We love our collaborative work at Zühlke – across countries, continents, oceans and cultural differences, we enjoy our diversity in various ways. For us, diversity means people working together in teams whose uniqueness and differences enable them to achieve the best possible results – for ourselves and our clients.
We believe that a diverse workforce and an inclusive culture enable us to realise our full potential. Every day, we experience that diverse teams outperform homogeneous teams.
This policy manifests Zühlke’s commitment to diversity and inclusion. Diversity has many aspects that are all important for us. This policy covers diversity and inclusion with respect to gender, age, religion, race, social and cognitive background, physical ability and sexual orientation.
This diversity and inclusion policy complements other guidelines, such as the culture, values, code of conduct and integrity polices. This policy highlights the importance and communicates our diversity and inclusion culture. We present the framework for diversity and inclusion that we already have in place and outline the further evolution of diversity and inclusion at Zühlke.
The policy is binding for all Zühlke staff and is an integral part of every employment contract. Every person joining our company must commit to and support the policy. The policy is also available publicly for candidates as well as clients. Diverse teams outperform homogeneous teams.
At Zühlke, we have long known that only as a team can we outperform the competition and achieve the best for our clients. We believe that a highly diverse and especially cognitively diverse workforce as well as an inclusive culture enable us to utilise our full potential. They are undisputed conditions for our longterm success.
We promote a culture and an environment in which people are valued for their performance and contribution. We give equal opportunity to excel at Zühlke irrespective of their diverse background. For us diversity is a business driver that increases our performance and therefore we consider advancing our diversity and inclusion agenda a strategic priority.
We know that in a service business only people will make the difference. We want to attract and retain the best people. Best for us means the ones that share our values and aspirations and are ready to go above and beyond for the success of our clients. People must feel psychologically safe and speak up when they feel they want to and need to. We cultivate discourse and value different opinions. We expect our employees to contribute, to take different perspectives and to question what is already in place. The different backgrounds and orientations must never influence who we hire, develop and promote.
We must increase our awareness on unconscious biases and focus uncompromisingly on individual behaviour, contribution, and performance. Mutual support, kindness and cordiality, respect, professional behaviour are non-negotiable. We are tough in the matter, but always humanly convincing. We believe in the value of all types of diversity. Our near-term focus is on improving gender, race, and age diversity. This focus does not mean other types of diversity are less important. We strive for all people to feel included.
We hire the best person for the job. In doing so, we ensure that we have the best possible diversity in our workforce. In the recruitment process, we consciously look to strengthen ourselves where we are underrepresented. We want to be able to tap into as large a talent pool as possible and not exclude individuals based on gender, age, religion, race, social and cognitive background, physical ability or sexual orientation. The same applies when it comes to promotion and development of our staff. Everybody is invited to apply for an internal opportunity
Our leaders are required to share and support our ambitions and drive the diversity agenda in their areas of responsibility. This means creating an environment where people feel safe and included, encouraged to speak up, different opinions are valued and considered when making decisions and above all, our leaders genuinely must aim to be mindful and overcome biases.
Measure the diversity in all Zühlke Group Companies
Increase the number of women in general
Rework and adjust our process and ensure consistency with our policy (recruiting, development, salary, promotion, vendor/partner selection, staffing, talent management, succession etc.)
Increase the cultural diversity
Our own quota (e.g. at least 30 % women in Excos, GEX, Boards)
Represent diversity of clients, ensure mixed teams
Ensure diversity in internal projects
Request D&I policy from all vendors and partners
