Diversity & Inclusion
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 multinational corporation, Henkel employs people from 120 nations in almost 80 countries. Almost 85 percent of our employees work outside of Germany, with more than half of them in emerging markets. 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 are strongly committed to create teams that match the needs of the markets we operate in and the clients we work with, represented by an eclectic range of cultural backgrounds, skills, and knowledge. 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 embedded in our company values. 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 by 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.
We value, challenge, and reward our people. This 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.
Diversity Charters
Diversity Charters encourage organizations to develop and implement diversity and inclusion policies. By signing a charter, Henkel voluntarily commits to promote diversity and equal opportunities in the workplace, regardless of age, disability, gender, race or ethnic origin, religion or sexual orientation.
Voluntary Commitment: Diversity Charter
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.
Voluntary Commitment: Diversity Charter
In 2014, top executives signed the Diversity Charter in a Town Hall Meeting, underlining the importance of its values for the company.
Voluntary Commitment: Member of the German Charter of Diversity
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.
Voluntary Commitment: Diversity Charter
By signing the Diversity Charter in 2009, Henkel Italy clearly states its commitment to Diversity & Inclusion.
Diversity is in Our Hands
- Diversity
- Dimensions
- Business Case
- Leadership
How do we define Diversity & Inclusion?
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 visible and invisible differences.
In an inclusive culture, diversity is completely normal. This is the vision we are striving for.
Our dimensions of Diversity & Inclusion
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:
- Enable our employees to better understand our markets, customers, and consumers
- Attract, retain, and promote the best talents
- Enhance competencies of our employees to build high-performing and inclusive global teams
- Be recognized as a leader in diversity and inclusion management
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 understanding 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, mindsets, or personal experiences. However, 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 as a business case
Diversity & Inclusion makes business sense. As globalization increases, demographics and lifestyles change, we need to reflect on 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 make 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 conducted by firms like Catalyst and McKinsey demonstrate that diverse organizations perform better; are more profitable and powerful; and customers, employees, and suppliers have greater loyalty to businesses that seek to be more representative of the communities they serve. Diversity & Inclusion strengthens 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, win talents, and their competition.
Our leadership principles
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, creativity, and therefore, a higher performing team.
Engagement and Initiatives
Actions speak louder than words. Our global programs and initiatives are testaments to our commitment to a diverse and inclusive working environment. Whether it is about flexible working schedules, career development, training and consultancy, employee resource groups, childcare, eldercare, or employee well-being – you can learn more about what we do below.
Work-Life Flexibility
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 individual needs of each employee. For us, a trust-based approach focusing 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.
Triple-Two
Our Triple-Two Career Development Program begins by developing 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.
Trainings
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. Two major fields are increasing the understanding and awareness of different cultural attributes, and identifying and counteracting 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.
Live-long learning
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.
Dialogue is important to us! We communicate on relevant Diversity & Inclusion topics and events via different communication channels both internally and externally. As opinion shapers, we ensure that our messages have global appeal and that our campaigns and tools are ahead in terms of innovation and creativity.
Expertise and consulting
The global Diversity & Inclusion team, along with regional and local experts, offer structured and bespoke expertise and consultancy to business units across all regions. We work in partnership with businesses to really understand their perspectives and consult with them to ensure powerful, effective, and lasting outcomes. Our teams are encouraged to deeply adopt 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, peer groups, and enterprises.
Inclusion campaign
“Inclusion starts with i” was the motto of our global Diversity & Inclusion communication campaign in 2014. Our diversity unites us and exists in every region, every country, and 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 is inherent in the way we treat each other.
The campaign was designed to raise awareness for Diversity & Inclusion, foster an inclusive company culture, and to get our employees emotionally involved in the topic.
Additionally, the campaign was rounded off by the Global Diversity Weeks. These Global Diversity Weeks were fully pack with virtual and local events, activities, and initiatives, offering our employees a unique chance to experience diversity at Henkel.
The campaign conveyed a very creative and emotional angle of how each one of us is responsible for promoting Diversity & Inclusion at Henkel, and how it is necessary and beneficial for all that inclusive behavior becomes a part of our company culture. The end-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 artists Guido Daniele. He used images of hands and fingers to express our diversity, but also our connection through inclusion.
80 percent of all communication is nonverbal, 55 percent consist of physical gestures and facial expressions. Hand gestures often express our most immediate and most obvious thoughts, such as waving, pointing at something, or by showing welcome. We use our hands when we argue, when we discuss, and when we talk – most often without even thinking about it. The same gestures can also have an important meaning in different cultures and are therefore interpreted differently. It is important to respect that we each behave differently and to be cautious about how we interpret individual expression especially being a part of a global team.
Awards and Partnerships
Awards and Recognitions
Our commitment for Diversity & Inclusion has been honored internationally several times. Take a look at our latest awards and recognitions.
Henkel France: Grand Prix de la Mixité 2018
On July 2018, Henkel France received a European Award for Diversity. The “Grand Prix de la Mixité” (a gender diversity award) was held during the International Financial Forum of Paris. Henkel’s successful efforts to promote inclusion and women representation was recognized by the European award in the DAX 30 category. Sylvie Nicol, Senior Vice President of Global Human Resources, received the award on behalf of Henkel.
Henkel Ukraine: One of the Best Companies with Non-Discrimination Policy 2017
The Ukrainian Independent Corporate Equality Index included Henkel Ukraine as one of the best companies with a non-discrimination policy in the workplace. Henkel got this award for aiming to create an inclusive working environment for all employees regardless of their gender, age, and physical or mental abilities.
Henkel China: Top Employer Award 2016
Henkel China was awarded with the Top Employer Award in 2016, being commended for its exceptionally high standards and as “Best in Class” amongst Chinese employers. The certification is a great recognition of Henkel’s strong focus on employee conditions and takes practices such as Diversity & Inclusion, Social Responsibility, Well-Being, and Work-Life Flexibility into account.
Diversity Supplier Award 2016
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.
Best Place to Work in Minnesota 2016
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.
Partnerships and Engagement
We are globally engaged in external initiatives and partnerships to foster the mutual exchange of 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:
Partnership: Partnership with “IMS”
IMS is an organization in France partnering with Henkel to promote Corporate Social Responsibility – focusing on a healthy working environment, diversity, equal opportunity, and inclusive business behavior.
Voluntary Commitment: Initiator and partner of the German Diversity Award
Since the establishment of the Charter of Diversity in 2006, more than 1300 companies and institutions have committed to the contents of the Charter. Henkel was one of the first companies that committed itself to the Charter and is a founding member of the association which continues the initiative as a charitable organization since 2011.
Partnership with “Más Vida Red”
Working together with the service provider “Más Vida Red” (More Life Network), Henkel Spain developed a program comprised of various training courses, service, and support activities related to family and work of Henkel employees.