Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Guided by our Beliefs & Behaviour, our culture is the foundation that connects our history with our future. At Essity, care, collaboration and inclusion are more than buzzwords, they are practiced on an everyday basis. And with a purpose of breaking barriers to wellbeing, promoting gender equality and enable customers and consumers to lead a fuller life at all stages of life, DEI is in our core.

As we work in diverse teams across geographies, cultures and professional areas, inclusive leadership is something we expect from ourselves and each other. In our leadership platform, we express this as leveraging the power of differences. From experience we know that diverse and inclusive teams are key to innovate and profitably grow our business while simultaneously address our ambitious climate targets.

In 2021 we reinforced our commitment to DEI by launching public DEI Targets, focusing inclusive work environment for all, balanced gender representation in leadership and acceleration of under-represented groups. We are happy to see that our work was recognized by Financial Times.

Inclusion is foundational - without an inclusive work culture, diversity will not bring much business benefits. An inclusive workplace allows people to thrive and contribute fully to the organization. Thus, ensuring an inclusive work environment for all, is our first ambition. Our VP for DEI will take on the task of working with inclusion measurements and set tangible inclusion targets in 2022. An inclusive workplace for all – means people of all genders, ethnicities, sexual orientation, generations, and abilities. As Essity is committed to contributing to SDG no 5 on gender equality, we obviously pay extra attention to secure a gender inclusive work environment.

Our second aspiration is on gender distribution on management level. We aspire to have a gender balanced leadership on all levels. Here we already have set a sharp target: to have a 40-60 gender distribution on all leadership levels by 2025. We want to point out that the ultimate gender balance is 50/50, but this target allows for some flexibility (at least 40 % of either men or women).

The third priority is to accelerate under-represented groups. By this priority we recognize that we may also need to increase representation in relation to other aspects of diversity, for instance ethnic minority groups. However, here the work needs to depart from the demographic set-up of our different markets and specific local needs.

To summarize our Diversity, Equity & Inclusion priorities (launched at Capital Market Day 2021), they are:

• Provide an inclusive working environment for all (Target: TBD in 2022)
• Achieve gender balanced leadership everywhere (Target: 40/60 gender distribution on all leadership levels by 2025)
• Accelerate our transition to reflect under-represented groups