At Burberry, we believe diversity, equity and inclusion are essential to fulfilling our purpose and are core to our values. Attracting and retaining diverse talent and fostering an inclusive culture enable us to be more creative in everything we do and open spaces for our colleagues, customers and communities.
Our global Diversity and Inclusion strategy is focused on valuing and embracing differences and creating an environment where everyone feels they belong, has a voice and can reach their full potential. When we do, our colleagues are more engaged, committed and effective in driving results, we are more successful as an organisation, and we make a more meaningful contribution to the world around us.
We define diversity as the unique perspectives and differences we bring to Burberry and share across the world, and inclusion as creating a culture that champions these differences and nurtures a sense of belonging. We take a holistic approach to helping our colleagues thrive, providing them with a range of tools and resources backed up by inclusive policies and support for their overall wellbeing.
Our Executive Committee is responsible for ensuring that as an organisation, we live by our purpose and values. To help achieve our D&I goals, our dedicated global D&I team works with colleagues across all parts of the business, including our senior leadership, the broader HR team and our advisory networks, with a focus on four strategic pillars. These frame our global approach and programmes:
- Attracting and Retaining Diverse Top Talent
- Fostering an Open and Inclusive Culture
- Educating and Raising Awareness
- Implementing a Global Approach
We continue to challenge ourselves and our actions by listening, learning and embracing different perspectives. As part of this, we have established an Internal D&I Council as well as an external Cultural Advisory Council to advise and guide us. Our employee engagement surveys include specific questions on diversity, equity and inclusion and we regularly host open forums around the world to share experiences and listen to feedback from our colleagues.
By 2023, we aim to achieve a number of aspirational goals that are central to our global Diversity and Inclusion strategy. In the UK, we aim for 25% of the colleagues we hire to be from Black and ethnic minority backgrounds. In the US, we aim to increase the proportion of our hires from the Black/African American community as well. We also aim for our candidate and internal succession planning shortlists to have at least a 50/50 gender split and at least 25% ethnic diversity to support increasing representation at Burberry. We have a number of resources and programmes in place across the organisation to help achieve these goals. More information on how we’re enhancing our recruitment processes and developing a pipeline of diverse future leaders can be found in Representation and Inclusion.
Our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion extends beyond Burberry. We champion and advocate for changemakers, organisations and initiatives that have a meaningful impact on underrepresented communities. We also believe it is important to celebrate diversity in our campaigns and shows, and we have measures in place to ensure we assemble casts that are representative of our customers and communities.
2020/21 Highlights
Attracting and retaining diverse top talent
- Burberry maintained a leading position in the FTSE 100 for women in leadership for a third consecutive year, according to the 2020 Hampton-Alexander Review, with 50.4% women in the combined Executive Committee and Direct Reports team.
- As of January 2021, all members of our Talent Acquisition team had completed unconscious bias in recruitment training.
- In 2020, we expanded our creative arts 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.
- In April 2020, we launched an industry-leading Global Parental Leave Policy, designed to help all new parents feel supported as they take care of their families and when they return to work.
- Burberry was included in the 2021 Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index for the first time, scoring 10 percentage points more than the company average.
- We have adopted the UN Women’s Empowerment Principles.
Fostering an open and inclusive culture
- All members of our Executive Committee and all line managers have formal D&I objectives included in their goals, demonstrating accountability for attracting and retaining diverse talent and fostering an inclusive culture.
- Our dedicated wellbeing space hosts online information, tools and interactive resources to help support the mental and physical health of our colleagues. We are also a signatory of the Time to Change pledge and have a longstanding partnership with the Samaritans.
- We believe that nurturing the next generation of diverse creative voices is vital to creating a better, more inclusive future. Funded by The Burberry Foundation, Burberry Inspire is the first in-school arts and culture programme of its scope and scale designed to understand how exposure to the arts can have a positive effect on young people’s lives.
Educating and raising awareness
- All colleagues globally are required to complete unconscious bias training.
- In addition, all senior leaders globally, including all our store managers, have completed inclusive leadership training.
Implementing a global approach
- We have set out global standards for how we can foster an inclusive environment in our global Diversity and Inclusion Policy, encouraging diverse capabilities, perspectives and meaningful allyship.
Inclusive partnerships
- Burberry was the first luxury company to partner with organisations including the Business Disability Forum, Investing in Ethnicity and the Stonewall Diversity Champions Programme, and one of the first luxury companies to join The Valuable 500. Burberry also works with The Prince’s Trust Women Supporting Women initiative.
