Diversity & Inclusion Policies at AkzoNobel India
In the post-pandemic era, one of the major considerations is hybrid work and how to best implement it. But driving the considerations behind the scenes are factors like maintaining a shared corporate culture of innovation and inclusiveness. This is crucial especially if companies want to adapt and thrive in the new normal and attract the best talent globally.
For organizations, remote working was a significant disruptor. In these unprecedented times, communication, connect, and empathy came to the threads of keeping employees engaged, positive and motivated. For front-running organizations, employee engagement practices transformed overnight.
At AkzoNobel, we developed “AkzoNobel Cares” program. The objective is to safeguard employees and fortify their wellbeing on 4 key pillars of Mental Wellbeing, Medical support, Hospital Insurance & Life insurance. The program created an umbrella for safeguarding employee wellbeing holistically.
Counselling programs, expert webinars, employee Covid-19 Helpline with 140 COVID SQUAD employee volunteers were some ways we provided support to our employees during extraordinary times.
But Diversity and Inclusion are not limited to providing employees equal growth opportunities. More importantly, it’s about going ahead.
At AkzoNobel, we believe that to achieve our corporate ambitions, we need a high-performing workforce that reflects our customer base and the communities we operate in. People are a key component of our company’s purpose – People. Planet. Paint. approach to sustainable business.
To achieve this, we’re continuing to focus on creating a diverse and inclusive working environment where our people feel safe and empowered to be their true selves.
When It Comes to Furthering D&I, It’s About Walking the Talk
Our plans and initiatives are focused on 3 action areas – Fostering an inclusive culture, expanding our D&I networks, and strengthening our leadership diversity with a focus on gender balance.
As part of our commitment to creating an equal and fair workplace for all our employees, the leadership team at AkzoNobel actively participates and encourages D&I initiatives.
Thierry Vanlancker, our global CEO recently signed the UN Global Compact and UN Women’s Empowerment Principles, which have further highlighted the fact that we will not only recruit women into our organization but will also make them a part of our success journey.
Our global goal is to expand D&I to the top-most levels with 30% women at the Senior Executive level by 2025.
Expanding Our D&I Networks
We have 3 global D&I networks – Women Inspired Network (WIN), True Colors (LGBTQ+), and Disabilities Network. Benchmarking our efforts externally, we regularly review and update policies. An example of this is our recently launched Inclusive Language Guide.
The Indian chapter of our largest network – WIN puts D&I centerstage with its focused initiatives such as the Returnee Mothers program built to encourage the return of women to their professional lives. At the same time, it’s also about creating new opportunities.
At AkzoNobel, our policies are designed to encourage women to make lateral moves to try different areas for growth. Complementary internal campaigns like ‘Men as Allies’, ‘Choose to Challenge’ and our latest “Break the Bias” campaign on International Women’s Day with cross-industry leadership talks further help embed D&I into our company culture.
D&I Dividends
At Akzo Nobel India our diversity ratio has grown nearly 16% in the last 12 months. A significant part of this was in our sales function. Women now helm the depot in Trivandrum, and we aim to expand this success across all regions.
Other functions ranging from R&D to manufacturing are also experiencing the value that greater diversity is bringing to engagement, productivity, and business.
As part of our future skills and workplace development, we are undertaking a paradigm shift with the introduction of hybrid roles and agile teams that are a driving force toward a new business landscape.
The marketplace is a global program in which our employees may voluntarily take up projects that have no boundaries, under the mentorship of our global leaders.
Only by continuing to be innovative, authentic, and staying committed to creating equal opportunities for employees, will organizations move the needle towards achieving their D&I ambitions and thriving tomorrow.
Going Beyond Organization Targets to Impacting Communities
For us, D&I has to go ahead of the organization and be a tailwind for the wider community. One such way we are doing this is via the AkzoNobel Paint Academies which are promoting D&I in the predominantly male-dominated decorative painter community.
Our ambition is that 30% of the trainees (nearly 300) passing out of AkzoNobel Paint Academies be women and LGBTI+ community.
Already over 50 women are successfully empowered and gainfully employed as professional painters. As a part of rehabilitation programme for prison inmates and children in conflict with the law, 76 prison inmates and juveniles have been successfully trained as decorative painters.
Our skill training programme for transgenders (LGBT community) has helped many like Deepika (name changed) to kickstart their careers as decorative painters with confidence.
