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Diversity and Inclusion
At Nestlé, our purpose is simple and direct: enhancing quality of life and contributing to a healthier future for everyone – and we truly mean everyone. We understand that in order to achieve this, we must have a workforce that represents our consumers. We must be diverse and foster a culture of inclusion to drive innovation and create products our consumers and their families love.
Culture
Nestlé’s Diversity and Inclusion starts with a culture of support and empowerment, aided by employee-led engagement groups, inclusive hiring approaches, and company-wide learning and development.
Innovation
Innovation starts with listening to diverse voices. Through unconscious bias training and workplace flexibility policies, we work to remove constraints that limit employees of diverse backgrounds.
Society
Our commitment goes beyond representation and partnerships – it’s about the way we treat one another. It’s an expectation that we all are acting in a way which fosters a society that is inclusive of all.
"The reality is our consumers are diverse. We have to better understand and reflect what’s happening in the marketplace and use that knowledge and insight to help our business win. D&I is right for our talent, its right for our culture, its right for our business and helps us build for the future. D&I helps drive change and pushes us forward."
- Steve Presley, Market Head and CEO Nestlé USA
Gender Balance
Gender Balance has been a long-term priority for Nestlé, and we have been successfully increasing the number of women at all levels in the organization. We strive to create the enabling conditions in our work environment in order for all women to be successful and achieve a gender-balanced organization.
Our global and local initiatives on gender diversity include leadership development training and unconscious bias workshops, as well as flexible policies that contribute to supportive work environments such as the Nestlé Parent Support Policy.
- Our 2018 pay equity analysis found that salaries for male and female Nestlé employees have reached a 1:1 gender pay equity at Nestlé USA, an important benchmark for us to achieve because women nationwide continue to earn on average less than men.
- We increased the portion of women hired for management roles by more than 50% while hiring talent for our new Arlington, Virginia, headquarters in 2018.
- Bloomberg acknowledged our ongoing efforts to build a culture where women can thrive and grow by including us on its 2019 Gender-Equality Index, which gauges the progress of global companies’ equity and inclusion efforts.
Read stories about gender and an inclusive culture by our Chief People Officer, Judy Cascapera:
"Having a network of smart, energetic women in my corner made all the difference as I navigated an environment that was rapidly changing for women in leadership. Today, when I meet with young women seeking career advice, I urge them to form their own peer networks."
- Judy Cascapera, Chief People Officer, Nestlé USA
LGBTQ Inclusion
Ensuring that our employees have the opportunity to work in an accepting and comfortable environment is a high priority for Nestlé, and we've been working directly with LGBTQ employees to enrich and improve our policies. This work has been recognized by the Human Rights Campaign, which awarded us a top score of 100% on the 2019 Corporate Equality Index.
- Our Parent Support Policy is inclusive of same-sex parents, offering equal benefits for all primary care-givers regardless of gender and sexual orientation, and includes support for adoptive and foster parents.
- All marriage benefits apply equally to opposite- and same-sex couples, including couples in domestic partnerships.
- We offer unlimited financial support for medical costs to employees undergoing gender transition.
- In 2019 we became a part of Virginia Competes - a collection of companies working with Equality Virginia to affirm a belief that workplaces and communities must be welcoming of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people.
- Along with our partners in the Sustainable Food Policy Alliance we wrote an open letter to congress offering strong support to the Equality Act, which we believe is a strong step forward towards ensuring that all people, in all settings, are treated with fairness, dignity, and respect.
Read more about how we're building a more inclusive culture for LGBTQ employees:
Unconscious Bias
Although we may be unaware of them, we all live with unconscious biases. We don’t expect our employees to rid themselves of all bias, but we do expect them to be aware of their biases and how they may influence interactions and collaboration with team members. To ensure we are bringing more awareness to our biases, we’ve rolled out unconscious bias sessions for all of Nestlé USA. In addition, we are embedding elements of these sessions into other learning programs and initiatives.
To date 1,500 employees have taken our unconscious bias training. In 2019, every manager at Nestlé USA will participate in this training.
Project Opportunity
In 2015, we launched our career acceleration program, Project Opportunity, in the US. It is designed to help people of all ages gain work experience and strengthen their skills in our industry.
- We’ve established Nestlé in the U.S. as an employer of choice for veterans, supporting them with employment and training opportunities, which build upon their already impressive skills. We’re proud to employ more than 2,400 veterans across our operating companies.
- In 2017, we hired 1,000 paid interns and trainees in manufacturing, supply chain, sales, finance, marketing, audit, IT and human resources roles.
Learn more about how we're committed to accelerating career growth.
Employee Engagement Groups
At Nestlé USA our employee engagement groups are a critical component of our diversity and inclusion strategy. These groups help foster an inclusive culture that enhances our employee experience while also contributing back to our communities and our business units, by acting as internal advocates for diverse ideas.
Here are our currently active employee engagement groups:
We are proud to support organizations which are investing in the future of diversity and inclusion:
