Diversity statement

Diversity in Unilever is about inclusion, embracing differences, creating possibilities and growing together for better business performance. We embrace diversity in our workforce: this means giving full and fair consideration to all applicants and continuing development to all employees regardless of gender, nationality, race, creed, disability, style or sexuality. Diversity plays a vital role in ensuring we understand consumers’ needs.

The commitment to diversity is set right at the top of our business. It is driven by the Global Diversity Board, chaired by Group Chief Executive Patrick Cescau, who has emphasised that “diversity is critical to our business competitiveness and long-term sustainability”.

Unilever is one of the world’s most culturally diverse companies, with 21 different nationalities represented among our top level group of 113 managers worldwide.

In 2007 we worked to embed diversity even more firmly into our day-to-day business decisions, via our talent management and people processes, from appointments to development. As part of the Human Resources planning process our business units are also developing specific diversity plans that are aligned to the priorities and needs of their regions and categories.

We continue to carry out quarterly measurement and tracking of diversity against our objectives, using the HR Strategy in Action tool. Gender remains an important priority and is reviewed by the UEx.