26 July 2021
Only 9% of the 50 largest retailers in the US integrate diversity, equity and inclusion into their human resources policies, according to management consulting group Korn Ferry. While the proportion is low, the figure represents progress compared to two years ago, when essentially none of the largest retailers focused on DEI as part of their HR policies. Having been criticised for their lack of openness towards minorities (women, black people, people of Latino origin, those with disabilities, LGBT people, obese...
5 July 2021
On 23 June, the UK business of German industrial manufacturing group Siemens announced that as part of efforts to increase the number of women working in the engineering sector it has set a target of gender parity in its ‘Early Careers recruitment’, whereby it will look to attract an equal number of male and female candidates for training, internships or apprenticeships. The push by Siemens to promote a more gender-balanced workforce comes at a time when 80% of its 8,700 UK employees are male.
22 June 2021
Eight retail giants, including the John Lewis Partnership and Sainsbury’s supermarkets, have come together to found this landmark “Diversity in Retail” (DiR) network, which represents some nearly 400,000 employees, and which aims to create a group-based template in a bid to increase diversity and inclusion at all levels in the retail industry.
3 June 2021
In Frankfurt on 20 May during a meeting with investors on sustainable finance, leading German bank Deutsche Bank announced new and more ambitious goals to boost the proportion of female in management positions. From the bank’s global headcount of 84,659, (37,315 of which are employed domestically), 46.4% is currently female, and the bank is looking to augment the female percentage occupying middle management positions (Managing Directors, Directors and Vice Presidents) from 29% today to 35% by 2025. The bank has...
11 December 2020
The consumer goods giant Unilever has signed up to the Halo Code, the UK’s first black hair code, which aims to protect people with afros and other black hairstyles so they can go to work or to school with those hairstyles without fear of being judged. According to the activists that founded the code, and formed the Halo Collective, one in five black women feel societal pressure to straighten their hair for work. “Despite hair being a protected racial characteristic under the law [on discrimination], there is...
28 May 2020
On 27 May, the highly respected Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) expressed concern that pressure on working mothers (employees) during lockdown could halt progress in reducing the gender pay gap. Throughout the crisis, mothers have significantly reduced their working hours to take care of their children and undertake household chores and in most cases are doing both at the same time. The IFS is warning both that this situation could perpetuate after the health crisis, and that mothers are also more likely to be...
5 February 2020
An opinion piece published in the 05 February edition of the daily economics publication Les Echos (here) indicates that 105 companies (primarily in the tech, organic, and sustainable development sectors, and for a large part SMEs) have committed to putting second parent leave arrangements in place. French legislation currently recognizes only 11 days of paternity leave (that is partially paid by the social security system). These 105 companies are highlighting their willingness and intention to ‘lead by example...
5 February 2020
Fathers in Hungary can avail of five-days of paid statutory leave following the birth of a child. This leave can be taken whole or in several parts but must be used before the child is two months old. Diageo, one of the leading global alcoholic beverages companies, has introduced a family-friendly measure that will see fathers having the opportunity to avail of an additional 26 weeks of leave. The company’s global parental policy provides a standard 4 weeks of leave as well as 26 weeks of maternity leave. The...
10 January 2020
India’s leading mid-range hotel chain, Lemon Tree is making the hiring of those with disabilities an integral part of its business model. Initially implemented in 2007, many hotels have are following suit.
4 December 2019
On 03 December, The Guardian daily newspaper revealed that executives and managers at the Edinburgh-headquartered TSB bank will likely see their 2019 bonuses cut for failing to meet its targets for the number of females in senior roles in the group. In 2016 the TSB signed the Women in Finance charter (c.f. article No. 9771) committing the bank to raising the number of females in senior roles to between 45% and 55% by 2020. This target is no longer feasible with latest gender equality data for the bank showing that...
