Diversity

Umicore seeks to benefit as much as possible from diversity, for example in gender, culture and ethnicity. Umicore believes that more diverse management teams improve the quality of decision-making.

Umicore developed a group policy on diversity to support an inclusive work culture that offers equal opportunities, leading to a high level of employee engagement for all employees, irrespective of their diverse backgrounds. Diversity includes gender, religion, race, national or ethnic origin, cultural background, social group, disability, sexual orientation, marital status, age or political opinion.

We are especially seeking broader cultural representation in its management teams. Currently, 17.91% of the top management positions in Umicore are filled by non-Europeans, a slight decrease from 2017.

Considering that 60.6% of our revenues are generated outside Europe and our growing global footprint, we decided to act to ensure that non-Europeans are better represented in our senior management. Our efforts continue, as a better balance in this regard will enable us to make business decisions that are better aligned with the markets we serve.

Umicore employees span 71 nationalities, and in 2018, we counted 37 nationalities among our new hires.

Women are underrepresented at senior management level at Umicore. While this can be partly ascribed to the fact that chemical companies tend to attract fewer women (only 21.3% of Umicore’s total workforce is female), more needs to be done to improve the career prospects for talented women within Umicore.

Women in management roles have steadily increased from 18.65% in 2010 to 22.98%. in 2018, while women in ‘business operations’ management functions slightly decreased from 15.55% in 2017 to 15.08% in 2018. These functions tend to provide the most candidates for all senior leadership positions. Women in senior management increased from 6.77% in 2017 to 9.7% in 2018. We have set the ambition to reach 15% of women in senior management functions by 2020.

The Coaching Circles training program for female managers in Belgium offers a combination of mentoring, coaching, training and networking. This program was developed by the Focus on Women platform, in support of Umicore’s diversity and inclusion policy with the purpose of making women more aware of their capacities and stimulating them to take their career actively into their own hands. In 2018, 17 managers participated in the program.