At Henkel, we promote a holistic Diversity & Inclusion approach . The diversity of our employees, their backgrounds, experiences, talents, knowledge, creativity and the appreciation of all their individual differences are the foundation for our competitive advantage. As a globally operating company, Henkel employs people from 120 nations in more than 75 countries. Almost 85 percent of our employees work outside Germany, and more than half of them in emerging markets. "Creating sustainable value” is our purpose that unites all of us at Henkel. We believe that a company culture focused on diversity and inclusion is the key driver of creativity, innovation and invention. Our ability to deliver excellent results is fueled by and dependent on our ability to embed Diversity & Inclusion in our corporate culture and the way we do business.
We have a strong commitment to bringing together the right mix in teams from across our global organization. These teams are to match our markets’ and clients’ needs in terms of knowledge, skills and cultural background. We are convinced that diverse teams stimulate innovation and new ways of problem solving; yet they need an inclusive culture and leadership to help them function at their best.
Diversity & Inclusion is a business imperative and embedded in our company values. That is why we actively promote it among our employees, raise awareness and foster an environment that welcomes and embraces different perspectives, cultures and diversity of thought.
Diversity & Inclusion is firmly anchored in our corporate culture. It is not only an approach to meet the needs of increasingly diverse markets and stakeholders through providing creative and innovative products, services, and solutions. But it is also a company commitment to support an inclusive culture and management practice to leverage our full potential. For us, it is crucial that our leaders know and understand the commitment to Diversity & Inclusion as well as what is expected of them. This is why we put particular emphasis on strengthening inclusive leadership.
One of our five corporate values is: We value, challenge and reward our people. That means we are a global team united by a strong set of values. We treat each other with respect, develop our capabilities and promote diversity in all relevant dimensions. We take personal responsibility, always act with integrity and lead by example. We have a strong commitment to bringing together the right mix in teams from across our global organization. These teams are to match our markets’ and clients’ needs in terms of knowledge, skills and cultural background. We are convinced that diverse teams stimulate innovation and new ways of problem solving; yet they need an inclusive culture and leadership to help them function at their best.
Diversity at Henkel is the variety of talents, mindsets, perspectives, qualities, abilities and attributes of our employees and business partners, which makes Henkel unique and contributes to creativity, innovation and sustainable business success. It is about the individual differences within our company that make us strong and more successful – both visible, e.g. gender, and invisible, e.g. experiences, values, education, sexual orientation or religious background.
"Inclusion" at Henkel means respecting all visible and invisible differences to gain a competitive business advantage and create an equitable, healthy and high-performing organization in which all individuals feel valued and their contributions are appreciated.
Inclusion enables a multifaceted mix of people to complement each other in cohesive, high-performing teams. It is important to remember that inclusiveness is not about treating people the same, but about recognizing and appreciating all sorts of both visible and invisible differences.
In an inclusive culture, diversity is completely normal. This is the vision we are striving for.
At Henkel we take a holistic approach and embrace all aspects of diversity. Our goal is to strengthen our global team – “One Henkel” – while living a corporate culture of respect and appreciation towards all of our diverse employees, customers and suppliers.
Our mission is to:
Our markets, products and customers are strongly affected by globalization, proven by the fact that they are becoming more and more diverse. Thus, the different backgrounds and diverse abilities of our employees are invaluable for our understanding of our stakeholders and markets.
When we talk about diversity and the valuable differences that each of us brings, we should be aware that not all differences are immediately visible. Each of us is unique and it is this uniqueness that we aspire to capture.
Our diversity wheel exemplifies what this means, and how our measures and actions move us towards our mission to create “One Henkel”.
At Henkel, we strive for a balanced workforce in terms of gender, different generations and cultural backgrounds. There are many more dimensions that define us as individuals, such as educational background, family and relationships, mindset or personal experiences. But only considering all individual properties of our employees we completely embrace our diversity.
Our measures to strengthen our global team and to become “One Henkel” range from work-life flexibility, personal career and development planning, mentoring to diversity and inclusion consulting.
Hence, the essential efforts within our diversity and inclusion approach are on the mindset change towards an open and inclusive company culture that values all differences as well as similarities and where all our employees are treated with dignity, respect and appreciation.
Diversity & Inclusion makes business sense. As globalization increases, demographics and lifestyle change, we need to reflect these developments affecting our workforce and our external stakeholders. We believe that embracing diversity opens up a wealth of opportunities. The diversity of our employees, their backgrounds, knowledge and expertise makes the difference in a highly competitive, international environment. By profiting from the creativity, knowledge and international mentality of our employees, we are able to come up with new approaches and transform good ideas into successful innovations. This enables us to build strong, synergistic relationships with our consumers, customers, suppliers and colleagues.
