Alessandro Paparelli, Vice President of Human Resources Asia Pacific, Kering
Quoting Virgin’s boss, Richard Branson, Paparelli said that while making customers feel good is Kering’s mission, “Customers don’t come first, your employees come first because they will be the ones to care about your customers.” It sets the scene for a company which has shown a lot of initiatives when it comes to diversity and inclusion—especially for female colleagues.
Paparelli reminded the audience of the poignant fact that the number of women in senior management positions in the industry remains low—with only 27% of women on average making it into such roles. In contrast at Kering, a clear majority of their female staff, 66%, are at the managerial level as of this year with 44% as top executives.
They are figures to be commended but how did Kering get into this position? Paparelli put it down to the huge range of initiatives that the company has engaged over the past few years. Very keen not to focus on just the statistics, Paparelli highlighted the importance of fostering a culture sensitive to gender diversity and importantly to engage with this group. Such a mindset has meant the company in particular has got behind causes such as Women’s Day—in which the company held a Breakfast meeting to talk about women’s issues and whether there were any new ideas. Such informal meetings led to a new work-life initiative that Kering recently launched.
But it is not just about what a company does internally. Paparelli added, “If we just preach inside, it is not projected to the outside world.” Thus also at the heart of Kering’s mission, Paparelli explained, is to make an impact on diversity issues generally. In this respect, Kering has really got behind the cause of violence against women and, in recognition of the upcoming day dedicated to the cause on 25 November, their stores will be involved again in an activity that last year distributed 142,000 badges from 724 stores in 38 countries—the White Ribbon badges being designed by Stella McCartney.
Getting behind a cause is only one part of the story. It is also importantly how you can cater for women’s needs in the workplace. Amongst a range of initiatives, Paparelli spoke of the availability of flexible working hours, a global employee opinion survey that covers diversity, reaching out to business schools, an initiative on eight golden rules to tackle with the issues of work-life balance and a mentorship programme exclusively dedicated to female colleagues.
The recipe for success? Paparelli summed it in 4 ways: firstly, having a comprehensive programme in place that tackles the problem from different angles. Second, providing real empowerment and not purely statistics—recognising the problem is one thing but actually putting concrete initiatives to support women is what will help to deal with the underlying the problem. Third, companies must have a social commitment to the cause of diversity—it needs to be heart-felt, otherwise diversity will just become another single policy that does not go to the core of the company’s mission. Finally, these initiatives should form part of a continuous journey, which will continue into the years ahead.
Paul Arkwright
Publisher
