Lift the share of the under-represented gender by the percentage points you nominated, either across managers overall or in one category: key management personnel, other executives and general managers, senior managers, or other managers.

The pipeline leaks before the promotion round. People step back at parental leave, at the first flexible work request, or at the point the next role looks incompatible with the life they have. Composition then holds steady while the policy shelf grows.

Lift the share of the under-represented gender among people promoted into manager roles by the percentage points you nominated.

The shortlist is drawn from who put their hand up, and who puts their hand up is shaped by whether the role looks survivable. Sponsorship stays informal, so the same people get tapped. Promotion rounds then reproduce the composition of the round before.

Increase the share of the under-represented gender in one quartile: upper, upper middle, lower middle or lower.

Upper quartile movement depends on senior retention. Lower quartile movement depends on who gets access to development, which rarely reaches part-time, shift-based and frontline roles.

Close your median or average gap, on base salary or total remuneration, by the percentage points you nominated.

The published figure is mostly a composition story. Where women sit in the structure moves it far more than what any individual is paid, so a remediation round shifts the number once and the gap drifts back.

Close your median or average total remuneration gap, for either managers or non-managers, by the percentage points you nominated. Base salary is not an option on this target.

Composition drives most of the gap. A remediation round moves the number once; who is hired, promoted and retained moves it every year after that.

If you have not completed a comprehensive analysis in the past two years, run one annually and report the results to your governing body.

The analysis gets done and lands as a spreadsheet. Without the drivers separated out, the board sees a number it cannot act on, and the following year looks the same.

Add two of: remuneration review processes without gender bias, transparency about pay scales and salary bands, or managers held accountable for pay equity outcomes.

Accountability is the element organisations usually choose and least often land. Managers are given the outcome to own without being shown where bias enters their own decisions.

Lift the share of the under-represented gender taking primary parental leave by the percentage points you nominated.

Men read the entitlement as available in theory. What shifts it is visible senior take-up and a manager who assumes the leave will be taken.

Increase the proportion of managers working part-time by the percentage points you nominated, measured at the end of the cycle.

Senior roles are still designed as full-time by default, so part-time managers are exceptions negotiated case by case. The people most likely to move the number are the ones who step out of management instead.

Two targets sit here. Create an employer-funded entitlement where you have none, or improve an existing scheme by extending its length and adding two elements from WGEA's list, or by adding three.

The policy lands and uptake stays where it was. WGEA's improvement list includes an opt-out default, where an employee is assumed to be taking their full entitlement unless they ask otherwise. That single element shifts the burden off the individual, and it only works if managers are ready for the conversation.

Have six of seven flexible arrangements available to all employees, and add four elements to your policy from WGEA's list of ten.

This is the most demanding action target on the menu, and the policy elements are where it fails. Leaders held accountable for take-up, a default bias toward approval, job-sharing built into role design - each needs capability, not a clause.

Consult annually with a diversity committee or employee representative group, and consult all staff using two of three methods: an experience survey, employee focus groups, or exit interviews.

A survey gives you a score. Focus groups and exit interviews are where the system shows itself, and they are the two methods organisations most often skip because the output is harder to put in a board pack.

Two targets sit here. Add four elements to your policies from WGEA's list of twelve, or expand what you report to your CEO, key management personnel and governing body to cover three of eight areas, including prevalence, trends and outcomes.

The policy exists, reporting stays low, and leaders manage incidents instead of eliminating the conditions that produce them.