Gender equity, non-discrimination and non-harassment

Our business is founded on respect. We believe that when people are treated with equity, trusted to deliver regardless of their personal characteristics, and feel that they belong in the workplace, they do their jobs better.

We see diversity as a strength. We aim to create a working environment where everybody is respected for who they are regardless of gender, ethnicity, sexuality, disability or other characteristics or backgrounds.

As part of a just transition to a fairer food system for all, we are committed to ensuring diversity and inclusion are integral components of our business. We want everyone to bring their whole selves to work – and to speak up if they are not treated with respect.

We continue to make progress in four key areas: gender balance, people with disabilities, the LGBTQI+ community and race and ethnicity. As a global business with hundreds of thousands of employees in many different countries, there is more to do to ensure everyone feels included, valued and supported.

Our progress

Changing the face of our workforce

We believe everyone has the right to work free from discrimination, violence and harassment, including gender-based violence and harassment.

Our key achievements:

• DE&I maturity exercise launched in all Markets, all Zones have presented their action plans to global DE&I team
• In 2024, we signed the ILO Global Business Disability Network (GBDN) and launched our Nestlé Global Guidelines on Disability Inclusion
• We also launched in 2024 a video series internally on prevention of sexual harassment, with an updated version of sexual harassment mandatory training now available in our learning platform, together with updated DE&I training that will be mandatory trainings from 2026
• Self-ID waves 1 to 3 completed (~30% of the Nestlé population covered by Self-ID). No implementation of Self-ID portlet in 2025. We plan to have Self-ID questions (where legislations in different markets/countries allow) as part of Nestlé&I demographic questions. This will allow us to correlate Self-ID with Nestlé&I feedback for concrete action planning.
• Nearly one-third of our workforce has completed ‘Self-ID’ and we plan to include (where markets/countries allow) similar data/feedback in future DE&I reporting to tailor action planning.

Our Gender Balance Acceleration Plan

Through our Gender Balance Acceleration Plan, we are committed to increasing the percentage of gender balance in managerial positions. We are proud that 48.2% of management positions today are held by women, but we are determined to go further towards gender balance. We were also proud that we met our commitment to increase the proportion of women in our senior management positions to more than 30%, with that number reaching 36.6% by the end of 2025. We will continue to increase female representation in senior positions and expand efforts to aim for parity in all management positions. Learn more in the Social Disclosures section of our 2025 Non-Financial Statement (pdf, 12Mb).

An additional aspect of gender balance at Nestlé is our Global Parental Support Policy (pdf, 3Mb), which extends the rights of caregivers, regardless of gender.
 

Empowering people with disabilities

We are committed to providing equal opportunities for people with disabilities and to promoting awareness and understanding to eliminate unconscious bias -and barriers – whether disabilities are visible or invisible.

We are signatories to the International Labor Organization’s Global Business and Disability Network Charter to ensure the inclusion of people with disabilities in our workplace. Since 2020, Nestlé has been a partner in The Valuable 500 and is committed to elevating disability inclusion to our leadership agenda.

We run Employee Resource Groups focused on people with disabilities and neurodivergence, such as THRIVE, while our NestAbility network aims to create an open culture and dialogue around disability. We also support schemes to help university students with disabilities develop IT skills and gain workplace experience.

Another example is Nespresso’s support of Café Joyeux, the first cafe-restaurant chain to employ and train people with mental and cognitive disabilities. Part of the sales from their joint creation of limited-edition coffee, Nespresso pour Café Joyeux, helped to fund new jobs for Café Joyeux team members in 2022.

Committed to LGBTQI+ equality

We are determined to help accelerate equality and inclusion in the workplace and empowering our employees to be their authentic selves at work. We are proud that some of our markets have received top scores in external audits of workplace equality.

We support the United Nations Standards of Conduct for Business on tackling discrimination against Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Trans and Intersex people.

We are proud that local Nestlé LGBTQI+ networks exist in many of the countries we operate in, creating a forum for conversation and support. We hold global webcasts on unconscious bias, support in the workplace and mental health.

As well as a growing number of Employee Resource groups in our markets, we also offer specific training for LGBTQI+ employees. These include a recently launched Empowerment and Entrepreneurship course for transgender colleagues.

Helping end racial discrimination

Nestlé has proudly affirmed that Black Lives Matter – inside our own workplaces and beyond. We have taken steps to help make our workplaces better for people from all communities and backgrounds and consciously strive to eliminate unconscious bias.

Nestlé was a founding partner of the World Economic Forum’s Partnering for Racial Justice in Business initiative, we have signed the Race at Work Charter, donated to the National Urban League civil rights organization, and designated Juneteenth (June 19) – the federal holiday commemorating the emancipation of African-American slaves – as a Nestlé USA company holiday. Nestlé USA also supports inclusion through mentorship schemes for minority students to help them identify employment opportunities.

Our Domestic Violence Victims Guidance

We are determined to be open about difficult subjects, including tackling domestic abuse. We are clear that there is no place for any form of violence – physical, verbal, psychological, sexual or socio-economic – against any of our employees, regardless of gender. 

Our Guidance for Providing Support for Employee Victims of Domestic Violence (pdf, 1,2Mb) seeks to draw attention to the subject and provide advice to support employees experiencing or surviving domestic violence.

It also aims to raise awareness among employees, remove fears of stigmatization at work for victims and empower people to speak up. Having been initiated in Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay, the guidance is being rolled out internationally.