“You can only successfully improve the lives of people worldwide if you reflect those different target groups yourself. Diversity is a business imperative, ”says De Jong. “When it comes to influx, the male / female relationships at Philips are in balance. We currently have 23 percent women in senior leadership positions. No, we are not satisfied with that yet, that should be 25 percent in 2020 and then gradually increase to 30 percent. We are concerned with better balance across the board, not just at the top, not just gender diversity. The point is to harness the power of the difference, and those differences are much more diverse than what we can see from each other’s looks. We also pay a lot of attention to inclusivity. After all, inclusivity is a precondition for taking advantage of the diversity that our colleagues bring. ” “Part of that is to tackle bias, or the unconscious prejudices that we all have as humans. We are often insufficiently aware of the influence of our own bias. It is much larger than we think or even want to recognize.
Within Philips, Astrid Balsink, our Global Head of Diversity & Inclusion, helps to promote this topic in all parts of the world. Worldwide she collects what is going on and what needs to change. This is not an easy task, since bias manifests itself differently in India than in the Netherlands, for example. So it is first of all about raising awareness. Programs follow to discuss and improve it at team level. In short, this is a long-term effort, which revolves around openness, dialogue, and learning from and with each other. ”
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Source: Topvrouwen.nl Author: Nicole Gommers