For the 8,800 employees who drive our business around the world, Clorox’s Inclusion and Diversity (I&D) strategy is about doing the right thing, for each other and for the business. Our goal is to foster an environment where every employee can fully and authentically participate in our Clorox community.
Our Inclusion & Diversity strategy supports our corporate strategy, which is designed to drive Good Growth — growth that is profitable, sustainable and responsible. We work to achieve this goal by focusing our I&D efforts on three pillars:
- Create an inclusive and diverse Clorox Culture
- Facilitate inclusive and diverse leadership behaviors
- Build an inclusive and diverse workforce around the world
The first pillar is about embedding inclusive values into our people’s everyday experiences. For example, we’ve rolled out Breaking Bias, an unconscious bias program, to more than 4,200 employees around the globe thus far. Studies show that we are ALL biased, and this program encourages us to work together to address these biases head-on to make better decisions and build a more vibrant Clorox community.
To further cultivate this vibrant Clorox community, we have intentionally worked to broaden the scope and reach of our Employee Resource Group (ERG) network. In recent months, we have introduced new ERGs to support employees of Middle East/North African descent (AMENA), employees with physical and mental differences (diverseAbility) and parents. These new additions bring the total size of our ERG Translating Inclusion & Diversity Across the Globe By Germaine Hunter, Simone Strydom, and Dalia Ballesteros-Torres byline 10 global diversity edition march 2020 www.diversitymbamagazine.com network to 12. In addition to these newly created groups, several of our existing ERGs have turned their focus toward expanding their global presence: SHOW (our women’s ERG) and PRIDE (our LGBTQ+ ERG).
PRIDE was the spark that encouraged our Chilean team to partner with local organizations to share experiences and best practices in the I&D space. One of these partnerships, with Pride Connection Chile, led to Clorox Chile joining the Chile Pride March celebrating the LGBTQ+ community for the first time. Last year, they also joined Pride Connection Chile — in partnership with Fundación Iguales and Human Rights Campaign — to promote inclusive workspaces for LGBTQ+ employees and build connections to attract top talent.
SHOW joined forces to support our teams in Asia, which were planning their first forum for more than 70 female employees. They created a platform to share, inspire and empower each other to reimagine the way they work, beginning with themselves. Leveraging as their inspiration the theme of “Own Your Future,” the team pushed boundaries even more by hosting a story-sharing session with Clorox executives in Oakland, CA.
Finally, at Clorox, we also like to bring our consumers along for the I&D ride. In Argentina, our Ayudín brand sponsored a moving public art installation in the center of Buenos Aires to highlight the country’s gender gap in household chores. The campaign generated a lot of attention and awards for its creative approach to highlighting an unspoken struggle that’s certainly not exclusive to Argentina.
These are just a few of the ways Clorox is continuing to expand our I&D initiatives around the globe. As a company, we feel good about our progress, while remaining dissatisfied with the status quo. While we know that I&D does not mean the same thing in every country around the world, we’re excited for the work we have in front of us to make Clorox — and our world — a more inclusive place where we can be ourselves and make a positive difference.
“Building a diverse and inclusive culture, leadership behaviors and workforce will help us make better decisions, foster innovation, and agility and, ultimately, meet our financial goals. Together, we win by being authentic, by bringing our unique talents to the table AND by encouraging others to do the same. We win by listening to others’ perspectives and broadening our own”. —The Clorox Company CEO and Chairperson Benno Dorer.
