Diversity and Inclusion
Appreciating differences and creating a culture of inclusion is high on the agenda for ERIKS and is one of our three sustainability focus areas for the next decade.
We have set the goal of 35% of women in senior leadership positions by 2030.
The first step towards our goal has been to understand our current position and raise awareness of why diversity is important to our business. We believe that diverse and inclusive companies understand their customers better, perform better, make better decisions and are more creative and innovative.
To be a diverse company, our workforce needs to mirror the societies in which we live and operate. We are talking about gender, race, religion, age, disability and sexual preference. But also different experiences, backgrounds, nationalities, personalities, and thinking styles. In a global business that provides a range services, levels of diversity vary greatly. At ERIKS we decided to adopt a focused approach and start from gender diversity.
To engage employees in this journey we identified lead contacts in each country to take part in a bottom-up ‘Diversity and Inclusion Taskforce’. Each location has set local activities that are reported on at quarterly Taskforce meetings. In 2020, Ambassadors are working to develop an in-depth understanding of the challenges and opportunities for their particular location.
At the same time, our Chief Executive Officer and Chief HR Officer are responsible for diversity and inclusion issues at Board level. The topic is a regular item on the Board’s agenda and we keep our parent company SHV updated on our progress. The top-down, bottom-up approach will ensure that diversity and inclusion stay a high priority across the business as we work towards our 2030 goal.