Unilever Global Change location
Tackling equity, diversity and inclusion will make society and our business stronger. We take a holistic approach that focuses on using our scale and reach to have the greatest impact: driving equity through our workplaces, equity through our brands, equity in our supply chain, and equity in our communities. We've identified four strategic priorities in our drive for equity: gender; race and ethnicity; people with disabilities; and LGBTQI+.
We are developing a bespoke framework to assess our policies and practices so that we can identify opportunities to implement interventions that counteract biases where they may exist.
Senior female representation continues to increase and we are taking steps to increase representation of Black and Brown talent in four key markets.
Our data collection systems to enable future reporting of this target are currently being developed.
Our supplier diversity programme is now live in 22 key markets, and we are encouraging our existing supplier partners to join us in driving positive social change.
Our progressive approach to the representation of our key priority groups – Gender, Race & Ethnicity, LGBTQI+ and Persons with Disabilities – continues to drive inclusion both behind and in front of the camera.
Equity is the cornerstone of our ambition to be a Beacon of Diversity and Inclusion – for the benefit of our people and for our business. We believe that diverse teams operating within an inclusive environment can support our aim to unlock business performance and respond faster to changing consumer needs. Our 2022 UniVoice survey confirmed that we are making progress towards our ambition, with 84% of employees agreeing that our leadership stands for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion.
In 2022, we launched an Equity Advancement Framework to provide an in-depth diagnostic of all aspects of Equity, Diversity & Inclusion across our business so we can target interventions to eliminate systemic biases within our processes and systems. Using the Framework, we have so far reviewed more than 20 areas of our HR practices, such as recruitment, talent management, learning, employee listening, data analytics and wellbeing. This work has provided important insights into the barriers to equity in each of these areas and informed actions to help us achieve more equitable outcomes for our employees.
In parallel, around 900 leaders have participated in the Unilever Leadership for Purpose Programme which included an Inclusive Leader assessment to measure key competencies for Equity, Diversity & Inclusion. The results have informed our three priority areas for future capability building: advocating for equity, counteracting bias and building psychological safety.
Read more about tackling bias to create an equitable workplace
We want to be recognised as a diverse and inclusive company, with diverse representation at every level of the business, including in leadership positions. We first achieved 50/50 gender balance in management in 2019 and have maintained this every year since.
We have now turned our focus on accelerating representation of women at senior leadership levels and have taken a number of actions in pursuit of this goal. We monitor the impact of upcoming senior appointments on our gender balance and share this information with the Unilever Leadership Executive on a regular basis. In line with best practice and where the format of the interview permits, we also use diverse selection panels as part of tackling any unconscious bias during our selection processes. Our senior women leaders, and women in our future talent pipeline, receive bespoke development plans including training, mentoring, internal and external career coaching, and sponsorship. And we now assess all senior leaders’ inclusive leadership behaviours and incorporate objectives into their development plans.
Another area of focus is increasing representation of race and ethnicity in our recruitment and succession planning, in particular Black and Brown talent in four key markets: Brazil, South Africa, the UK and the US. These countries are leading our work to make our recruitment practices more equitable, by increasing representation, building more inclusive and equitable cultures, and expanding local partnerships and advocacy. Afrolever, for example, is a racial affinity group created by Unilever Brazil to help build a culture of equity and representation within the business and accelerate opportunities for people of colour.
Measuring and reporting our progress against this target is not straightforward because some countries do not permit us to collect data and we need to respect data privacy laws. Where we are able to collect data, we do so through anonymous surveys. At the end of 2022, a small number of our markets were collecting employee self-reported data on disability.
Our Disabilities Inclusion Programme is built on a comprehensive analysis of the physical and virtual accessibility of our sites, along with our recruitment processes. We continue to improve the accessibility of our technology and sites, drawing on feedback from Enable – our global employee resource network for disability. In partnership with the Business Disability Forum, we have reviewed the accessibility of around 80 workplace sites, with more planned in 2023.
Ensuring our job vacancies and application processes are accessible to people with disabilities is another important area of focus. We are currently exploring partnerships with external organisations to help us improve the application experience for jobseekers.
We are also ensuring our recruitment teams have the necessary skills to recruit diverse talent, including people with disabilities. In North America, we are piloting a professional training and certification course for Diversity Recruitment, with a view to expanding this specialised training to other markets.
Read more about creating an inclusive culture for people with disabilities
We are committed to creating a more inclusive supply chain which incorporates diverse businesses. These are businesses which are owned, managed and controlled by members of under-represented or minority groups in the country in which they operate.
In 2022, our spend with diverse businesses reached €818 million, thanks to the growth of our supplier diversity programme which is now live in 22 key markets. New partnerships with supplier diversity bodies such as SheTrades and Supplier Gateway have helped us to expand our programme into new markets and amplified our advocacy efforts. By the end of 2022, 551 suppliers had qualified for the programme. We also plan to continue to phase this into new markets to drive positive social change globally.
We are supporting our diverse suppliers to overcome the barriers that have stood in their way in the past, by promoting access to skills, mentoring and finance. For example, in Kenya we are partnering with Citibank to offer access to preferential financing for suppliers which are owned by women.
To help expand our diverse supplier programme, we continue to encourage our suppliers to sign up to our supplier diversity pledge. We are also exploring ways to measure our spend with Tier 2 suppliers – diverse businesses who supply our suppliers. In 2022, we successfully piloted Tier 2 diverse spend reporting in the US and we hope to roll this out to more markets in the near future.
As one of the world’s largest advertisers, we have a responsibility to hold a mirror up to society and represent the communities we serve through our advertising. Through Act 2 Unstereotype, we are increasing the representation of our priority groups throughout our end-to-end marketing supply chain and creating opportunities for under-represented and underserved communities, both on-screen and behind the camera.
Inspired by Act 2 Unstereotype, a number of our brands are tackling diversity issues through their advertising, such as Dove’s campaign 'As Early as Five' which tells real stories of hair discrimination and challenges stereotypical beauty narratives. Our toothpaste brand 'Closeup' also created the 'City Hall of Love' in a virtual metaverse, to recognise and celebrate the rights of couples in all kinds of relationships to express their love, without fear or judgement.
We know there is still work to be done, but analysis from Kantar has shown that we are industry leading in our progressive approach to representation in advertising. Kantar also found that our most progressive advertising has the potential to deliver almost double the branded impact than the least progressive.
Read more on increasing representation of diverse groups in advertising
