Burberry

Attracting and Retaining Diverse Top Talent: We are taking steps to ensure every stage of our recruitment process is inclusive. We have introduced a ‘gender decoder’ tool that analyses the language we use in job advertisements to ensure they are gender neutral. We are piloting anonymous screening of CVs and including diversity data monitoring forms in candidate applications. Disclosure is voluntary and data is treated as confidential. As of January 2021, all members of our Talent Acquisition team had completed unconscious bias in recruitment training, and we have committed to rolling out additional training for all hiring managers this year. We use standardised interview questions to ensure all candidates have an equitable experience. We also invest in programmes to diversify our talent pipeline. In 2020, we expanded our creative art scholarships, providing more equal access to programmes for more than 50 students over five years at renowned creative institutions, including The New School’s Parsons School of Design in New York City, Institut Français de la Mode in Paris and Central Saint Martins in London.

Fostering an Open and Inclusive Culture: Creating an environment where everyone feels a sense of belonging and receives support for their overall wellbeing is vital to achieving our goals. All our leaders are accountable for fostering this and we work closely with external partners to assist us on our journey and share resources. As part of this, we actively mark key cultural moments across the year, including International Women’s Day, Pride, Black History Month and LGBT+ History Month to name a few. We use them to share perspectives and experiences with one another and champion partner organisations who are making a difference. All members of our Executive Committee are accountable for attracting and retaining diverse talent and fostering an inclusive culture and formal D&I objectives are included in their goals. They sponsor D&I programmes and participate in specific activities and cultural moments to reinforce the importance of our initiatives and ensure they are embedded in our ways of working.

Educating and Raising Awareness: We have implemented a number of training programmes for our teams so we can mitigate bias across decision-making and ensure everyone is equipped to contribute to an inclusive culture. Since 2020, all our colleagues are required to complete unconscious bias training, helping them recognise the assumptions and beliefs that can skew their decision-making. All members of our Talent Acquisition team have undertaken specialised training on mitigating bias in recruitment. We have provided training for all line managers as part of our annual reward review to ensure reward decisions are fair and balanced. In their first week, all new starters are introduced to our global Diversity and Inclusion Strategy and D&I Policy as part of their onboarding process. All senior leaders globally, including store managers, have completed inclusive leadership training. We also introduced allyship training, which we expect all colleagues to complete. As an early signatory of the BBC Creative Allies initiative, we work together with the wider creative industry to encourage meaningful allyship alongside our programmes.

Implementing a Global Approach: While our ambition is to foster an inclusive culture globally, we recognise that one size does not fit all. In order to drive meaningful, targeted change, we ensure our actions are locally relevant and aligned to our global framework and programmes. This approach will drive local accountability and impact, providing a balance between our global strategy and local action plans to help drive success. In 2020, all key markets and functions started to develop detailed action plans based on the global strategy pillars. These targeted D&I plans are created by working groups within different areas of the business. Incorporating input from colleagues, these plans will cover local needs and opportunities for change, applying a local understanding of the D&I landscape while supporting our overarching global priorities. Each plan is sponsored by one of our senior leaders and will be regularly monitored to track progress. Our global Diversity and Inclusion Policy sets out global standards for how we can foster an inclusive environment that encourages diverse capabilities, perspectives and meaningful allyship. This policy, which we expect all colleagues to follow, is accompanied by a guide for managers to help them fully integrate these standards within their teams, lead inclusively and create a diverse team. We also expect all our suppliers and partners to uphold similar standards at all times.