Furniture retailer Ikea, automotive and energy business Tesla and travel website Booking.com are among the top 10 employers listed on the Diversity Leaders 2020 rankings, published by the Financial Times.
The list, in its inaugural year, was compiled following a survey of 80,000 employees across 10,000 listed and private organisations in 10 European countries: Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK.
Survey participants were asked to what extent they felt their employer promoted diversity, and were prompted to give their opinion on a series of statements relating to age, gender, ethnicity, disability and sexual orientation.
The research, which took place between April and August 2019, was then aggregated into a score out of 10 for each employer, and these scores fed into the Diversity Leaders 2020 list, which comprises 700 organisations overall.
The top 20 employers on the Diversity Leaders 2020 list were:
- Booking.com (9.1)
- Colgate-Palmolive (8.57)
- Willmott Dixon (8.47)
- Infineon (8.42)
- Helsana (8.37)
- Biocoop (8.31)
- Ikea (8.3)
- Tesla (8.23)
- Solvay (8.23)
- ZF Friedrichshafen (8.22)
- Groupe Rocher (8.22)
- Google (8.21)
- Würth Group (8.21)
- CNH Industrial (8.19)
- American Express (8.17)
- Lindt and Sprüngli (8.17)
- Aramark (8.16)
- Texas Instruments (8.15)
- RAG (8.14)
- Lilly (8.12)
Olivier Blum, global chief HR officer at Schneider Electric, which ranked at number 41, said: “We are honoured to be recognised in the inaugural report for Diversity Leaders by the Financial Times. At Schneider Electric, we are continually working towards building sustainable inclusion for everyone, everywhere. It’s great to see that many other [organisations] are championing diversity and inclusion. Together, we can make a bigger impact on society.”
Leyla Boulton, executive editor and editor of FT special reports at the Financial Times, said: “[Employers] are under increasing pressure to consider how their actions affect wider society and communities. As the [Financial Times] has argued, business leaders need to broaden the pursuit of shareholder value to one that is based on inclusivity, sustainability and purpose if they want their businesses to adapt and thrive.
“The extensive surveys conducted by our partner Statista went further than most to find out how [employers] treat their staff across the board and what employees say about their diversity and inclusion efforts.”