Avoiding Biases in Performance Evaluation

Over the past decades, Indonesia has progressed towards gender equality. In fact, gender gaps in the access to education narrowed and more women benefit from university education than men do. Indonesia has also strengthened the regulatory framework on gender equality and ratified the Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958 (No. 111). However, the gender parity in education and strengthened anti-discrimination regulations have not yet resulted in gender equality and inclusiveness in the labour market. In fact, gender pay gaps and a thick glass ceiling persist. Further, disadvantaged groups of people continue to face difficulties in finding suitable employment.

The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively affected the Indonesian economy, labour market and livelihood of people. Unfortunately, some of the past gains in socio-economic improvement have been compromised due to the pandemic. Indeed, inequalities, discrimination and exclusion in the labour market appear to have worsened. While the government swiftly responded to the pandemic and mitigated the impact on enterprises, workers, and deprived households, consequences of the economic downturn are felt disproportionally by disadvantaged groups including women, youth, people with disabilities, people living with HIV, and refugees as they have limited means of coping with difficulties.

Human resource management practices play a particularly important role in making the Indonesian labour market gender equal and inclusive. In fact, decisions and actions of HR professionals could open doors for disadvantaged groups of people to employment and allow them to utilize their skills fully. Building a gender equal and inclusive workplaces free from discrimination starts with awareness of HR professionals.

Against this backdrop, the United Nations, in collaboration with the Ministry of Manpower, Association of Indonesian Employers (APINDO), Indonesia Business Coalition for Women Empowerment (IBCWE), the National Movement for Competent Indonesia (Gerakan Nasional Indonesia Kompeten, GNIK) and other like-minded organisations, launches a webinar programme to share good human resource management practices that promote gender equality and inclusiveness at workplaces. Principle target audience of this programme is human resource directors, managers and practitioners. 

The interactive quiz (e.g. 2 multiple choice questions) at the end of the webinar session uses online an application such as Slido. It helps recap key points of discussions. It also gauges understanding of the audience on the webinar topic. The project monitors the quiz results, percentages of people with correct answer, as an indicator of success of this webinar series.

This initiative is implemented by a UN project “Employment and Livelihood: An Inclusive Approach to Economic Empowerment of Women & Vulnerable Populations in Indonesia”. The project is funded by the UN Multi-Partner Trust Funds (UN MPTF). Four UN agencies, International Labour Organization (ILO), UN Development Programme (UNDP), Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), and UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) implement the project.