Jerónimo Martins joins Target Gender Equality

• The goal of the programme is to set ambitious targets for women's representation and leadership in business;
• Women hold 67% of management positions at the Jerónimo Martins Group.

The Jerónimo Martins Group has joined Target Gender Equality, a programme designed exclusively for the members of the UN Global Compact aimed at accelerating gender equality in companies.

The goal of Target Gender Equality is to set ambitious targets for women’s representation and leadership in all levels and in all areas of business, aligning the companies committed to Sustainable Development Goal 5 (SDG 5) of the UN Agenda 2030 – “Gender equality and empower all women and girls”.

According to Susana Correia de Campos, Head of Employee Relations and responsible for the Group’s diversity and inclusion agenda, “the principle of equality and non-discrimination is, of course, well defined in the Group’s Code of Conduct and is reflected in our human resources policies and practices. By way of example, 67% of the Group's management positions, at the various levels of the organisation, are held by women. For us, gender quality is above all a commitment and that is why we have joined Target Gender Equality and the dialogue with other members of the United Nations Global Compact”.

The Group’s strong commitment to gender equality had already been reflected in the Gender Equality Plan 2020, a document drawn up within the scope of the laws in force in Portugal, in which the Group added other voluntary initiatives to the compulsory measures. Among such initiatives, for example, of note is the creation of an internal body (Equality Committee) for decision-making and monitoring of equality measures and formalisation of the respective competences, and the carrying out of training sessions on procedures to prevent gender bias for those in charge of selection and recruitment.

Gender equality is part of the Jerónimo Martins Group’s DNA
As a benchmark employer, the Jerónimo Martins Group seeks to ensure that its human resources policies and practices, with regard to gender equality, are incorporated naturally and adopted internally in the different stages of an employee’s life cycle. This concern begins with the recruitment processes aligned with a balance of profiles and skills. It is also part of development and training, an area in which the Group is fully engaged to ensure employees real personal and professional development based on merit and their qualifications. Equal opportunities and equity are also embedded in the internal social responsibility policies aimed at helping employees overcome the daily challenge of finding a balance between their family, personal and professional lives. For over a decade the Group has had structural programmes in place in priority areas such as Health, Education and Family Well-being.

Women have a predominant role in the management and decision-making positions in the Group’s operations in Portugal. On Pingo Doce's current Executive Committee, 50% of the members are women with very diverse responsibilities and functions, such as general manager, operations director, finance director, human resources director or marketing director. At Recheio, four of the seven members of the Executive Committee are women.

The Jerónimo Martins Group employs more than 115,000 people in the three countries where it pursues its business: Portugal, Poland and Colombia. In all, women represent 76% of the workforce and 67% of management positions.