Studies, e.g. by Catalyst or McKinsey, demonstrate that diverse organizations are better performing, more profitable and more powerful and that customers, employees and suppliers have greater loyalty to businesses that seek to be more representative of the communities they serve. Diversity & Inclusion does lift employee engagement and continually increases our value for our people and customers. Thus the business case for having a diverse workforce is compelling: Enterprises that appreciate and effectively manage diversity and inclusion will clearly take the lead with regards to their employees, their war for talents and their competition.
Leading inclusively is in our key focus. Leading means inspiring, by respecting and embracing everyone’s unique skills and perspectives. Inclusive leaders create a culture where everyone has a voice, and that voice is truly valued and respected.
We strive for a company culture where everyone is responsible for their own inclusive behavior. When we ignite enthusiasm, motivation, respect and commitment we are more successful. This leads to greater innovation, diversity of thought and creativity and therefore to a higher performing team.
Actions speak louder than words. Our global programs and initiatives are testament to our commitment to a diverse and inclusive working environment. Whether it is about flexible working, career development, training and consultancy, employee resource groups, childcare, eldercare, or employee well-being – you can learn more about what we do below.
Henkel recognizes the importance of Work-Life Flexibility in enhancing performance, motivation, productivity and efficiency on a sustainable basis. We are aware of the challenges employees may face in combining their personal and professional commitments. Our goal is to enable a work environment that delivers the right tools and flexibility to suit the various needs. For us, a trust-based approach with focus on performance and not on presenteeism is the way to create both excellent business results and personal flexibility. Some of the types of flexible work arrangements we offer worldwide include: mobile working, part-time and flextime.
Our Management Board expressed their commitment to flexible working when signing the Charter of Work-Life Flexibility in 2012. We expect our leaders to support flexible working at Henkel as part of their responsibilities. Since flexible working arrangements play a crucial role for virtually all life stages and professions, we are open for individual flexible solutions that serve the proactive design of work-life flexibility for our employees.
Our Triple-Two Career Development Program begins to develop our future leaders from the very start of their career. In a global organization, it is important that we have employees who are business and culture savvy, adapting quickly to new environments, are open minded, culturally sensitive, and great communicators. Our program is structured around two countries, two business units and two areas of responsibility.
We offer a variety of training on Diversity & Inclusion topics aimed at transferring knowledge about diversity and educating our employees about the importance of inclusive behavior. Major fields are e.g. to increase the understanding and awareness of different cultural attributes or to identify and counteract bias in decision-making. Employees benefit from a variety of vocational training, eLearning, coaching or classroom training. Our aspiration: Life-long learning – on-the-job, in training, from your peers or digitally on the screen.
Henkel's success is determined by the knowledge and skills of our employees. Continuous employee development and associated life-long learning are therefore highly important. In addition to day-to-day learning in the workplace, our employees also spend an average of two days a year attending training courses for professional and personal development. Our aspiration is life-long learning: on the job, in training, from your peers or digitally on the screen.
Dialog is important to us! We communicate on relevant diversity and inclusion topics and events via different communication channels within and outside the company. As opinion formers we ensure that our messages have global appeal and that our campaigns and tools are ahead in terms of innovation and creativity.
The global Diversity & Inclusion team and their regional and local experts offer structured and bespoke expertise & consultancy to the business units across all regions. We work in partnership with the business to really understand their perspectives and consult with them to ensure powerful, effective and lasting outcomes. Our teams are encouraged to deeply root openness for diversity as well as inclusive behavior within our company. On the other hand, we foster exchange and initiate sharing of expertise with external parties, such as universities, diversity experts or peer groups and enterprises.
“Inclusion starts with i”. This was the motto of our global Diversity & Inclusion communication campaign taking place in 2014. Our diversity unites us. Diversity exists in every region, in every country and in every team.
Diversity is not only about gender, but also about nationalities, seniority, cultural and religious backgrounds, sexual orientation, values and mindsets. All these factors build the foundation for an inclusive company culture. If individual differences complement each other well within a team and if every single employee is appreciated, real inclusion can be achieved. Our diverse workforce and inclusive company culture are key factors for our global success. We aspire to create a company culture where the appreciation of differences – meaning inclusion – is inherent in the way we treat each other.
The goal of the campaign was to raise awareness for Diversity & Inclusion, to foster an inclusive company culture and to get our employees emotionally involved into the topic.
Additionally, the campaign was rounded off by the Global Diversity Weeks. The goal of those weeks which were fully packed with virtual and local events, activities and initiatives was to offer our employees the unique chance to experience Diversity@Henkel.
