Diversity

We are already a highly diverse organisation in terms of our geographical spread and employee profile.
Diversity and gender balance must stay at the top of our agenda enabling us to draw from an ever
broader and larger talent pool, make better-informed decisions and deliver more robust consumer
insights.
Our Corporate Business Principles state: We treat each other with respect and dignity and
expect everyone to promote a sense of personal responsibility. We recruit competent and
motivated people who respect our values, provide equal opportunities for their development and
advancement, protect their privacy and do not tolerate any form of harassment or
discrimination.
Our Human Resources Policy is a key component of our leadership and personal responsibility
Corporate Business Principle. The policy sets out the attitudes we expect from our people, such
as mutual respect, trust and transparency, and open communication and cooperation.
We respect international conventions concerning employees rights and do not tolerate
discrimination for any reason, including origin, nationality, religion, race, gender, age or sexual
orientation.
We want to develop an environment, culture and leadership that provides equal opportunities for
all, especially at management levels.
Diversifying talent at Nestl will focus on attracting, engaging and developing people to ensure the right
mix of talent to meet current and future business needs.
Nestl has signed up to the Womens Empowerment Principles: a partnership initiative between
UN Women and the UN Global Compact comprising a set of seven steps that business can take
to advance gender equality and empower women.
Gender Balance initiative
We formalised our approach to gender issues through the Gender Balance initiative launched in
2008.
Gender Balance: Our achievements so far and ambitions for the future
Ultimately we want gender balance to become a cultural and business asset, rather than a short-
term necessity driven by talent shortage, demographic change and regulation.
Currently, our gender balance strategy focuses on:
Improving the diversity of the group talent pool as we grow in specific countries, and to meet
our global talent needs, and
Developing people with both local knowledge of identified growth markets and global Nestl
business experience along with our principles and values.
Improving gender balance in management teams
We aim to remove all gender-related barriers to men and women. In particular, we have made
important progress towards improving the representation of women on our management teams,
moving from 15% in 2008 to 21% in 2012 (2011: 20%). While this is encouraging, we will
continue to carry out communication and succession planning and remove all gender-related
barriers to women achieving management positions.
Promoting dual careers
One challenge faced by Nestl and other multi-nationals is that increasingly, our employees are
in dual-career relationships; a partners career may lessen their own desire for mobility. In
response, we have led the International Dual Career Network (IDCN) initiative. This consists of
around 20 international partner organisations facing similar issues of career and work continuity
for their employees partners. Now a year old, the IDCN provides a network to help partners get
back into work as well as providing a great pool of professional talent to recruit from.
Inclusive employment
An inclusive workplace is one where everyone, regardless of their perspective, skills or abilities
is able to contribute and progress.
Total workforce broken down by region
Europe
97,064

(29%)
Americas


112,751

(33%)
Asia, Oceania
and Africa

129,584

(38%)
Total

339,397