Diversity leads to more sustainable and successful business strategy

Bord Bia and Aon, in association with The 30% Club – which aims to have 30% female representation in senior management by 2020 – held the masterclass on ‘Growing your talent pool’, the first of a series, supporting the work of the Agri-Food Diversity and Inclusion Forum (AgDiF).

The forum’s new series aims to equip food and drink companies with the knowledge and know how to implement diversity and inclusion (D&I) initiatives in the workplace to attract and retain the best talent in the industry.

The masterclass was opened by Bord Bia CEO Tara McCarthy, who called out the importance of having data to support the business case for new strategies.

According to a study completed by the AgDiF forum in 2018, 50% of agri-food businesses surveyed have engaged with or have started the process of engaging in D&I strategies.

Research shows that across sectors, organisations which embrace D&I and put it at the heart of their business strategy are more innovative, sustainable and successful in the longer term.

“For this reason, it is important that the other 50%, in order to compete for talent with other sectors, need to follow suit and continue to row in behind the national programmes and initiatives that are currently underway,” she said.

Meanwhile, Ciara Jackson, food and agribusiness practice leader of Aon, outlined the importance of D&I in the agri-food industry and said that the business risk of the skills and labour challenge is being highlighted constantly by clients.

With 25,000 staff from 117 nationalities, Kerry Group is already very diverse, but Malcom Sheil, CEO for Europe and Russia, was categorical that businesses will not thrive if they do not have sustainable talent available; and that they won’t attract this talent unless they invest and embrace D&I strategies.

With a workforce split 76% male to 24% female, they have not yet reached the 30% aim for gender diversity.

He said that the problem here is the lack of diversity of thought, as when you have this, companies are more innovative and creative.

Margot Slattery, Sodexo Country president, spoke of how the company was probably further down the road on the D&I journey partly due to necessity.

A class action discrimination lawsuit brought against the company in 2005 was settled when they agreed to pay €80m in damages and follow diversity and inclusion guidelines.

Sodexo is the world’s largest food service company and their diversity programme is strongly led from the top of the organisation, which she called out as key to success.

They are aiming for gender pay parity in the near future, which she said would be challenging. The company will only interview on a 50:50 gender basis.

“We have left recruitment firms go that do not bring us the diversity we want, the talent is there, if they don’t find it, they are lazy,” she said.

Meanwhile, David O’Flynn from Dawn Meats – when opening the Q&A session – said that they were seeing that people are looking for purpose in their work and there is no industry more purposeful than the agriculture and food industry.

The AgDiF forum was created as a collaborative industry initiative, led by Bord Bia and Aon.

The objective of AgDiF is to position the Irish food and drinks sector as the industry of choice for Ireland’s best talent at all levels and across all fields of discipline.

Businesses can download this report and a diversity and inclusion toolkit on the Bord Bia website.

For the calendar

The next masterclass of the AgDiF series:

See bordbia.ie for details.