Promote gender equality and calculate your index

In 2017, equality between women and men was declared a major national cause of the five-year term. Here are three ways in which companies can contribute to this: by applying the recommendations of the AFNOR SPEC X30-020 guide, by voluntarily obtaining the Professional Equality label, and by making it compulsory to calculate the Equal Pay Index.

Build your approach using the AFNOR SPEC X30-020 guide

Voluntary in application, it represents a first pre-normative building block before international standardization work which should lead to an ISO standard. It covers 5 themes:

• education, access to education and training ;
• sexual and reproductive health and rights ;
• preventing and stopping violence against girls and women ;
• women’s and girls’ rights, preventing and combating gender-based discrimination ;
• women’s economic empowerment and participation in public and economic life.

Recognizing gender equality in the workplace with a label

Is your company implementing a gender equality program? It’s time to make the most of this commitment, with a voluntary label!

The Égalité professionnelle label attests to your exemplary commitment to improving gender equality. It can be awarded to companies of all sizes. The assessment covers concrete actions in favor of professional equality, human resources and management management, as well as support for parenthood in the workplace, for example.

Preventing discrimination, reducing pay gaps, respecting the boundary between private and professional life… This label is a sign of recognition for companies that integrate professional equality into their CSR actions.

Training and support to promote equality

Is your company, association, institution or local authority committed to promoting gender equality and in need of an in-house expert? You can become this expert yourself, through training. AFNOR Compétences offers two modules:

• Gender equality: understanding and integrating regulations (2 days)
• Evaluate and improve your organization with the Equality label (1 day)

You can also ask to be accompanied by an AFNOR Compétences coach, who will support you internally with the aim of :

• Increase your organization’s attractiveness when recruiting by guaranteeing gender equality
• Retaining talent over time through an inclusive policy
• Define an objective equal treatment policy
• Get all teams on board and improve professional practices

What is the Gender Equality Index?

As of March 1, 2020, all companies with at least 50 employees must calculate and publish an annual gender equality index. This index must be published on the company’s website every year. Details of the indicators must also be communicated to the company’s Social and Economic Committee (CSE) and to the Direccte labor inspectorate.

This 100-point index is based on 5 main criteria (or 4 for companies with fewer than 250 employees):

• The gender pay gap
• The individual increase distribution gap
• Promotion distribution gap (for companies with more than 250 employees only)
• The number of employees returning from maternity leave with a raise
• Parity among the 10 highest earners

Is a company’s index below 75 points? Corrective measures are to be introduced, with the aim of reaching the 75-point mark within 3 years.

Prepare for index calculation with PREPA INDEX

AFNOR Certification has developed the PREPA INDEX system to help you prepare for the calculation and publication of the Index note.

PREPA INDEX offers genuine support for your human resources assessment processes. The opportunities are numerous: auditing the HR system in place, suggesting new actions and corrective measures… Calculating the Index cannot be improvised. We make it easy!

Our FAQ on gender equality

See our news on “The Gender Equality label”.