What does the size of the sauna have to do with gender equality?

Develoop is a digital support for employers who want to develop the work environment and work with equality and inclusion. “We are trying to eliminate the risk of work environment problems,” says Sara Nilsson, who has been involved since the start.

The Norrbotten Region has developed the platform together with, among others, the Swedish Gender Equality Authority, Luleå University of Technology and local business companies.

Sara Nilsson, senior investigator for support and coordination at the Swedish Gender Equality Authority in Angered and originally from Piteå, has been involved in the development of Develoop since the start.

Many companies in Norrbotten are experiencing difficulties recruiting personnel and the challenges are expected to increase significantly as more and more companies are established in the region.

Growth issue

If it is difficult to recruit, employers cannot afford to alienate workers by having a workplace where there is room for sexism, racism or homophobia. Therefore, equality and inclusion are also a growth issue.

The Develoop platform is the result of ten years of systematic work on gender equality within small and medium-sized companies in Norrbotten.

Monica Lejon, head of the Business and Society unit.

– We have worked with this in various project forms for several years and it has developed in a very exciting way. We have a mandate from the government regarding gender-equal regional growth, but we have also seen the need to work with gender equality and inclusion ourselves. In this project, we have worked very closely with the companies and based our work on the needs that exist so that it reflects reality, says Monica Lejon, head of unit for business and society at Region Norrbotten.

Ten problem areas

The work has been carried out through two different projects since 2014 and through this the working group has identified ten problem areas that employers in Norrbotten need to highlight to varying degrees. By offering support to employers, Develoop helps to raise challenges related to gender inequality and to create a more sustainable work environment.

– We are trying to address both the social, organizational and physical work environment and in this way reduce the risk of work environment problems. We are currently quite good at the physical work environment through, for example, safety rounds, but the social and organizational work environment does not receive the same attention, says Sara Nilsson, senior investigator at the Swedish Agency for Gender Equality.

Three of the ten problem areas found in Develoop.

What kind of society do we want?

She has been a central part of the projects since the start. First as an independent consultant and later as an employee at the Swedish Gender Equality Agency. She is originally from Långträsk in Piteå and has a background in the Armed Forces where she worked with officer training, among other things. She is also educated in gender studies and has a master's degree in psychology with a focus on work science from Luleå University of Technology.

– I think it is very important that everyone who lives and works in Norrbotten really tries to contribute to the transformation of society. They have to ask themselves: what kind of society do we want? We who come from the north often long for a context, a street, a village, a house, a person, and that is currently being transformed. I really hope that everyone who can also contributes to creating the future. That would be incredibly great, says Sara Nilsson.

Through Develoop, employers have access to a number of tools to spread knowledge about gender equality in the workplace. Employers can take advantage of, for example, films, checklists, guides and other resources. With the help of the tools, employers have the opportunity to reflect on the situation in their own workplace and how they can act to promote a more gender-equal work environment. The tools also help identify risks for an exclusionary or discriminatory work environment and provide advice on how to deal with these.

During her visit to Region Norrbotten last year, the Director General of the Gender Equality Authority, Lena Ag, was given a presentation on the jointly developed gender equality tool Develoop. To her right is Monica Lejon, Head of Unit for Business and Society at Region Norrbotten, who notes that Norrbotten needs attractive employers.

No easy decisions

According to Sara Nilsson, there are two problem areas in the Develoop tool that are especially important to work on: “What does the size of the sauna have to do with gender equality?” and “Doesn't the decisions made apply?”.

The first point is about systematic work environment work and according to her, there are few companies today that work systematically with their work environment and that conditions and opportunities in working life should be equally good for women and men – be equal.

The second problem area concerns the need to answer “why” when employers begin the work of creating more inclusive workplaces.

– When working with gender equality in the workplace, it is sometimes necessary for employers to make decisions that are not easy. Many companies do not work with gender equality at all today, which means that they do not have knowledge of what it means to be gender equal and that the journey there is completely unexplored. Then it is important to have a stated reason for why this work is important, says Sara Nilsson.

happy ending

Other problem areas found in Develoop include "Why don't the right people apply for jobs with us?", "Did things get crazy at the last company party?", "A little porn never hurt," and "Happy ending."

The challenges that Develoop highlights are also linked to recruitment and skills supply. By using Develoop's mapping tool, employers can get help recruiting the right skills based on the company's needs. The tool also illustrates how inequality can negatively affect companies' finances through consequences such as lack of security, discomfort and ill health.

– It's a win-win situation. Norrbotten needs to be an attractive place to live and work and then we need attractive employers, says Monica Lejon.

Employers both in Norrbotten and elsewhere in the country can find Develoop, free to use, here: https://develoop.se/

Text: Vanessa Cicero/Yours

Photos: Patrik Öhman/Yours, Simon Eliasson and Jonas Hansson