Side by Side - Creating opportunity through diversity

Side by Side - Creating opportunity through diversity

MAY 2017

“I think diversity is what we don’t find in ourselves. If we have the mission of growing, as we do, we need new ideas, we need new perspectives, we need more talent”. These words expressed by Hakan Ozmen, President and CEO of Prysmian North America and Marcello del Brenna, President and CEO of Prysmian Latin America, during a sort of experiment involving some employees of the Group (resumed in the attached movie), frame quite well the first reason of Prysmian Group’s Side by Side project: to grow and to evolve, every global company need to acknowledge and to confront with diversity.

The project originated from an awareness: dealing with Diversity means to understand how the people that work on our side perceive this subject, and how it can be turned into a value for the entire company.

Diversity as a value: Prysmian’s focus on inclusion
 

As a world industry leader, Prysmian Group has always considered diversity as a crucial factor of growth both for the company and for its employees. In a globalized world, boundaries between countries and distances between places do not exist anymore for those who make business; why should they exist inside a global company?
Thus, developing programs about diversity and inclusion is not just the acknowledgement of one of the greater goals of the humanity for the current century, but is an unavoidable resource.
Far away from trying to cancel or hiding differences, the key lies in the way of looking and considering them.


“People are the most important resource for creating the cohesion needed to compete at the highest level in the business sectors addressed, while also pursuing the objective of generating lasting and substantial value” comments Fabrizio Rutschmann, HR SVP of the Group.

For this reason, tackling the issues highlighted above, Prysmian acknowledges and sustains the significance of equal opportunities and the value of diversity and uniqueness among people: reflecting the diversities of each country where the Group operates and promoting a multicultural working environment.

“Diversity is a strategic imperative for any business nowadays` adds Cristiana Scelza, Project leader for Side by Side and BU SURF Director.  ´Inclusion is a goal to be constantly pursued because only using all talents and all resources available we can succeed and more than that, respect for all kind of differences is the key for a sustainable company that has integrity, excellence and understanding as fundamental values.”

Side By Side – More than a program
 

Side By Side project is more than a Diversity program. It aims at fulfilling Prysmian Group’s policies throughan awareness campaign based on 3 pillars.
The firstis training, through specific activities – focus group, team building initiatives, woman leadership programs - for Prysmian employees, is a frame that can be called “Diversity pills”.
The second pillar is the update of the Group’s policies about diversity, both in the recruitment phase and in the achievement of gender equality, with the declared goal of concluding every future job selection with a decision between two candidates, a man and a woman.
The last is communication, as a tool to tell some Diversity stories of the company employees to show how their personal history has been a significant factor in their personal and working development.


Goals
 

Side by Side was created with ambitious goals. Some of them are numeric: by 2020 the growth to 10% of women’s presence in the top management, accompanied by an increase from 6 to 12% of the total of female workers in executive roles and a growth from 30 to 40% for what concerns white-collar postings.

However, besides the numbers which are but a photography of a changing situation, the ultimate goal of this Side by Side is cultural: it aims at spreading Prysmian way of producing and dealing with diversity – rooted in work, research, innovation and equality – beyond the current boundaries of the factories and the headquarters, to diffuse and strengthen a new industrial culture of inclusion.

Prysmian’s Commitment towards inclusion and a more diverse workplace
 

As a global leader in its sector, Prysmian has addressed the themes of Diversity and Inclusion since its very foundation, with the realized goal of creating a modern, functional and respectful working environment.

That is why the company developed its Diversity and Inclusion Policy, adopted in every Prysmian facility all over the world, with the purpose of creating an internal industrial culture shared by all Prysmian employees, in dialogue with local traditions but aimed to the future. A policy that applies to all individual employees, job applicants, contractors and agencies workers of all Prysmian Group’s entities worldwide.

Prysmian’s heritage is built on the spirit of continuous learning, with the skills of one generation, passed on to the next. The company considers vital to help our people reach their potential. Thus the company combines its focus on inclusion with training occasions, and the chance to grow and take on new experiences every day, in order to link the future for our people as well as our business. Places such as the Manufacturing Academy in Mudanya or the 17 worldwide R&D centers are there to help our people to contribute to the realization of the most ambitious goals.

The program is nowavailable here to focus on Inclusion as one of Prysmian’s top values.