At Imperial Brands, diversity and inclusion isn’t just something we talk about.
By making it a key part of our culture and embedding it into the fabric of our business, we are increasing awareness of the importance of diversity and inclusion across every part of our organisation.
We’re fully committed to creating a fair, inclusive and equitable workplace where everyone is welcome, diversity can thrive and one that respects and celebrates difference – after all, it’s our differences that make us stronger.
Through a wide range of backgrounds, personalities, creativity, innovation and diverse skillsets, we will have the ability and agility to work together and confidently tackle any and every challenge we face.
This in turn will result in enhanced personal and business performance and contribute to our competitive edge. So, if you want to bring your whole self to work every day, rest assured – here you can.
The exciting transformation that our business is currently undertaking has provided a huge opportunity in how we approach diversity and inclusion in our workspaces. From listening to our employees to embedding our new behaviours throughout the whole organisation globally. Diversity and inclusion has never been so front of mind. We’re committed to making Imperial Brands one of the fairest and most welcoming organisations.
Here’s a little about some of the initiatives that we have already successfully rolled out so far:
Our Global D&I Network really is the voice and champion of diversity within Imperial Brands. Made up of employees at all levels and across different business areas and countries, they all have one thing in common – and that’s a genuine passion for diversity and inclusion, influencing social awareness across the whole organisation. As well as supporting our D&I agenda in all locations, they have an invaluable part to play in creating the global and local initiatives that will underpin our worldwide strategy.
Our employees spoke and we listened. Following employee survey responses, we created four global Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) to further understand the opportunities to create a more inclusive organisation. With support from our Executive Leadership Team and senior leaders within the business, each ERG focuses on areas considered most important by our people: ethnicity, disability, gender and LGBTQ+. Anyone in our business can join, bring their ideas and experiences and support the global strategy.
We continue to build our suite of workshops, online D&I resource centres and training courses that are available to everyone at Imperial, at all levels. These have included providing wider understanding of unconscious bias and microaggressions amongst others, with all courses provided in multiple languages.
Work Flex is a consistent, equal and transparent policy that’s currently being embedded across different countries. Since the changes to working brought about by COVID-19 we’ve expanded the initiative, enabling increased flexibility and aiding productivity during these unprecedented times. Here are some of the benefits that we trust our employees to use as appropriate:
Our Reverse Mentoring initiative is turning traditional perceptions of what mentoring is on their head. It’s an opportunity for experienced employees to be mentored by younger team members within the business, or by those from different backgrounds or levels of experience. There are countless benefits to this, including: breaking down barriers; creating a more inclusive working environment; engendering a deeper culture of knowledge sharing; and ultimately building stronger collaborative relationships between our people.
