Gender Policy

Gender Policy for Halal Food Safety

General Principles

At Halal Food Safety, accessible from http://www.halalfoodsafety.co.uk, one of our main priorities is gender parity. This Gender Policy document contains general guidelines that Halal Food Safety uses to achieve this.

Halal Food Safety’s Gender Equality Policy is the operational benchmark for the implementation of the practice of equitable behaviours in roles and responsibilities at home in the workplace. Genuine equality cannot be measured by parity in numbers, but rather by improving overall quality of life so that equality is achieved without sacrificing gains for males or females.
Halal Food Safety’s policy and goals towards achieving gender equality are guided by a vision of fairness which incorporates acceptance of equal and inalienable rights of all women and men as defined in the International Bill of Rights, with care taken to acquiesce to local cultural and religious beliefs of Halal Food Safety’s respective area of operations.
Implementation of the Gender Policy shall be guided by our core values and fundamental principles of good governance and the rule of law, tolerance, respect and understanding as well as economic and social development.

Halal Food Safety will use the following fundamental values to guide the organization’s actions in ensuring gender equality is achieved in practice:

• The recognition and reward of outstanding performance
• Encouraging both staff, suppliers, affiliates, etc, to seek ways to improve and innovate
• Empowering our people to develop to their fullest potential
• Fair and equitable treatment of all people

Policy Measures

Policy measures comprise five headings designed to achieve a comprehensive approach to gender equality;

• Leadership;
• Policy formulation and strategic planning;
• Organizational structure, systems and processes;
• Analysis and interventions;
• Performance monitoring, evaluation and accountability.

Leadership

Halal Food Safety’s executive and senior management shall provide strategic direction, and leadership throughout the company by endeavouring to:

• Encourage and actively promote an organizational culture that values gender equality, and is distinctly free from the gender biases and stereotypes that perpetuate inequality.
• Remove barriers to and create the necessary incentives for effective equal gender participation in all levels of company structures.
• Monitor and evaluate performance and outcomes based on gender participation and use this information to inform strategic decision-making.

Policy Formulation and Strategic Planning

Policy formulation and strategic planning are to reflect the company’s support of gender equality principles. In particular expansion plans and changes to the company structures should be tested against the guiding principles of gender equality and the company commitment to fairness.

Organizational Structure, Systems and Processes

Halal Food Safety shall ensure that Human Resources policies, procedures and practices promote a gender-sensitive organizational culture and ensure non-discrimination and equality of opportunity for women and men at all levels of the organization.
Halal Food Safety’s financial management and accounting principles, systems and practices ensures that salaries and expenditures are structured in a way that removes any question of gender inequality.
Gender equality shall be entrenched in the Halal Food Safety Way.

Analysis and Interventions

Executive Management shall ensure that where an apparent gender bias is identified, analysis of the underlying reasons is carried out to ensure the company’s selection process follows the principle of rewarding merit. Should this principle have been ignored, management shall take the necessary steps to correct the participation in line with gender equality.
Executive management shall be informed by adequate analysis of working requirements whether specific positions within the company prohibit participation of either gender. Such analysis shall include consideration of the different concerns, capacities, contributions and needs of women and men. Where specific roles prohibit one gender from participation, the reasons must be justified against the desire or gender equality.

Performance Monitoring, Evaluation and Accountability

Human Resources management shall:

• Establish mechanisms to ensure that responsible managers are held accountable for their Divisions’ progress toward gender equality and removal of bias in opportunities towards one gender over the other .
• Encourage knowledge-generation, dissemination and learning about best practices between different divisions within the organizations as well as from external sources.

Summary

Halal Food Safety acknowledges the principle that gender plays no part in merit and will actively manage its human resource development to ensure women and men have equal opportunities to participate in the company management at all levels. It acknowledges that neither women and men can be considered as homogeneous group and that individual capabilities will drive advancement. It further acknowledges that women and men have different skill sets whereby either or both can be developed for the advancement of the company. However, it does acknowledge that the means of developing different gender skills may require different emphasis and practices.
Halal Food Safety rejects any form of unfair discrimination based on gender in the management of the company.