National Inclusion Week

What does it feel like to be included? To feel like you belong? To feel like you’re valued and respected regardless of your gender, age, race, experience or background?

In this day and age, we should all feel included - it should be a given. Sadly, this isn’t always the case.

That’s why National Inclusion Week is an important date in the calendar. It helps to raise awareness of the importance of inclusion, particularly in the workplace.

At HEINEKEN, over the past couple of years, we’ve been working really hard to create a more inclusive and diverse culture. We know that organisations that are inclusive and diverse have 42% higher team commitment and 57% higher team collaboration.

We know that for us to win in the market we need a workforce that reflects our diverse range of customers, consumers and the communities in which we operate.

We know, to get the best out of our colleagues and to support their wellbeing, we need to ensure everyone feels valued, included and able to share their opinions and fully contribute. This will help drive better conversations and ultimately better decision making.

We know that by harnessing diversity of thinking, we’ll continually bring new ideas and fresh challenges into HEINEKEN. This is so important for our ongoing success.

We know we need to value our differences and see them as strengths. 

And so we’ve been working hard over the past couple of years to become a truly inclusive organisation where all our colleagues feel like they belong.

Our HEINEKEN Inclusion Network, which has colleagues at its heart, now has over 550 members. It’s led by our I&D Ambassadors, volunteers from around the business who are committed to bringing our I&D agenda to life and helping us all understand what a truly inclusive environment looks and feels like.

Our I&D Task Forces harness the passion of our colleagues and enables them to drive through change on specific topics. As a result, we’ve made significant enhancements to our parental leave policies and have introduced ‘Smarter Working’ across the business. This ensures we’ve a consistent approach to flexible working, allowing our colleagues to choose when, where and how they work to better meet their individual needs.

And this year our Task Forces are tackling the topics of Ageing Workforce, Disability, Gender, LGBTQ+ and Race & Ethnicity.

Our leaders also have a key role to play. It’s up to them to create an inclusive environment in their teams and to ensure their functional I&D commitments are being met. A large part of our Leadership Programme is dedicated to the importance of being present and challenging any unconscious biases our leaders may have. While equipping them with the skills to do this.

But this is a journey we’re on. Change doesn’t happen overnight. So we’ll continue to work to create an environment where everyone can voice their opinion, be themselves and feel like they belong.