Science Melting Pot’s plan for gender equity is created to ensure that European Union practices and values regarding gender equity are considered and implemented throughout our organisational structure, culture, recruitment & career progression practices, and our action based policies. 

We define gender equity in terms of all genders– nonbinary and binary.  We strive to achieve a balance of team members from across all genders, so that no single group is dominant within our organisation.  This is particularly important for our DEI based mission to ensure that we have appropriate input for considering gender and diversity from multiple perspectives in our organisational culture and our work in events and science communication. 

Our principles for this Gender Equity Plan include 1) a process approach supported by defined actions;  2) allocated resources to ensure effectiveness; and 3) communication about the plan with our staff and partners.  Through this process approach, we will address, reflect on, and iterate the plan on a yearly basis to ensure it remains effective.  

Science Melting Pot’s organisational culture is based on a distributed model where our team members are not always geographically co-located.  This enables us to bring in more diversity to the team.  At the same time, it strengthens the power of words and communication on electronic platforms.  This makes word choices in communication a key part of how we present ourselves and engage with one another in practices that respect diversity. 

Our vision for work-life balance is about giving our team members the freedom to choose when and where to work, including their location.  It is also about making sure team members have the support to engage with their families and children in a manner that balances their home and work lives together.  

The use of technology to track distributed work together is key to our vision for work-life balance, where technology is used to ensure Team members have freedom of choice in when and where our work is accomplished. We encourage team members to arrange their work in ways that contribute to healthy work life balance choices. 

Action 1: Using Toggl software as a time tracking system

Depending on work process and practice, Toggl software can be used with a timer, in coordination with calendars, and as a post work practice to ensure that tracking works best with the ways in which team members organise their workflow.  

Action 2: Addressing issues related to distributed work 

Science Melting Pot pledges to use asynchronous communication tools where possible to minimize time zone issues and encourage employees to separate work and home life as much as possible to ensure that caregivers of all genders are able to balance their work and outside responsibilities and obligations. 

Action 3: Policy for sick leave includes days for illness and caregiving

Resources are set aside for sick leave including days off for caregivers of all genders to take care of illness in anyone for whom they are responsible. Our employee handbook specifies options specifically designed for people of all genders.

Science Melting Pot strives for gender balance across all genders in leadership and decision-making roles.  Even though we are a small organization, we are dedicated to ensuring that managerial decisions have input from people of all genders. 

Action 1: Organising all team work for independent thinkers with an appropriate level of decision-making incorporated into the work descriptions.

Making sure everyone is heard begins with giving everyone a voice in the scope and shape of their work for Science Melting Pot.  This includes respectful listening by management and support for employees who would like to use their role(s) in the organisation for career development.

Action 2: Ensuring leadership listens and considers perspectives from multiple gender experiences in key decisions.  

To ensure that leadership listens, annual workshops focused on career development will address the current state of gender equity at Science Melting Pot.  Here issues will be raised and addressed, and solutions to core problems related to leadership will be co-developed between the staff and the management. 

Science Melting Pot pledges to ensure gender equity in all recruitment and career progression processes. This includes gender equality training on an annual basis, as well as employee skills training on an ongoing basis.  Our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion policy addresses training plans and resources.  Our Employee Handbook specifies the amount of funding available for caregivers who need to bring their children or wards along with them for work related travel.  

Action 1:  Preparing job announcements that are inviting to all potential employees, regardless of their gender.

We consider how we describe and structure the work so that Science Melting Pot is an inviting place to work for people of all genders and all levels of caretaking responsibility. 

Action 2: Hiring for a team that reflects gender diversity

We consider gender diversity in our team composition because it is part of our mission and products.  We draw on knowledge and experience from people of all genders, nonbinary as well as binary, to develop our workshops and events.  Thus, we strive to reflect the same diversity, equity and inclusion with respect to gender diversity in our team composition. 

Action 3: Supporting all genders in career progression through flexible hours, as well as consideration of childcare responsibilities and family situations in arranging working conditions. 

We allocate resources for parental leave and family caretaking needs related to travel, defined in detail in our employee handbook.  In addition, we encourage employees to arrange their work in ways that enable them to have full careers and full family lives at the same time. 

Action 4: (re)assessing needs on an annual basis to design appropriate support for career progression issues

Every year, we hold an employee listening workshop to hear perspectives on career progression issues, and revise our policies and adapt our Employee Handbook to reflect changes in practice based on our findings. 

At Science Melting Pot, we see words and actions as key to ensuring a respectful culture with no room for gender-based violence or sexual harassment.  To ensure this, we allocate resources for and engage in annual workshops focused on how we use words in our distributed culture.  These workshops include reflections on how we reflect the content of our workshops and message in our own day to day communication practices. 

Because we recognize the importance of word choices, we do not tolerate any word choices or actions that could be interpreted as harassment.  Thus, SMP management pledges to deal quickly and directly with any issues related to gender-based violence within our team and with third parties.  We have a no tolerance policy.

Action 1: Training our words to reflect gender equity

We understand and respect ways in which our  internal and external communications reflect our culture. Thus, we have set up annual workshops to encourage self-reflection and jointly define and address how our current Science  Melting Pot culture reflects gender equality, as well as Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. This includes agreeing on appropriate language use, such as communicating clearly and following requested pronoun use for our staff.  It also includes agreeing on not using inappropriate references and language use that create discomfort for people of any gender. 

Action 2: Participating together in training activities

In our annual staff training, Science Melting pot includes activities designed to encourage self-reflection and prevent any actions or words that can be interpreted as opening the door to gender-based violence.

Because we are a small distributed organization, we use qualitative data, collected in our annual training workshops and annual performance and career discussions.  This data becomes our basis for continually improving our policies, actions, equity plans and communication practices. In turn, these reflected practices are expected to help SMP continually create a culture of gender equity in our organization and our work. 

Action 1: Formally collect qualitative data about experiences related to gender on an annual basis.

On an ongoing basis, we collect descriptions of experiences and issues related to gender through one on one dialogues with our Human Resource responsible staff. These data are used to build appropriate exercises for reflection in the annual training sessions. 

Action 2: Respond to issues or concerns related to this data quickly and appropriately

Human Resource responsible staff and top management will work together to address issues or concerns as they arise, and bring learnings from these conversations and actions into the annual Diversity, Equity and Inclusiveness training sessions for Science Melting Pot staff.