Develoop is now launched: support for an equal and inclusive work environment
Develoop is aimed at companies and employers who want support in working with their work environment. It is a digital tool that provides tools in the work to achieve gender equality and inclusive workplaces.
Here you can see a recording from the launch of Develoop.
For three years, Develoop has been developed together with businesses and employers in the Norrbotten Region. The result is a digital support that is based on examples taken from companies' work environment work. The tool offers more than 100 different tools to identify and put into words what may have happened in a workplace.
Some areas are:
- How's the conversation going or "it was just for fun." It's about the polite workplace culture and the risks of an exclusionary work environment if employees don't treat each other with respect and care.
- It's just a matter of sticking together, right? A tool that highlights inequality problems that affect the male group to a large extent with terrible consequences.
- A little porn never hurt, right? How the consumption of pornography in the workplace can push the boundaries of a polite workplace culture and the risks that come with it in relation to prostitution and human trafficking, health and violence.
Develoop is a three-year EU-funded project where Region Norrbotten is the project owner. The Develoop project started in 2019 and Region Norrbotten asked the question to the Gender Equality Authority. Sara Nilsson, in the Support and Coordination department, has worked together with local business companies; Strukturum, Argentis, Älvsbyn Municipality and Arvidsjaur Municipality. Luleå University of Technology and companies in Norrbotten and Västra Götaland were also involved.
Sara Nilsson, senior investigator, Swedish Gender Equality Authority.
Four questions for Sara Nilsson
What has been your role in this project?
I have led the process of developing Develoop. For the Swedish Gender Equality Authority, it has created good opportunities to contribute from a national level to the implementation of gender equality policy at local and regional levels.
Why is Develoop an important tool?
The support is based on the same structure as the systematic work environment work according to the regulations of the Work Environment Act. The work to prevent or manage inequality should be part of something that is already being done.
What has been the biggest challenge in the project?
It has been a challenge to implement the project during the pandemic. Our closest collaboration partners were the business community and the pandemic affected many entrepreneurs. Getting them to focus on an issue like gender inequality during a crisis was a challenge to say the least.
My absolute conviction after this project is: to achieve the greatest possible effect in the work against inequality, we need to work closely with those who are actually affected, in this case the local business community.
What effect do you hope Develoop will have?
Gender equality is achieved where people work and live, which is why the local level needs to be involved in formulating both the problems and the solutions.
One example is Poppel's breweries. They have worked to systematically integrate gender equality into their operations. Today, they manage and distribute work in a new way and have become a more attractive workplace, which they are very happy and proud of.
Writer: Anna Ekstedt, communications officer, Swedish Gender Equality Authority.