RTL Group among European leaders in Diversity 2020

700 companies made it to the list, chosen from around 10,000 nominated European businesses which were rated by specific criteria such as age, gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation and social background. The ranking shows the extent to which listed and privately held companies have achieved a diverse and inclusive workforce. RTL Group is ranked on 507^th place and its parent company, Bertelsmann, is placed on rank 128.

Anja Reichert, Head of Corporate Responsibility and Diversity Coordination at RTL Group, comments: “Diversity is at the very heart of RTL Group. As our mission statement highlights, we embrace diversity not only in our content and businesses, but most importantly in our people. Our Group aims to foster a diverse, inclusive and supportive work culture in which all employees feel valued and can achieve their potential. Our ranking in the Financial Times shows that there is still room for improvement, and is therefore a further incentive for us to continually work towards building a diverse and inclusive organisation. To this end, and as a first step, we have launched Unconscious Bias trainings at the end of November for our HR colleagues from the various business units. This will be followed by further trainings for top and senior management in Q1 2020.”

RTL Group places a special emphasis on gender diversity and therefore sets the target to increase the share of women in top and senior management positions to at least 30 per cent by 2021. The employee survey results from 2019 show that 68% of respondents believe that employees have the same opportunities in their company, regardless of their gender.

In 2017, RTL Group signed the Diversity Charter Lëtzebuerg, a corporate initiative to make companies in Luxembourg more inclusive and diverse, which goes much further than the legal and regulatory obligations.

About the Financial Times Diversity Leaders List Companies and businesses from all sectors with at least 250 employees in the following countries were eligible to participate: Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. The report was compiled by the research and statistic provider Statista, on the basis of a questionnaire which was sent to thousands of executives, HR Managers and recruitment agencies. Over 80,000 employees were interviewed across Europe and were asked to rate their own employers as well as other companies in the fields of age, gender, ethnicity, disability, LGBTX+ and general diversity. In total, over 130,000 evaluations formed the basis to identify the Diversity Leaders 2020. More information about the Financial Times ranking can be found here.