BCGE’s Leader-tier member, Max Myanmar Holding, has successfully gone through the Gender Equality Assessment, Results and Strategies (GEARS) assessment to understand gaps, opportunities and strengths in workplace gender equality strategies.
This light-touch assessment helps to understand the current status of the organisation’s workplace gender equality journey in which gender balance and employee movements are revealed and provides the insights that will inform the development of the organisation’s overarching WGE strategy. GEARS assessment is one of the ultimate benefits for BCGE’s Leader-tier members.
One of the prominent corporates in Myanmar, Max Myanmar Holdings, joined BCGE in March 2020. The company has currently employed over 4,500 workforces.
Ma Yadana Myint Oo, Learning and Development Manager of Max Myanmar, noted that “Max Myanmar operates as a transparent company with solid and responsible new-normal policies. Given the challenging situation, we want to understand from the GEARS result how best to assist our employees in responding equally and the opportunities and strength of our current strategies related to workplace gender equality.”
Max Myanmar Holding met GEARS’ strategic level in preventing gender-based harassment, sexual harassment and bullying, domestic and family violence area, and the active level in recruitment, selection and promotion. The company has a policy with grievance mechanisms and appropriate procedures to prevent gender-based harassment, sexual harassment and bullying, domestic and family violence in their workplace.
Given that Max Myanmar is a leader-tier member, BCGE encouraged Max Myanmar to advance a strategic area on strategic alignment of gender equality and business priorities; and secondly, workplace gender equality training with support from the company’s senior leadership.
“Our corporate leadership is committed to international standards of transparency and responsibility, which is underlined by our policies and practices supporting human rights, land rights, and good corporate governance. Being a responsible business, we are proud to be a member of BCGE. BCGE has supported us in strengthening and building a better workplace for our employees,” said Ma Yadana Myint Oo, Learning & Development Manager.
Developed by Investing in Women, an Australian Government initiative, in partnership with the Australian Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) and a business coalition such as BCGE, GEARS is currently used by four countries in Southeast Asia: Myanmar, Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines.
Companies utilise GEARS to assess progress on ten focus areas of workplace gender equality, including leadership and accountability, gender pay equity, workforce gender composition, recruitment and promotion, and preventing and addressing gender-based harassment and discrimination, sexual harassment and bullying. Insights gleaned through GEARS inform corporate actions and enhance company policies.
BCGE offers a service for gender assessment and certification that is international, regional and association-level for businesses. Organisation assessments proposed an evidence-based effort to promote an inclusive culture of learning, continuous improvement and data-based decision making.
