We are Better Together

It is our responsibility to empower our people to become sustainability and diversity change-makers. Internal transformation within the Group allows us to generate more impact in the regions we operate, giving each employee and team member the capacity to create better places and contribute to better cities. (Visit Better Places 2030 on urw.com for more details on the targets of this pillar.)

Diversity and inclusion

In March 2021, our Management Board and Executive Committee signed the “Be You at URW” Charter demonstrating a shared commitment and accountability to increasing diversity, inclusion and equality within our Group. This charter is a concrete call to action that we translate globally and locally into specific and detailed roadmaps for the organisation. It includes a commitment to have 40% or more of our leadership positions occupied by women by 2025 – an area where we have already started to improve, with an increase to 34% in 2021 from 32% in 2020.

We also launched the “Be You at URW” Conversation Series in 2021, with a first discussion on LGBTQIA+ inclusion in our workplace. Touching on impactful inclusion topics, these regular conversations are intended to nurture and foster our “Be You at URW” culture and mindset across the organisation. Through greater awareness and authentic discussions, differences between people are seen and celebrated as valued contributions, ensuring everyone feels welcome to fully be themselves.

Opportunities for training

Further seeking a means to accelerate internal change and complementing global training dedicated to the Better Places 2030 strategy, in 2021 the Group continued to deliver active training programmes covering topics such as climate change, forced labour in the supply chain or ‘unconscious bias’. This included dedicated training on climate change for our Executive Committee members.

To understand the essentials of climate issues in a different way, in France, we organised workshop sessions to help teams better grasp the issues at hand –specifically designed by non-profit organisation La Fresque du Climat (The Climate Fresk).

Well-being

Throughout the year, well-being webinars continued to be delivered and offered to all employees and the Group conducted a new Employee Pulse Survey to help shape effective plans for an even better working culture going forward. With over 1,700 respondents, this gave the group a comprehensive, anonymous view of our teams’ needs.

The survey highlighted the excellent connections among team members, employee empowerment and a strong impression of support throughout the pandemic. Following the findings, discussions were held to implement flexible work schemes for all and develop greater work/life balance, for example with a new paternity leave framework.