From inclusive policies to impactful panel discussions, 2024 was a year of action and creating connections beyond our core jobs. Here's how we keep building a more equitable, inclusive and diverse workplace at EcoVadis.
*Further in the text we’ll use the acronym DEI. DEI stands for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
Before We Start: How We Set DEI Priorities
Our yearly DEI priorities are shaped through collaboration, feedback, and alignment with business goals. Here’s how we do it:
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Employee feedback: Every year, we conduct an anonymous survey to gather insights on DEI progress and invite suggestions for future actions.
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Open channels for ideas: Throughout the year, employees can share their ideas and feedback directly with employee-led group leads, HR and managers.
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Business alignment: We ensure DEI goals are tied to and support our broader business priorities.
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Transparent prioritization: We acknowledge that progress requires focus. By balancing employee feedback, business needs, and strategic goals, we prioritize actions that create meaningful impact.
Progress in DEI isn’t one-size-fits-all or a one-way conversation - it’s a shared effort, built on collaboration across the company.
Let’s now look at what we achieved in 2024.
Training That Empowers Change
In 2024, we continued with some and also explored new ways to equip employees and managers with the knowledge and practical examples to champion DEI every day.
- DEI Training, and Anti-Harassment and Anti-Discrimination Training
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In 2024 we reviewed these courses - assigned to all newcomers - to make them even more actionable for employees and managers
- Diversity Fresk
This unique workshop for managers, developed by Essec Business School, raises awareness about discrimination and inclusion in management practices.
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By the end of 2024, 209 managers participated.
- Workshops on Intercultural and Remote Collaboration and Management
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Intercultural and Remote Collaboration: 28 employees learned strategies for problem-solving, feedback, and teamwork in diverse, global settings.
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Intercultural and Remote Management: 48 managers learned strategies for leading across cultural and time-zone boundaries.
- Workshop on Bridging Generational Perspectives
A pilot workshop on collaborating with Gen Z engaged 28 managers and team leads.
- Disabilities Awareness Training and Neurodiversity Training
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Following an external Disability in Employment training delivered in 2023, we developed an internal e-learning module on visible and invisible disabilities, launching in Q1 2025.
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Neurodiversity Workshops - we started preparing for them to take place in Q2 2025 to support managers with practical strategies on building an inclusive environment to thrive.
- Workshops on Team’s Mental Health
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Prepared to be launched in Q1 2025, this two-part program for managers provides tools to identify stress, hold supportive conversations, and build healthier team cultures.
Policies and Projects: Creating Lasting Impact
We focused on building long-term projects, and policies to foster equity across various layers of our workplace:
- Women in Tech
This initiative promotes women’s participation, mentorship, and leadership, addressing gender imbalances in the engineering teams. Key wins of 2024:
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We created a Women in Tech champions community inside EcoVadis.
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We participated in the Women in Tech Summit in Warsaw, Poland, to amplify external visibility in one of the biggest locations where our engineering teams are located.
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We launched a webinar on Breaking Myths About Working in IT (open to internal and external audience), and workshops on Microagressions and Microaffirmations (internal audience)
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EcoVadis female mentors partnered with Dare IT, a Poland-based organization, to connect with and guide junior female tech talents, fostering an empowering environment for women in technology.
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- Women in Leadership
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A tailored pilot for 16 middle and senior leaders reinforcing their leadership skills and leader’s well-being.
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- Parents Handbooks
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We’re preparing an easy to follow location-specific guidance to support parents and their managers navigating local labor laws and EcoVadis benefits (to be launched in Q1 2025).
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- Global Policy on Reasonable Accommodation of Visible and Invisible Disabilities
We created this policy - that will be launched in Q1 2025 - to clarify procedures and roles in supporting employees with visible or invisible disabilities, ensuring requests are processed efficiently.
Building Belonging: Internal Awareness and Connection
Fostering belonging and awareness takes consistency, and community. Here’s how we brought people together:
- DEI Intranet & Calendar
We created a one-stop page for DEI resources, and a calendar to mark awareness days aligned with our DEI pillars.
- Awareness Months
Employee-led groups organized and powered various events throughout the year:
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Gender Equity Awareness Month (March)
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Well-being Month (May)
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Pride Month (June)
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Pink October and Women’s Health Awareness Month (October)
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Movember and Men’s Health Awareness Month (November)
- Panel Discussions
A format Introduced in 2024, the panel discussions feature EcoVadis employees as speakers and moderators, sparking meaningful conversations, In 2024 we organized the following ones; 90–130 participants joined each session:
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Maintaining Culture, Values & Purpose in Changing Times
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Mind Your Mind - Discussing Challenges of Gender Stereotypes
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Can we have it all? Balancing parenthood and a professional career
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The Experiences of Coming out at Work
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Let’s Talk about Work and Health
- Human Library
Back after a year of break, this two-day event encouraged personal storytelling and taboo-breaking conversations. 38 employees participated and 4 speakers shared their experiences on topics of:
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Demystifying autism
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Hermetic Japanese culture
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Breaking the glass ceiling: A journey to top management
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Balancing personal life and work.
- Local Civic Action Through the Global Vendredi Platform
Local actions and webinars addressed DEI priorities throughout the year, some examples:
- Gender Equity Awareness: preparing hygiene kits for local communities, talks and gender equity quizzes on Women’s Day
- Pride Month: meetings with lgbtq+ activists, painting pride mugs for auction, joining pride parades
- Cultural Connection Through Music
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Two online intercultural music concerts united 208 employees through performances in their native languages.
- Expats Support Group
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A new subgroup of one of our employee-led resource groups was launched to support employees living abroad; the group attracted 85 members in its first month.
Cultivating Inclusion: External Awareness and Connection
Our commitment to DEI extends beyond internal programs, to our global stakeholders:
- DEI Webpage
We created a dedicated page to share DEI milestones, commitments, and resources with candidates, clients and partners.
- Live Chats That Break Barriers
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Women in Tech Q&A: An all female-hosted live chat encouraged diverse candidates to explore tech careers.
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DEI Commitments Q&A: In this live chat we answered candidates' questions about EcoVadis DEI programs, progress and goals.
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Women in Tech webinar on Breaking Myths About Working in IT: An all female group of EcoVadis tech employees and managers shared their professional stories and answered questions from the audience.
Looking Ahead to 2025: The Work Continues
We already mentioned a few projects that will be launched in Q1 and Q2 of 2025. Here are other key topics that we will be focusing on in 2025:
- Managers' skills in championing DEI and well-being for their teams
- Women in tech
- Women in leadership
- Neurodiversity
- Parents' needs
- Intercultural collaboration
- Remote collaboration
- Intergenerational collaboration
- Fuelling connection through employee-led resource groups
Additionally we still uphold the targets we have committed to:
- Keep the overall score of employees’ perception of EcoVadis fostering an inclusive environment on equal or higher than 8 out of 10 (metric obtained through anonymous surveys).
- Train 90% of employees and managers on DEI and Anti-Harassment and Anti-Discrimination.
- Have 100% of EcoVadis’ job descriptions use inclusive language.
- Reach 40% of female representation at executive and board level by 2026.
- Maintain 45 - 55% of female representation among employees and managers by 2026 (taking into account non-binary employees, not only a female - male ratio).
- Provide individual support for each employee that comes back from parental leave by 2026.
- Eliminate any unjustified pay disparity, if identified.
Thank you for reading or listening.
If you’d like to learn more about EcoVadis’ DEI journey visit our DEI Page.
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