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Advancing Our Purpose, Sharing Our Progress

Advancing Our Purpose, Sharing Our Progress: Colgate-Palmolive’s 2022 Global Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Report

Advancing Our Purpose, Sharing Our Progress

May 23, 2023

Colgate-Palmolive – a caring, innovative growth company that is reimagining a healthier future for ALL – is proud to release our 2022 Global Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DE&I) Report, which highlights progress toward fulfilling the objectives of our 2025 Global DE&I Strategy. The report details the actions and metrics that reflect how we are creating a culture of belonging both inside and outside of Colgate. 

“We continue to make strides toward our 2025 Global DE&I Strategy – efforts that help Colgate-Palmolive continue to be an ally for positive change,” said Derek Gordon, Chief Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Officer. “I believe that the most important progress that we’ve made is our continued effort to assure we are institutionalizing the Company’s expectations that we ALL work to create an inclusive culture – which is important to our business, to our people and to the communities where we live, work and sell.”

As a Company, our DE&I objective is to break down the barriers to equity of opportunity – both inside and outside our Company. We believe ALL people should have the opportunity to achieve their ambition based on their capability as opposed to their identity. To achieve our objective, our strategy includes three ambitions:

  • Foster a corporate culture where everyone feels they belong and has the tools to drive their own successes;
  • Increase diverse representation across our organization and supply chain partnerships to reflect the diversity of the world we serve by assuring that all people have equal opportunity;
  • Leverage our global reach and the strength of our brands to break down barriers that limit people from underrepresented populations, specifically around health, education and career opportunities.

To help achieve these ambitions, Colgate-Palmolive’s Global DE&I Strategy is supported by four pillars: People, Community, Supplier Diversity and Communication.

In our latest report, we continued to achieve measurable steps toward our 2025 Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Strategy, ambitions and pillars. Top achievements as of December 31, 2022 include: 

Advancing representation of women. We aim for labor force representation among women across the world at all organizational levels. In 2022, women represented 53% of our salaried and clerical workforce and 36% of Vice Presidents and above. In 2022, we increased female representation at the Vice President-level by approximately 2.5 percentage points vs. 2021and have seen Vice President-level female representation increase by almost 9 percentage points globally over the last five years.

Advancing representation Black/African Americans. One of our goals is for labor force representation of Blacks and African Americans, Latin and Asian ethnic groups in the US at all organizational levels. Consider Black and African Americans: in 2022 we achieved an approximately 2.5 percentage point increase of representation at the Vice President-level of the organization vs. 2021. 

While we have further to go for women as well as for Black and African Americans in the US, we are nearing our aspiration to create an organization that represents the labor force at the Vice President-level.

Inclusion Index: The Inclusion Index is how we measure the overall sense of belonging Colgate-Palmolive People feel around the world. Our goal, which we have achieved and maintained, is for our Inclusion Index to be in the top quartile of benchmark companies. Importantly, our Inclusion Index is also above the benchmark of the broader consumer packaged goods industry. 

Leadership Principles: This past year, a global group of Colgate-Palmolive employees was invited to reflect on the meaning and purpose of leadership – and the ever-evolving expectations of leaders today. The group discussed our Company’s purpose and business growth strategy and how our leaders will help advance both in the future. Ultimately, this group created the principles that we believe guide an inclusive leader. 

In May 2022, we rolled out our three Leadership Principles globally. They are:

  • Cultivate Trust: By cultivating an environment of trust, we give people the confidence to feel safe being their authentic selves and bring their best ideas and abilities to the fore.
  • Create The Future: By pursuing our curiosity, changing courageously, and recognizing progress, we can stimulate agility, learning, and innovation.
  • Commit to Impact: By providing clarity, taking ownership, and doing what’s right, we can drive performance, empowerment, and integrity in our outcomes.

Read Colgate-Palmolive 2022 Diversity, Equity and Inclusion report here.

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