RUEIL-MALMAISON, France — Schneider Electric announced that it is the first multi-national company to achieve 100% commitment to the UN Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs) across its global leadership team. In addition to the company’s Chairman and CEO, Jean-Pascal Tricoire, each of the company’s country presidents in markets with at least 10 employees have also personally signed the WEPs, further committing the company to its practices of gender equality and inclusion. The action is the latest initiative from the company, which has been a longstanding and active change agent for gender equality in both its own operations and in the communities in which it operates.
Unanimous leadership commitment to empower women
Developed in 2010 through a joint initiative from UN Women and the UN Global Compact, the WEPs are a set of seven principles serving as guidelines for firms to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment in the workplace, marketplace, and community.
The first four principles encourage leadership commitment to achieve gender equality in the workplace, through company goals and by providing equal opportunity and treatment for women and men. More broadly, the principles promote partnerships with women entrepreneurs, marketing practices respectful of women and leadership in local communities through transparency, empowerment and advocacy initiatives.
The WEPs are consistent with existing Schneider Electric practices and goals. One of the company’s core values is inclusion, which it exhibits in part through ongoing efforts to improve the attraction and retention of women employees at every stage of the employment lifecycle.
In support of these efforts, the company has deployed a rigorous pay equity framework and Global Family Leave and flexible work policies. The Global Family Leave Policy launched in 2018 and has been implemented in 59 countries, making parental, care, and bereavement leave accessible to 75% of Schneider Electric’s workforce, with an ambition to cover 100% of the workforce by 2020. Similarly, 92% of the workforce is covered by the pay equity framework, with an ambition of reaching 95% of Schneider workers by 2020.
“All of our country presidents have committed to the WEPs to drive gender equality everywhere,” said Schneider Electric Chairman and CEO Jean-Pascal Tricoire. “Our business leaders own and locally translate our ambition to provide equal chances of success to women and men. They help them to learn and grow in their professional journey, they partner with like-minded external organizations, and they extend their efforts to society at large. We are aligned on building long-term gender equality across our markets and operations.”
Schneider Electric’s efforts to empower women in a multi-local world
The company’s strong and longstanding commitment to gender equality has been recognized not only globally but also in the diverse markets where it operates. The company’s renewed global membership in the Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index has been mirrored multiple times at country and zone level, including in:
- The United States, where Forbes has listed the company among the 2019 Best Employers for
Diversity; - India, where it has been selected as one of the four global 2019 Catalyst Award winners for its
holistic approach to attracting and retaining women over the past four years; - France, where it has been ranked as one of the top companies for pay equity in 2019;
- Russia, where it received the 2018 Woman Who Matters award; and
- Brazil, where the company received the 2018 Women Leadership Award from the Brazilian Business Council for Sustainable Development.
These recognitions not only celebrate the achievements of local leadership to implement Schneider’s global inclusivity values but also the unique policies and practices leaders have developed to attract and retain the best local talent in their markets.
The WEP commitment by 100% of Schneider Electric’s country presidents is more than a public declaration; it is a major step towards Schneider’s bold ambition to become the most diverse, inclusive and equitable company in the world.
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