A Colombian media commits to gender equality with the ILO's "Protocol on Prevention and Response to Gender-Based Violence"

Bogotá - By late 2020, Comunican S.A and Inversiones Cromos, El Espectador's publishing companies, began working with InspirandoT SAS BIC, a SCORE Implementing Partner (IP) headed by Cristina De Armas, to initiate a process that would promote gender equality and make these companies environments free of gender-based violence and abuse (GBV).

To this end, the Business Pulse and The Mirror surveys were implemented as part of MIG SCORE measurement tools, aside from various forums developed by InspirandoT with the technical assistance of the International Labor Organization through the SCORE Colombia Program.

The Pulse and the Mirror surveys follow the same structure: an introductory greeting, followed by demographic information questions, plus questions corresponding to the different MIG SCORE spheres of action (voice equality, inclusive hiring, equal pay for work of equal value, work climate, and work-life harmony). The maximum score per each sphere of action is 100 points, with a maximum total of 500 points. Thus, each of the model's spheres of action represents 20% of the total scoring for each survey.

The Business Pulse survey seeks to measure the enterprise's capacity to manage equality of treatment, opportunities and participation of both women and men within the enterprise, or the scale of social and solidarity economy organization. The survey tool must be completed by management together with personnel from human talent, corporate social responsibility and/or social sustainability areas.

Unlike the Business Pulse, The Mirror survey must be completed anonymously and confidentially by all company personnel. The survey asks workers about their perceptions and experiences of gender equality in their current job, as well as about how they feel about and perceive their work environment. But what is the real impact on companies of this type of surveys?

According to Fidel Cano, El Espectador's director, "El Espectador has always been an inclusive company where people share without fear of being judged, there is no dress code, there is freedom of religious beliefs, freedom of sexual orientation or gender identity. A significant change involved the creation of the GBV Prevention and Response Committee, which established a procedure for dealing with cases of Gender-Based Violence and also created spaces for discussion and training for the committee, emphasizing prevention through education in physical, psychological and sexual health of employees and sending a clear message to the entire organization about the corporate policy not to tolerate discrimination of any kind, especially against women".

Between December 2020 and August 2021, InspirandoT led the creation of the Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response Committee, which, drafted and designed the Protocol for Prevention and Response to Gender-Based Violence (GBV) with the support of the ILO through the SCORE Colombia National Program Coordinator, Bertha Carolina Trevisi Fuentes. In addition, with Ms. Trevisi's help, 10 training sessions on gender were delivered to Comunican S.A. and Inversiones Cromos, covering 100% of the organization.

Thanks to the company's initiative, at the same time as the Protocol was being developed, 436 people were polled in The Pulse and The Mirror surveys. Notably, the response time was unique in that 70% of the staff completed the surveys in just three days.

In the case of Fidel Cano, the experience changed his relationship with his work environment. He said, "I became more empathetic to people who have to deal with this type of violence in their work environments. From my position, which has so much interaction with workers, awareness of this issue is so useful in approaching people and being able to reassure them that they are not alone, and that at Comunican we seek to protect the rights of each person, but this is only possible when everyone does their part in preventing and reporting, thus helping to eradicate behaviors that may be affecting people".

All in all, it was thanks to the joint efforts of all stakeholders - namely, InspirandoT, Comunican S.A. and Inversiones Cromos, the International Labour Organization, the SCORE Program, and the individual members of these entities - that we were able to bring gender equality into the corporate culture of a large company renowned as a leader in its field by Colombians. In the words of Bertha Carolina Trevisi Fuentes, "gender equality is at the heart of decent work".

For more information about the MIG SCORE, we invite you to visit the following links:

Web page: scorecolombia.org
Facebook: facebook.com/SCOREColombia
YouTube OIT Americas: youtube.com/channel/UCrlcu5KChYyHwXlIeD7oLUg
YouTube SCORE and MIG SCORE Colombia: youtube.com/channel/UCcwhS-tRn4f3XO2npcZpPKQ/videos