At Avery Dennison, every voice matters every day. When we listen to and learn from each other, there is no limit to what we can achieve together. Teamwork has long been a company value. Embedded within this the need for strong, diverse teams and an inclusive culture that would drive innovation, sustainability and growth.
Since 2016, we have equipped our workforce with tools, resources and training to educate employees and managers on unconscious bias, micro-behaviors and stereotypes. In 2017, our CEO put a stake in the ground, firming his position on Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI), by signing the PwC CEO Action for D&I pledge. We formalized Diversity as a global company value over five years ago, speaking to the importance of both diversity and inclusion, in our DNA. More recently, we have focused heavily on modernizing our hiring practices, creating a framework for inclusive hiring, and using data to inform our actions.
After the murder of George Floyd, we recognized the need to do more. We took the opportunity to re-align our vision and develop a more holistic and robust strategy across the globe. One key outcome of this is our global DEI pillars:
- Fairness – Making merit and transparency foundational to our processes across our employee journey
- Women Leaders – Increase representation of women in leadership positions across diverse pools of talent
- Inclusion of Manufacturing Employees – Increase inclusion for manufacturing employees within our AD community
- Increase DEI for Underrepresented Groups – Increase DEI across regions; priority populations and actions determined by each region
For example, in North America, we’ve committed to increasing representation of Black/African Americans and Hispanic/Latinx in leadership positions and improving inclusion of our Black/African American employees in the US. We’ve provided targeted development opportunities to help us get there, including launching our second cohort of the McKinsey Leadership Academies for our Asian, Hispanic/Latinx and Black/African American employees, and building recruiting relationships with key organization partners such as talent pipeline development with HBCUs (Tuskegee for example), the United Negro College Fund (UNCF), Black Professional Association Charitable Foundation (BPACF) and National Society for Black Engineers (NSBE).
Actions to improve employees’ inclusion experiences have focused on the importance of employee resource groups (ERGs) of which Avery Dennison now has over 20 worldwide. Our ERG members are a critical part of our DEI journey, partnering with Talent Acquisition to amplify diverse recruiting efforts, providing opportunities for development, networking and community outreach. Moreover, our ERGs are fundamental in helping to influence a culture of belonging by educating and advising the business on concerns and needs, specific to their demographic.
Avery Dennison is committed to serving as a force for good in the communities where our people live and work, and this extends to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives and partnerships with community-based organizations. In North America, we are proud to have made donations and/or brand[1]power partnerships with organizations such as The Over Under Initiative and Hybrid Nation.
Our 168-member Black Employee Resource Group (BERG) is key to driving awareness and allyship, activating volunteerism within communities and working closely with HBCUs, such as Wilberforce University.
We aim to be an employer of choice for Black/African Americans and be a place where diverse talent is included, engaged and delivering with impact while realizing their full potential.
Read about our global Corporate Social Responsibility Report – averydennison.com/csr-report.
