Women working in the production line in one of Nestlé’s factories.
Nestlé Global has launched an ambitious Gender Balance Acceleration Plan ‘From Aspiration to Action’ as part of its activities to highlight International Women’s Day 2019.
The world’s largest food and beverage company believes that a gender balanced workforce makes business sense as it helps to boost innovation and performance, which as a result, better serves the needs of its consumers.
With its Gender Balance Acceleration Plan, Nestlé will now put further emphasis on increasing the proportion of women in the group’s top 200 senior executive positions from around 20% currently to 30% by 2022.
The Plan will also ensure the enhancement of mentoring and sponsorship programs to prepare high-potential women for senior executive positions is part of the plan. In Nestlé CWA, numerous women talent are already enrolled in formal mentorship programme.
Nestlé’s Global CEO, Mark Schneider announced the company’s acceleration plan to make gender balance a priority, based on three pillars: bold leadership, an empowering culture and a set of enabling practices.
In the Central and West Africa Region (CWAR), Nestlé aims to bring the Gender Balance Acceleration Plan to life through its multi-pronged initiatives, such as trainings to raise awareness on gender biases, career development and mentoring programmes for women, gender-sensitive succession planning, offering breastfeeding rooms and nurseries at work, as well as the implementation of its Maternal Protection Policy.
“We believe that the Nestlé Gender Balance Acceleration plan is also key to contributing to Sustainable Development Goal 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. Women continue to face challenges in the global workplace,” the statement released by the organization noted.
“We recognise that gender equality, women’s rights, education for women and women’s empowerment are critical to Creating Shared Value for our business. This is clearly articulated in our values, which enshrine a respect for diversity,” it further noted.
By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri