Elior UK pledges new gender diversity targets

Contract caterer Elior UK has announced new objectives to speed up its progress around gender diversity.

By 2025 the company has committed to ensuring its leadership team is more representative of gender diversity across the workforce by committing to three objectives:

• Increasing the number of female chefs at all levels within Elior UK to 49% by 2025 and 53% by 2030 (currently 45.5%)
• Increasing the number of females in middle/senior management positions within head office to 50% by 2025 and 55% by 2030 (currently 45.4%)
• Increasing the number of females on the UK leadership team to 50% by 2025 and 62.5% by 2030 (currently 37.5%).

Justin Johnson, HR director at Elior UK, said: "While we recognise the value of diversity and have always tried to create a truly inclusive culture where people are valued for their contribution, we recognise we have more work to do. This is why we are making a commitment to speed up progress with regards to gender diversity and have created a comprehensive plan to make this happen."

Elior UK is introducing initiatives to support the career development of women at every level of the business, including a new coaching and mentorship programme with a focus on identifying future female leaders.

It is also working with its agency partners to ensure at least 50% of candidate shortlists are women; showcasing female role models both across the organisation and outside of it; and holding a series of focus groups with employees to understand what career progression blocks might exist within the business.

Leni Savva, chief financial officer and gender diversity sponsor, added: "I am delighted to be part of the gender equality initiative to drive change and excited to be working with the team to introduce a new mentoring programme to support female colleagues. There is so much great work happening across the business, it is now about how we communicate this and making sure we provide the right level of support employees so that they can progress their careers."

Elior operates catering contracts across the B&I, health and care home, defence, education, stadia and heritage sectors. Elior UK is part of the worldwide Elior Group. Founded in 1991, Elior Group has 110,000 employees feeding more than five million people on a daily basis in 23,500 restaurants across three continents.

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