Why we care about Diversity & Inclusion

People from very different countries, cultures, generations and of all genders work in our company and we want to promote this diversity in a targeted way. To show we walk the talk, in 2012 we signed the German Diversity Charter. This initiative works to ensure that diversity is recognized, valued, and included in German working culture – irrespective of gender, nationality, ethnic origin, religion or world view, disability, age, sexual orientation or identity.  

At Beiersdorf we actively live by the principles of diversity and inclusion, and promote the diversity of different genders, national origins and cultures, sexual orientation, and generations. Within this we include people with and without disabilities, fully aligned with how we live out social inclusion. 

Worldwide we employ people from over 100 different nations. At our Hamburg headquarters alone, around one employee in six is not German, while approximately 40% of our first and second-level managers have lived and worked abroad for at least three years. This extensive international background enables us to understand our consumers around the whole world better and to market the most suitable products for them.

Ensuring equal opportunities for men and women is particularly close to our hearts and we strive to achieve a gender balance at all levels of our organization. We work to raise awareness of “Gender Balance” amongst all our employees and support female managers above all with diverse measures. For instance, these include our gender diversity initiative “enCOURAGE”, our “move forward” mentoring program for women that includes mentoring and Peer Coaching Circles, as well as events organized by our “Women in Leadership” network. Balancing work and family life is very important to us: We offer our employees a range of worktime models as well as job-sharing, in which two employees can share a single professional role. 

Find out more about women in leadership positions at Beiersdorf, and how we implement the statutory requirements regarding the share of women in senior management.

Our company also values and safeguards the diversity of sexual identity and orientation. On the initiative of our own employees we founded a LGBTIQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersexual, queer and more) community for all Beiersdorf employees: “Be You @Beiersdorf”. Its goal is to create and establish an even more inclusive environment and a visible community for everyone at Beiersdorf with a differing sexual identity and orientation. This includes establishing a network through company-internal and external events, improving the general understanding of LGBTIQ+ related topics in the workplace, and breaking down unconscious prejudices and stereotypes.

Collaboration across different generations is a key aspect of diversity and inclusion. Beiersdorf promotes a well-balanced mix of ages, works to leverage the strengths of the different generations in a targeted way, and to avoid peaks in specific workforce age ranges due to retirement. In Germany the share of employees over 50 years old is around 30% in the Consumer Business Segment, while 16% of the workforce is younger than 30. To strengthen the 50+ generation we provide a diverse range of further education offers specially tailored to the requirements of this target group.

We engage for equal treatment and opportunities for people with physical or mental disabilities, and are firmly opposed to all forms of discrimination. Colleagues with disabilities occupy the widest possible range of positions in our company and therefore make an important contribution to our business success. In addition to this, Beiersdorf also commissions workshops for the disabled: For instance, we commission the “Elbe-Werkstätten”, Germany’s largest sheltered workshop organization of this type for the disabled, with maintaining the green areas on the Beiersdorf sites in Hamburg.

The “Law on Equal Participation of Women and Men in Leadership Positions” was passed in April 2015 in Germany. It requires companies to set targets for the share of women on the Executive Board and on the two most senior levels of management. Complementing this we have gone beyond the statutory requirements in Germany and have also set ourselves global targets for the percentage of women in leadership roles. Find out more about our progress towards the various targets here.