Leading global technology company ABB has launched a new ‘Global Diversity & Inclusion Strategy 2030’ through which it plans to double the proportion of female managers worldwide over the next ten years. With this step, ABB aims at reaching a 25 per cent share of women in senior management positions from currently 12.5 per cent.
The target forms part of ABB’s broader ambition to foster inclusion and equality across all areas of diversity, including gender, abilities, generations, ethnicity, and LGBTQ+. ABB will be offering employees inclusive leadership training and development programmes, mentoring programmes and learning interventions to foster an inclusive culture.
“Building and fostering a culture of diversity and inclusion is a key priority for ABB and represents a foundation for innovation and better decision making,” said Björn Rosengren, CEO of ABB. “This is not only the right thing to do, but also a means to further improve our business performance as diversity becomes increasingly important for both internal and external talents, customers, as well as investors.”
Recently, ABB was among more than 50 leading European companies in the industrial and technology sectors to reaffirm a pan-European commitment to diversity and inclusion in the context of the initiative #EmbraceDifference. Spearheaded by the European Round Table for Industry (ERT), of which CEO Rosengren is a member, the effort is designed to create an environment suitable to promote inclusion and diversity in the workplace.
This summer, ABB signed the ‘Standards of Conduct for Business, Tackling Discrimination against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex People’, put forth by the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCR). The Standards of Conduct provides five concrete steps that companies can take to align their policies and practices with international standards on the human rights of LGBTI people. ABB expects these standards to be followed by its suppliers to generate a real impact in the more than 100 countries the company operates in.
Furthermore, it has signed a partnership with Europe’s largest LGBT rights organisation Stonewall to help develop a roadmap on LGBTQ+ for employees.