The campaign conveyed in a very creative and emotional way that every single one of us is responsible for living Diversity & Inclusion at Henkel, and that it is necessary and beneficial for all that inclusive behavior becomes part of our company culture. The goal is to see every single person as an individual and to appreciate everyone‘s individual characteristics. The outstanding pictorial language that was used during the campaign was created by the artist Guido Daniele. He used images of hands and fingers to express our Diversity, but also our connection through Inclusion: 80% of all communication is nonverbal, 55% consist of physical gestures and facial expressions. Hand gestures often express our most immediate and most obvious thoughts, i.e. through waving, pointing at something or by showing welcome. We use our hands when we argue, when we discuss and when we talk, sometime even without thinking about it. The same gestures can also have an important meaning in different cultures and are therefore interpreted differently. Being aware of that, respecting that we behave differently and also taking the right conclusion is very important – especially when working in a global team.
Our commitment for Diversity & Inclusion has been honored internationally several times. Take a look at our latest awards and recognitions.
In July 2018, Henkel France received an European Award for Diversity! The "Grand Prix de la Mixité" (gender diversity award) has been held during the International Financial Forum of Paris. Henkel's successful efforts to promote inclusion and women representation has been recognized by the European award in the Dax 30 category. Sylvie Nicol, Senior Vice President Global Human Resources, received the award on behalf of Henkel.
The Ukrainian Independent Corporate Equality Index included Henkel Ukraine to the list of best companies with non-discrimination policy in the workplace. Henkel got this award for aiming to create an inclusive working environment for all employees regardless their gender, age, physical or mental abilities.
The independent certification body ranked Henkel China’s employee conditions as being of exceptionally high standards and as best in class practice amongst Chinese employers. The certification is a great recognition of Henkel strong focus on employee conditions and takes practices such as Diversity & Inclusion, Social Responsibility, Well-being and Work-Life Flexibility into account.
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) US LLC honored Henkel with prestigious recognition for its continued commitment to diversity. FCA presented Henkel with the Diversity Supplier Development (Production) Award at the sixth annual Qualitas awards ceremony held in Detroit. The Qualitas awards acknowledge and highlight suppliers’ commitment to areas including Innovation, Quality, Diversity Supplier Development, and Sustainability.
For the seventh year in a row, the Cannon Falls facility was recognized as one of the best places to work in Southeast Minnesota by Work Force Development. Recipients of the award completed a survey that included metrics on growth rate, internal promotions, training, benefits, community involvement and more.
For the third year in a row, Henkel Technologies Korea was awarded the “Great Place to Work for Korean Women 2015". Henkel Technologies Korea was selected as “100 company to work in Korea” in 2013 and “Great Place to Work for Korean Women” in 2014 by GWP (Great Work Place) Korea.
Henkel Hellas won the Honorable Distinction Award for its Best Workplace Diversity & Inclusion Strategy in 2015. The evaluation committee of “HR Awards” in Greece consisted of University and well-known Academic Institution Professors with many years of experience and extensive knowledge in the field of HR.
Henkel France was awarded by the LSA Trophy for Diversity & Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) jury for the second year in a row, thanks to a work-life balance program designed to favor gender diversity. Led by a group of managers, the program is part of a sustainability initiative called “Factor 3 in France”.
Henkel was recognized in 2015 by the Hispanic Network Magazine (HNM) as a top diversity employer. Annually, HNM polls hundreds of companies for its “2015 Best of the Best” lists, including Top Diversity Employer.
We are globally engaged in external initiatives and partnerships to foster the mutual exchange on Diversity & Inclusion. Thereby we show our commitment to our social responsibility and the respect we have towards differences as well as similarities. Find an excerpt here:
Henkel France signed the Diversity Charter in 2011 and underlined its importance for doing business at Henkel.
Following a supervisory Board Meeting with 140 executives at the regional headquarters, Kathrin Menges (Executive Vice President Human Resources) and Günter Thumser (President of Henkel CEE) signed the Diversity Charter on behalf of Henkel Austria.
In 2014, top executives signed the Diversity Charter in a Town Hall Meeting, underlining the importance of its values for the company.
IMS is an organization in France partnering with Henkel that promotes Corporate Social Responsibility, a healthy working environment, diversity, equal opportunity, and inclusive business behavior.
The German Diversity Award was implemented in 2011, rewarding individuals as well as companies with respect to their commitment to Diversity in the workplace. Henkel is one of its initiators and partners.
Since the establishment of the Charter of Diversity in 2006, more than 1300 companies and institutions have confessed to the contents of the Charter. Henkel was one of the first companies that has committed itself to the Charter and is a founding member of the association which continues the initiative as a charitable organization since 2011.
By signing the Diversity Charter in 2009, Henkel Italy clearly states its commitment to Diversity & Inclusion.
Working together with the service provider “Más Vida Red” (More Life Network), Henkel in Spain develops a program comprised of various training courses and service and support activities related to family and work of Henkel employees.
