Fostering Diversity & Inclusion at Sonae

At Sonae, we are a company that prides itself on fairness and we recognise that diversity and inclusion is key to our success. That’s why we’re strongly committed to having a diverse workforce that is reflective of society and our customer base, especially at management level. To do this, we actively promote and insist on an ethos of inclusivity and acceptance across all of our sites. No matter what your role is or where you are in our organization, at Sonae, we value all of our employees equally. We seek to create equal opportunities for all regardless of gender, disability, ethnic background, age, religion or sexual orientation.

The values of diversity and inclusion have been part of Sonae’s DNA since it was founded in 1959. Since the beginning we’ve focused on all elements of our business and developed a broad range of diversity and inclusion initiatives throughout the Group. For example, we develop programmes that support and enable employees with poor socio-economic background to surpass personal difficulties. To improve gender diversity, at the recruitment stage, we recommend that whenever recruiters present a short-list to the business, it is balanced in terms of gender representation. We also monitor performance appraisals, promotions and wage revisions, by gender, as well as resignations, in order to guarantee fair management across all teams.

Sonae is among the European companies with a higher percentage of women in leadership positions, according to the study conducted by the European Roundtable of Industrialists (ERT). However, we know we still have lots of work to do but we believe that through the policies and initiatives we have in place, we’re on the right track.

To find out more:
https://www.sonae.pt/en/media/publications/area-sustainability-3/menu-43/