Increasing the percentage of women to make it to the interview stage more than proportionally increases their chance of landing the role. Picture: iStock

The policy aims to address subconscious bias in the hiring process by ensuring women are not unnecessarily disqualified before the opportunity to interview.

“Ultimately the best person will get the job but one of the interesting statistics for Telstra is if women make the shortlist, they are almost two times more likely to be selected than a man,” Telstra group executive for human resources Alex Badenoch said.

“That shows there are very qualified, capable candidates out there. They perform fabulously once we get them in to interview.

“It’s on the basis of their own merit, capability and experience. We don’t positively discriminate at all.”

For field and operations roles — where the talent pool is heavily male-dominated – the policy stipulates 25 per cent of short-listed candidates be women.

“That is actually a really big ask,” Ms Badenoch said.

“We are setting ourselves a challenging goal. It’s a starting point ... over time those jobs will be 50-50 like any others but we need to be realistic.”

Department of Employment figures showed, for example, just 14 per cent of telecommunication engineers were female.

A candidate shortlist of 25 per cent females is a challenging goal for field roles. Picture: istockSource:Supplied

Currently at Telstra, the average candidate shortlist is 33 per cent female, in line with women representing about 30 per cent of the company’s workforce.

Ms Badenoch said the push to reach 50-50 gender split was based on the assumption that talent is not gender specific.

“At a selfish level, we just want the best people,” she said.

“There is an equal supply of talent from men and women and I need the best of the women and the best of the men so that will lead you closer to a 50-50 split.

“We also believe our business should reflect the customers we serve.”

She said 50-50 short-listing policies were not a new idea and had been implemented in other businesses, mainly overseas.

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“In an Australian context, it’s usually more of an aspiration but we have taken the step further and put a very structured process around it,” she said.

“We’ve got measurement and tracking. We are serious about it and committed to it.”

If there are not enough suitable female candidates to make a 50-50 shortlist, recruiters will be sent back to the drawing board to broaden their search.

From there, if the situation is not improved, the quota can be overturned at the highest level of the company but “only if we have truly exhausted every option”.

Telstra wants more women to be lining up for their jobs. Picture: iStockSource:Supplied

Last year, US research from Harvard Business Review revealed increasing the representation of women in a shortlist more than proportionally increased their chance of landing the role.

When only one in four short-listed candidates were women they had well below a one in four chance of being hired.

However, when women and men were equally represented in the shortlist, there was an equal chance that either gender would get the job.

The status quo changed resulting in a woman becoming a more favoured candidate, the research contended.

Hender Consulting executive consultant Bernie Dyer said despite gender equality being a regular discussion point, a 50-50 target for shortlists and interviews was unrealistic for most employers.

“Telstra’s long term commitment to improve gender equality already positions them as one of the more progressive organisations in this regard,” she said.

“It’s encouraging to see them striving to push this further, however it’s not a one size fits all approach and as Telstra have shown, multiple initiatives are required which have then cumulatively supported achievement of their overall equality strategy.”

Ms Dyer said there were a range of ways employers could address gender equality.

“Challenging perceptions and behaviours, reviewing traditional recruitment and promotion practices, providing leaders and staff with tools to understand and question their own potential for unconscious bias, helping them understand the organisational benefits and value derived from improving gender equality, and being genuinely open to considering flexible work options for roles are some the key aspects we strongly encourage clients to consider,” she said.

“Successful initiatives require a practical strategy suitable for the individual organisation, sponsorship and accountability driven from the highest executive levels and a strong commitment to developing consistent practice and behaviours to start seeing a shift, and that takes time.”

Read more employment news in the Careers section of Saturday’s News Corp Australia metropolitan newspapers.