Schneider Electric Named as a ‘Lighthouse’ in Diversity, Equity & Inclusion by the World Economic Forum

January 18, 2023

Schneider Electric has been named as a Global Parity Alliance Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Lighthouse for its Global Pay Equity (GPE) initiative, by the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Centre for the New Economy and Society.

This award recognizes Schneider Electric’s efforts to promote inclusion and care by advancing pay equity across all its offices. Schneider Electric’s Global Pay Equity initiative began in 2014 with pilots in 12 countries. Since then, it has been implemented in over 100 countries, reaching 99.6% of the company’s total workforce by the end of 2020.

“It’s an honor to be recognized for our ongoing commitment to gender equity. We believe that an inclusive and caring company culture is key for creating a sustainable future. We want to bring a long-term positive impact for our people, our company, and our planet – and that can only be achieved by providing equitable opportunities to everyone, everywhere. We’ve gained a lot of momentum and progress over the years in this area, and we’re determined to continue hardwiring equity and inclusion in all stages of our employees’ experience.” said Charise Le, Schneider Electric’s Chief Human Resources Officer.

Established by the WEF in collaboration with McKinsey & Company, the Global Parity Alliance is a global, cross-industry group of organizations that is working to drive better and faster DEI outcomes by identifying initiatives with proven impact, sharing insights that have been key to their success, and elevating DEI action to CEO level.

Schneider Electric’s Global Pay Equity initiative has enabled year-over-year improvements in the female pay gap, through:

• A global-local compensation framework: a unified global methodology to address pay gaps, starting with a common definition for “pay gap”, a consistent approach to gap measurement, and a company-wide target; local HR teams were then empowered to define action plans to close gaps based on local market needs and conditions.
• A compensation review process: set on a quarterly basis at global and local levels to review KPIs and identify emerging gaps; the process also integrated a pay equity adjustment process into annual salary reviews to identify and close gaps.
• Upskilling for HR compensation teams and department managers: Schneider trained HR professionals and people managers to increase awareness of the impact of gender biases on compensation, and to equip them with the tools they need to make equitable pay decisions throughout the recruitment, promotion, and pay review processes.
• Data automation: introduced automated data analysis and reporting through its HR Information System to identify pay gaps through accurate tracking of key drivers across the employee life cycle.

Schneider Electric has since expanded its GPE program, setting itself the goal to attain and maintain a pay gap of <1% for all employees, and to achieve a 50:40:30 gender balance (i.e., women should represent 50% of all new hires, 40% of all frontline managers, and 30% of senior leadership) by 2025. The company will also look to implement a pay equity simulator tool to provide broader visibility into pay gap data, to help managers, HR business partners and recruiters make fair offers to potential candidates.

Related resources:

• Global Parity Alliance Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Lighthouses 2023 Insight Report
• More on diversity, equity and inclusion at Schneider Electric is available here.
• For an overview other awards and recognitions received by Schneider Electric, click here and here.

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