Diversity and Inclusion

"At Sodexo, diversity and inclusion is all about putting our policy into practice. Fundamentally, it is of paramount importance that we are able to attract, retain and develop the widest and most diverse range of talent through our inclusive approach and attitude to our people."
Natalie Bickford, human resources director, Sodexo

Promoting diversity and inclusion
Diversity matters to us and our clients. Our strategy, coupled with investment in a business-wide diversity and inclusion council, represents our belief that diversity and inclusion are matters of competitive differentiation, as much as they are the right thing to do.

Diversity and inclusion means ensuring everyone, regardless of differences, is welcomed, included and respected in the workplace.

There are many potential differences between people, including six broad categories of diversity: age, disability, gender, race, religion and sexual orientation. Recent legislation means we consider these, along with marriage & civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, and gender reassignment as the 9 protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010. 

We have sought external support for each area, working with non-governmental organisations, such as the Employers' Forum on Age, the Employers' Forum on Disability, the Employers' Forum on Belief, Race for Opportunity (which supports different ethnic groups), Opportunity Now (which supports employment opportunities for women) and Stonewall (the leading organisation working for equality for gay men, lesbians and bisexuals). We also network with other blue chip organisations, many of which we provide services to, to ensure we share best practice and make sure our practices are leading edge.

Senior leadership commitment to diversity and inclusion is vital to every company's efforts to understand and meet the needs of diverse employees, clients and customers. At Sodexo, the members of our Diversity and Inclusion Council - board executives, directors and senior managers from across our business - meet quarterly to ensure diversity is integrated in our business, develop our diversity and inclusion strategy, establish measurable goals and shape our action plans.

In 2009 we launched the Spirit of Inclusion, a company-wide diversity and inclusion training programme mandatory for all UK and Ireland managers that aims to increase awareness of the moral, legal and business cases for diversity, and help managers to interact with diverse teams, clients and customers. We aim to have delivered the training to all 4,000 of our UK and Ireland managers by the end of 2011. A team of 40 internal facilitators, drawn from operations and central functions, learning and development and human resources teams, has been trained to deliver the programme.

The Spirit of Inclusion is complemented by a series of internal communication tools such as year-round fact sheets on religious and cultural events of major significance including Ramadan, the Chinese new year, Easter, Saints' days, with tips on how to manage employee, client and customer needs.

"Not only have I benefitted personally from my involvement in the Spirit of Inclusion, becoming a facilitator has helped me deal more effectively with some difficult issues that may arise in my workplace. My client is so pleased with the programme that he has asked me to deliver it to some of his own management team."
Ian Simpson, Sodexo general manager at Everton FC

  Women Work is our first UK and Ireland network group. It has been formed to foster a culture of inclusiveness by enhancing women's professional and personal growth. Its key objectives are:

Based on the success of this first network, we aim to develop further networks that support our workforce and ensure we promote an inclusive culture across the organisation.

SWIFt (Sodexo Women's International Forum for talent) is a Group-wide initiative that aims to accelerate the attainment of gender balance within Sodexo through the personal drive, commitment and leadership of high-level women. With the help of SWIFt, we aim to reach between 23 and 25% female representation among 300 of our most senior worldwide employees by 2015.