group-wide basis for ‘high potential’ female
employees.
Employee Relations Development and
Unconscious bias training to continue to be part
of ‘Learning & Development’ program.
ACHIEVEMENTS
• 40 high potential female employees from
Westfield UK attended a Women in Leadership
day at London Business School
• Westfield Corporation worked with UK
organisation WISE (Women in Science,
Technology and Engineering) to deliver various
gender diversity and inclusive workshops
focusing on recruitment, unconscious bias and
inclusive leadership.
• Westfield UK Mentee group launched WISE
Coaching in local schools focusing on female
focus in the WISE subjects.
• Westfield is an event partner for Stemettes,
a progressive organisation which is focussed
on supporting women into STEM (Science,
Technology, Engineering and Maths)
industries.
• Westfield UK continued to offer ‘Employee
Relations’ training as part of our Learning &
Development program for employees.
• Westfield US launched a new program called
‘Everyday Management’, focusing on baseline
supervisory skill building, including diversity,
performance management, and employee
accessibility. This program reintroduces the
organisation’s Diversity and Open Door policies.
There are currently two female directors on
the Westfield Corporation Board: Ms Dawn
Ostroff was appointed as a non-executive
director in 2016 and Ms Ilana Atlas. The
Board recognises the need to continue to
address the issue of gender diversity in
future appointments.