March 8 is International Women's Day – an annual global celebration that recognizes the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. This year’s theme #ChooseToChallenge asks for a commitment to challenge inequality, call out bias, question stereotypes and help create an inclusive world.
At Nestlé Canada we believe that we all play a part in helping drive better outcomes for women. Through meaningful celebration and targeted bold action, we are committed to being a responsible leader in creating a more inclusive workplace. In January 2021, Nestlé was again recognized in the Bloomberg Gender Equality Index (GEI) for its transparency in gender reporting and advancing women's equality in the workplace. The GEI measures gender equality across five pillars: female leadership and talent pipeline, equal pay and gender pay parity, inclusive culture, sexual harassment policies, and pro-women brand.
As part of our efforts to build a more inclusive and diverse company, Nestlé globally launched the Gender Balance Acceleration Plan in 2019 and as a result, we’ve embedded gender balance in all Nestlé Human Resources practices around the world.
In Canada, here are a few examples of what we’ve done to-date:
- We continue to increase the proportion of women in top senior executive positions and make progress on gender balance with women representing 50.1% of the Nestlé Canada workplace and 52.9% of management positions;
- In 2020, employees at Nestlé Canada launched a Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) Committee, focused on five key streams including gender, race & ethnicity, mental wellness, LGBTQ+ and accessibility. The D&I Committee developed organically to increase awareness and champion open and honest discussions throughout all levels across the organization;
- In 2020, all Line Managers participated in Unconscious Bias Training, helping to foster an inclusive workplace and ensuring that they are trained on challenging biases in hiring, talent and successions;
- Encouraging the use of Nestlé’s flexible work policies;
- Enhancing mentoring programs to prepare high-potential women for senior executive positions;
- Hiring and promoting more women in senior executive positions; and
- Continuing our efforts to champion equal pay and eliminate conditions that create gender pay gaps.
In Canada, we reached out to our employees to learn more about how they are choosing to challenge themselves and those around them. Here’s what a few of them had to say:
