“Improving gender balance, particularly at senior levels of the business, is a priority,” said Samuel Sigrist, CEO at SIG. “We aim to do so through enhanced efforts to attract and develop female employees and leaders.”

Improving gender balance

Recruiting and promoting more women in a traditionally male dominated industry is a priority in SIG’s diversity, equity and inclusion strategy. The company’s ambitious new goal to increase women in leadership roles from 18% in 2020 to 30% by 2025 will drive efforts to attract and develop more women at all levels of the organisation and particularly in leadership roles.

In partnership with universities, the company is encouraging more women to pursue engineering roles at SIG and better engage women in its recruitment processes. The company is also creating a working environment that strengthens its ability to attract and retain women by introducing more flexible working options where feasible.

SIG welcomed the first female member of its Group Executive Board in 2021 and a new mentoring programme for female leaders will be launched later this year.

“We encourage our teams to be as diverse as the markets we work in to create innovative solutions that meet the ever-changing needs of consumers around the world,” said Danai Windhaus, SIG’s Group HR Manager Diversity, Inclusion and Culture Initiatives. “Through our new employee-led Diversity and Inclusion Focus Group, people with diverse personalities, backgrounds and experiences from across the organisation are helping to drive our diversity, equity and inclusion strategy forward.”

Embracing diversity to believe in more

Fostering an inclusive working environment and a sense of belonging is essential to the company’s commitment to make SIG a place where employees can feel free to believe in more – for them, SIG, customers, consumers and the planet. Building a diverse workforce supports our customers in diverse markets and supports innovation by

bringing different perspectives and new ideas to our business.

SIG has renewed its efforts to promote diversity, equity and inclusion with a series of new initiatives in 2020, including:

• Establishing a Diversity & Inclusion Focus Group led by 14 employee representatives from across the business to help drive the company’s diversity, equity and inclusion strategy
• Introducing mandatory training on unconscious bias and inclusion, completed by 337 leaders across the business so far
• Publicly committing to promote diversity throughout the organisation as a signatory of the German Diversity Charter (Charta der Vielfalt).

The company also encourages employees to take international roles to enhance the diversity of perspectives and experiences across its operations.

SIG’s strengthened commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion builds on the company’s culture of responsibility, which underpins its wider ambition to go Way Beyond Good for people and the planet.