Diversity is good for BusinessEurope
BusinessEurope, the EU-level association of Employer’s Federations, has issued another document promoting Diversity Management. The brochure contains seven practices from members associations and individual companies, including Solvay, Infineon or Telefonica, that were presented to EU Commissioner Jourová earlier this year.
Diversity is good for business – while the title of a current brochure published by BusinessEurope does not sound particularly ground-breaking, the initiative itself shows that the umbrella organisation of Europe’s National Business Associations continues its engagement for D&I. After many years of a more hesitating attitude, the voice of Europe’s businesses took a clear stand for Diversity Management with their position paper in 2013. In February 2016 they held a round table with EU Commissioner Vĕra Jourová (in charge of Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality). On that occasion, BusinessEurope presented practices from their member associations or their individual member companies respectively. The objective has been to present activities that have already brought tangible results.
Examples from French and British associations
The level of engagement for Diversity Management varies greatly between the National members of Business Europe. While some only engage where collective issues are concerned, others have created their own D&I tools or platforms. The French association, MEDEF, presented their annual barometer, a survey that captures the perception of employees in regards to equal opportunities. In Business Europe’s brochure they highlight the increased awareness for company initiatives (70% up from 60%). However, the same survey also found that 36% of the participants felt that they had been discriminated against at the company where they currently work (up from 30%). This number is the same of men and women, but for different reasons. The barometer is designed to serve as an evaluation or monitoring tool to understand the effectiveness of D&I work by companies. MEDEF has a number of other tools to work on D&I.
The Confederation of British Industries, CBI, presented the Davies Review, a business-led initiative for voluntary targets for women on boards. After the original target of 25% was met ahead of schedule in 2015, a new target of 33% by 2020 has been established for FTSE 350 (!) companies. While the CBI proudly reported that the of all-male boards reduced from 152 to zero in the FTSE 100 and to 15 in the FTSE 250, they had to admit that the number of female CEOs remained 5. As there is still a discrepancy persisting between non-executive female directors (up from 15.6% to 31.4%) and executive directors (up from 5.5% to 9.6%), it is consistent and encouraging to read that the CBI hopes to see targets for the level below the boards in the future.
Good practices from Infineon, Ranstad and Telefonica
Infineon not only presented their Gender Diversity Network (GDN) which has number of special features. They also reported that additional projects emerged from the GDN and how the network multiplied into local satellites and resulted in Infineon’s Leadership Council to be expanded into the Leadership & Diversity Council, receiving continued support from the company’s top management.
Ranstad describes a number of initiatives that were implemented by various national subsidiaries and/or Ranstad Holding. The company has signed Diversity Charters in several countries and applies the Gender Equality European Standard assessment. Since 2011, they report to have climbed to the highest level (3) in this respect.
The good practice form Spain’s telecom giant, Telefonica, talks about their Global Diversity Council. The internal advisory committee with men and women from different geographies and areas aims at promoting initiatives to strengthen diversity and more specifically to improve women’s access to management roles. The company reports that the reinforced the commitment to improve the quality of life for employees and their families and to promote the principle of equal opportunities.
Strategic approaches at Orange and Solvay
Orange presented their 2020 programme on diversity, which aims at aligning the future work on D&I with the company’s overarching priorities on agility and innovation. Consequently, the company wants to focus on functional diversity, which they consider the actual key to unleashing tangible contributions of diversity to the business.
Solvay has defined Diversity & Inclusion as part of their DNA and listed specific elements they consider to be vital for a truly inclusive company. Their success factors include management commitment, local and business ownership, people management and specific initiatives – which are, however, not specified.
How many results were actually presented?
The idea of BusinessEurope to publish a selection of D&I programmes that created value and had tangible impact must be applauded. Above all because so many stakeholders are looking for this information, and BusinessEurope has access to a Europe-wide network of membership organisations. In this respect, it surprises that the selected case studies do not focus as much on tangible success as the project aspired to. At least, the companies did not mention the concrete success they may have achieved – in the cases of Infineon and Ranstad, part of their success was published in other contexts before.
As a key stakeholder, BusinessEurope plays an important role in advancing the employment and the wider business agenda. It is therefore important that they continue to promote topics of strategic importance. Together with their members – and their members – they can create a group of pacesetters to promote the good practices that already exist and hence inspire regions or industries that may not have fully developed their business cases.
