Gender Equality Plan document

1. NIOZ Statement Gender Equality
2. Overview on data collection, evaluations and target setting (Quantitative)
3. NIOZ GE Strategy part of D&I strategy (Qualitative)
   3.1 Awareness and behavior
   3.2 Language and communication
   3.3 Creating a safe and inclusive culture for specific groups
4. 4. Measures against gender-based violence, including sexual harassment
5. NIOZ GEP Training and capacity building
6. GEP Smart objectives
7. Tables with gender distributions at NIOZ

The Royal NIOZ prioritizes the fostering of a culture of gender awareness, and addresses unconscious biases in decision-making processes to ensure that gender diversity and equality are increased in all ranks among all appointments (research, management and support). This is also manifested through the co-signing by NIOZ of the infra-NWO institutes-declaration to the same effect. 

NWO-I strives to realize excellent science that flourishes and has a maximum impact on society. One aspect is encouraging an inclusive science culture with an eye for diversity in the broadest sense of the word. In other words, diversity in cultural, ethnic and/or religious background, in gender, sexual orientation, health/ ability to work and in age. Diversity results in inspiration, creativity and innovation. The added value of the joint effort of people with various areas of expertise and with diverse backgrounds and perspectives is highly recognized. An inclusive organization maximizes the use of its employees' various talents and abilities, and actively seeks to increase its diversity when hiring new people.

Each year, the figures of the institutes' gender ratios are reported and evaluated. The promotion of female talent is encouraged; for example, by means of the so-called WISE grant. It is encouraging to see that female membership of the NIOZ scientific staff, as a whole, is around 50% of the total. However, we need to make progress in the more senior roles and the department head roles. In addition, we implemented a change in our management team structure in June 2022 to become more inclusive in our decision-making process. Our specific plans for gender equality are embedded
within the NWO-I Human Resources Strategy and the NWO-I Diversity and Inclusion Strategy and Action plan and are closely followed by the NIOZ Diversity and Inclusion Team, which is a broad representation of the diverse NIOZ population as a whole.

- Han Dolman

The Royal NIOZ has been collecting sex-disaggregated data to examine gender equality at different levels of employment with emphasis on both permanent and fixed-term positions. Within the four scientific departments, this includes the five types of positions: PhD students, post-doctoral researchers, technical assistants, principal investigators, and department heads, and professorships and the levels of employment within facilities and support (National Marine Facilities and General Support). Analyses of these employment data are made bi-annually. Please find the analyses attached.

Table A in section 7 below shows that the gender balance has improved in recent years, but the figures still differ within the departments. Last year NIOZ reached an overall gender equilibrium in science departments. In the broader NIOZ organization, including the National Marine Facilities department and supporting departments, the Gender Equality percentage is 43%. In fact, this increase is mostly due to the large diversity in currently appointed PhDs and post-docs.

The challenge is to reach higher Gender Equality in the senior roles within the organization, especially for the more senior roles such as the Department Head and Professorships. This imbalance is also reflected in the salary ranges. Therefore, to become more inclusive in our decision making, we implemented a new structure of the Management Team in June 2022. This new structure leads to the following goals for the GEP 2022-2027:

1. An overall Gender Equilibrium for the broader NIOZ organization in 2027
2. A Gender Equilibrium in the decision-making roles in 2027
3. A reduced pay-gap going towards an equilibrium in the senior roles in 2027

Please find more information on Gender distributions in the tables in section 7 at the end of this document:

A. Distribution of male/female employees at NIOZ, 2021 average, in numbers
B. NIOZ Scientific departments
C. NIOZ Scientific staff
D. Professor positions senior PIs
E. Management Team
F. Gender Pay gap indicator
G. Supervisory Committee
H. Scientific Committee
I. Works Council
J. Diversity and inclusion Team
K. Chief Science Official on NIOZ cruises
L. NIOZ publications, last author
M. NIOZ publications, first author

NIOZ works in line with the Implementation plan for Diversity and Inclusion 2022-2027 of its parent organization’s overall NWO-I HR Strategy. Gender Equality is a key part of this strategy.

• Awareness and behavior
• Language and communication
• An inclusive culture
• Creating a safe and inclusive culture for specific groups
• Role models

3.1 Awareness and behavior

Aim: Everyone is aware of their own behavior and both conscious and unconscious prejudices. We aim to create a contact culture where everyone feels safe. As also described in the NWO-I Desired Behavior action plan, awareness of one's own (pre)judgments is the first step to making an organization more inclusive and diverse. It is important that everyone has an open attitude towards each other and accepts open dialog by giving feedback to and receiving feedback from their co-workers. What feels like normal to some, can be a sensitive subject for others. Therefore, it is important for everyone to feel safe enough to address and bring their discomfort on the table, even if this may regularly lead to difficult conversations.

Actions

• Establish inclusive management by offering training in inclusive leadership.
• Encourage teams/departments to follow a training course and enter into a discussion with
  each other about what they like/dislike in interactions and about the ways people
  communicate.
• Organize feedback and intervision sessions where behavior is reflected upon and awareness
  of each other's behavior is discussed.
• Ensure that directors and MT visibly reflect on their behavior and adjust it where necessary.
• Require all employees involved in recruitment and selection to do an unconscious bias workshop. Create awareness for diversity among the group leaders, so that this awareness is taken into account when hiring PhD candidates and postdocs.
• Set up and inform about measures against gender-based violence, including sexual harassment.

