Bridgestone publishes 2023 DE&I report for EMEA region

Bridgestone has issued its 2023 Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I) Annual Report for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA), spotlighting the company’s endeavours to foster an equitable environment for underrepresented demographics and to enrich the diversity of its workforce.

“We must ensure that our current and future teammates, as well as our customers feel Free to Be themselves,” says Laurent Dartoux, group president Bridgestone EMEA. “With more than 14,000 teammates from 35 different countries, Bridgestone EMEA is naturally a diverse workplace. However, there is significant room for improvement. Bridgestone EMEA’s second DE&I Annual Report reinforces our unwavering commitment to cultivating a fully inclusive, equitable and diverse place to work for the benefit of our people, business and the communities we serve.”

3 key DE&I domains

The report delineates Bridgestone EMEA’s progress across three key DE&I domains: employee experience, compensation, and workforce dynamics, characterised as follows:

Employee Experience: This assesses Bridgestone EMEA’s investments in talent from marginalised groups and the overall sentiment of employees toward their work environment.

Pay: Evaluating the remuneration structure within the organisation.

Workforce: Examining Bridgestone EMEA’s strategies for recruiting and retaining diverse talent.

In pursuit of enhancing employee experience, Bridgestone EMEA continued its support for leadership development initiatives targeting underrepresented groups through various DE&I programs such as Women in Motion, Women in Tech, Women in Production, and Young Professionals. Concurrently, the company expanded its Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), with notable contributions from BPROUD, an ERG advocating for LGBTQIA+ inclusivity, and BWIN, an ERG supporting women and their allies. These efforts included organising events, launching intranet hubs, and providing resources aimed at promoting psychological safety. Based on data gleaned from 14,854 respondents to the Bridgestone EMEA Employee Engagement survey conducted in September 2023, 91 per cent of the EMEA salaried population and 67 per cent of the total workforce feels that Bridgestone values diversity.

Bridgestone EMEA says its efforts to foster a diverse and inclusive workforce are being reflected in an uptick in female representation across all organisational levels, particularly in senior management roles. Noteworthy achievements in 2023 included a substantial increase in female hires, with 71 per cent of new recruits at the Technical Center and manufacturing facility in Rome being women. Across the entire EMEA enterprise, 34 per cent per cent of new hires in band 2+ (typically salaried employees) were women, representing a 6.1 percentage point increase versus 2022.

The report also underscores Bridgestone EMEA’s community engagement endeavours, facilitated by its Volunteering Policy, which encourages employees to contribute positively to their communities. Notable initiatives included partnerships with organisations like “Inspiring Girls” in Italy, youth empowerment programs in South Africa, and various other community-oriented activities aimed at addressing societal challenges.