dunnhumby

D&I Strategy

We are really proud of our diversity and inclusion strategy as it demonstrates clearly our commitment to embedding real change.

Our strategy is made up of three parts:

Inclusive Leaders

To fulfill this, we have created a strong governance structure around our Employee Network groups (ENG's), including senior sponsorship for each group. Our leaders will have renewed accountability for role-modeling inclusive behaviours and are expected to actively champion inclusion through their business practices.

Inclusive Behaviours

We will be resetting the expectations of all employees on what it means to work inclusively through an inclusive behaviour learning programme. This will help us to infuse our ways of working with inclusivity and help us to demonstrate the benefits of diverse perspectives through innovation and creative problem-solving.

Inclusive Policies and Processes

We have committed to a thorough review of all our people policies through the lens of inclusion and are more employee-led, increased transparency around our talent processes (including pay, performance and promotion measures), and measuring our progress here through data.

All of our D&I work combines to help us fulfill this strategy over the next three years and has been signed off by the Exec.

How do we define diversity and inclusion?

Verna Myers is the VP of Inclusion Strategy at Netflix and an inclusion specialist, and we think her quote below perfectly illustrates the difference between diversity, inclusion and belonging (our ultimate aim at dunnhumby).

A simple way to view D&I is that, diversity is the fact-based metric based on characteristics (i.e. gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, disability etc).

Whereas inclusion is much more behavioural and is about the choices that each of us makes every single day to create an inclusive environment for those around us.

Belonging, therefore, is when that envirvonment is safe enough to "dance like no one is watching" i.e. bring your whole self to work and be accepted and embraced for who you are.

We know we need to start to make some more courageous choices at dunnhumby to start to shift the dial from a focus on diversity to belonging. 

Catalyst: Inclusive Sponsorship

In 2020, we ran a pilot Inclusive Sponsorship programme called Catalyst.

A 12-month programme connecting our diverse top talent with senior leaders for career sponsorship and is a demonstration of our committed, proactive action towards both our talent and inclusion agendas.

Our career sponsorship programme helps us achieve this in the following two ways:

1) creates structured internal advocacy for diverse and talented individuals to facilitate their career progression

2) Helps us to challenge the unconscious bias of our leaders, and expand our succession and talent pipelines.

Our hard work has paid off, and our inclusive behaviour learning experience belonging@dh is here!

The purpose of this experience is to clarify the expectations for all dunnhumbians on how to work inclusively, and to reduce belonging uncertainty, which contributes heavily to our overall D&I strategy to cultivate a culture of belonging.

Employee Network Group?

Employee Network Groups are a way of bringing employees with a shared characteristic (such as gender, race, sexual orientation etc.).

Our employee network groups play a crucial role in supporting our culture of belonging at dunnhumby by bringing employees together in a safe space within the work environment.

Our network groups go beyond social activities, to also include developmental opportunities, a chance to build a professional network and combine efforts to take action to inspire change around inclusion. 

dhGEN Mission and Purpose:

Helping all dunnhumbians fulfil their career potential, regardless of gender.

dhGEN, formerly known as dh Women's Network, launched in January 2018. We are a grassroots team of passionate individuals, working to improve gender perceptions, reduce unconscious bias, advocate and ally with fellow D&I networks so that all dunnhumbians can bring their full selves to work.

dhThrive Mission and Purpose:

One in four of us has suffered or will suffer from mental ill-health at some point in our lifetime, yet many are reluctant to talk about it.

At dunnhumby, we want to encourage a culture where people feel comfortable to speak out and to provide practical means of support. We also run a network of Mental Health First Aiders for additional support 

dhFamily Mission and Purpose:

dhFamily, formerly known as dh Parents & Carers Network, launched in 2019. Our aim is to support our colleagues at dunnhumby to balance a successful career with their commitments outside of work.

Our Vision: Enabling our people to be at their best by balancing the interdependent demands of family, work and community Launched in 2019 

dhOne Mission and Purpose:

We want to expand on this so we reflect the diversity of our employees internally and bring our unique perspectives to problem-solving.

dhOne is open to ALL and aims to open and encourage inclusive conversations across the business to effect real cultural and behavioural change.

Launched in October 2019 

dh Proud Mission and Purpose:

Our purpose is primarily focused on advocating for LGBTQ+ issues within the business, whilst following the guiding principle of inclusion.

dhProud isn't about creating a point of differentiation between people, and we encourage everyone across the business to attend talks, social events, or join the organising team.

It's only through the engagement of allies (non-LGBTQ+ people) that we can affect real change.