3.2 Language and communication

Aim:
As an employer, NIOZ is alert to the use of inclusive communication. Non-verbal and visual language are also an important part of this communication: in personal meetings within the organization; on the intranet and the website; in reports, e-mail traffic, and vacancy texts; during meetings and both formal and informal conversations. In order to achieve diverse (verbal and non-verbal) language use, the following elements are important:

• awareness of language;
• adaptation of language;
• an open attitude to be able to address each other on the use of language

Actions

• Ensure that NIOZ websites are inclusive and 'Digi accessible'.
• Set up a diversity page with information about D&I policy and activities.
• Organize all workshops and training courses that are offered throughout NIOZ and NWO bilingually. Make them accessible to all NIOZ employees in this way.
• Adopt guidelines for inclusive recruiting (see section 4).
• Develop/purchase and offer writing training for HR, communication and general NIOZ staff on the use of gender-neutral and inclusive language and visuals.
• Have each (support) department formulate in their annual plans what they are going to do to increase diversity in the implementation of their duties.

3.3 An inclusive culture

Aim:
There are no obstacles to being part of or being employed by NIOZ, nor is there conscious or unconscious exclusion of (or by) employees. Everyone in NIOZ feels like they are a valued part of the whole. A culturally inclusive work climate results in every employee feeling comfortable and valued regardless of race, ethnicity, color, nationality, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, religious beliefs, disability, age, neurodiversity and personal appearance. An inclusive organization is made together by its members. This starts with the people who work there and the ways they interact with each other. There should be room for everyone, regardless of identity, background, stages of life, religion or lifestyle. That means that there should not be a dominant culture – which is often the western, white, heteronormative male culture – but an inclusive culture. Creating this environment requires an effort from everyone and inclusive facilities, such as paying attention to culture-specific holidays, creating space for alternative career paths and having physical accessibility of the workplace for people with disabilities.

Actions

• Develop and use a toolkit for diverse and inclusive recruitment and selection as every applicant should have equal opportunities. Make the members of application committees aware of unconscious biases (implicit bias) and train them on inclusive behavior/implicit bias. Develop a toolkit for diverse and inclusive work.
• Make sure that the new employee feels at home in the organization after signing the contract of employment.
• Inform all NIOZ employees upon entrance about our intentions around inclusivity and ask them to sign a NIOZ Code of Conduct. Upon commencement of employment, inform the employee who is available to them if they have questions or complaints.
• Ensure an inclusive culture by having an NIOZ Diversity and Inclusion team in which all target groups feel represented.
• Pay attention to diversity on the NIOZ website, in line with the NWO-wide vision, and the role that everyone plays in this system.
• Include questions about an inclusive culture in the bi-annual employee surveys.

3.4 Creating a safe and inclusive culture for specific groups

Several categories are included in this subject, such as gender, LGBTI+, ethnic diversity and neurodiversity and people at a distance from the labor market. Although we focus only on gender in this Gender Equality plan, our Diversity and Inclusion group is developing plans to also include the other groups.

Aim:
NIOZ strives for equal representation throughout the organization and actively seeks equal opportunities for promotion, participation in projects, meriting appreciation, career opportunities, etc.

Gender:
The general diversity and inclusion policy focuses on language and communication and attitude and behavior, particularly on providing a positive and stimulating work environment and a safe, inclusive culture for these target groups.

Actions

• Ensure that the D&I plan is in place and monitored by the D&I team that also focuses on gender.
• Establish and monitor target figures annually by means of reporting in the Social Annual Report.
• Make recruitment problems a topic for discussion within the MT.
• Consider a possible follow-up towards the end of the WISE program.
• Set up a leadership program aimed at women, including mentors and mentees, and exchange experiences.
• Make sure all employees are able to do their work in a motivated manner throughout their careers and thus in different phases of their lives. A good work-life balance is a precondition for achieving this. NIOZ ensures that all employees feel free to address personal issues and that all employees are informed about the possibilities in the Collective Labor Agreement concerning options around a sustainable career.

NIOZ intends to be an inclusive and diverse organization and that is only possible if we work together to create an open, safe and positive work environment. In the case of undesirable behavior, an escalation ladder is used. Therefore, immediate feedback is given as much as possible; in ascending order, conversations take place with supervisors, department heads, HR advisors, or an independent confidential adviser. Submitting a formal complaint is always possible (see NWO implementation regulation 12). Confidential counselors have annual reports of undesirable behavior. In the employee survey, attention will also be paid to identifying undesirable behavior in various forms.

A. Distribution of male/female employees at NIOZ, 2021 average, in numbers

B. NIOZ Scientific departments

C. NIOZ Scientific staff

D. Professor positions senior PI’s per October 2022

E. NIOZ MT

F. Gender Pay gap indicator of scientific departments per April 2022

G. Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC)

H. NIOZ Institute Advisory Committee (IAC)

I. NIOZ Works Council

J. NIOZ D&I Team

K. Chief Science Official (CSO) on NIOZ cruises