It's been our long held belief that Danone's economic and social goals are interdependent.
In 1972, Danone’s then global CEO Antoine Riboud made a ground-breaking speech in Marseille, where he declared that a company’s responsibility does not end at the factory gate or office door. It has to go beyond that so that communities can thrive.
“We can't accept that growth would leave behind so many people, especially workers - it is a matter of collective conscience. The company’s responsibility does not stop at the factory gates or the office door.”
Danone's human resource strategy plays a key role in supporting more than 100,000 employees in over 57 countries. In the UK, over 2,000 people work in our three factories and offices.
our values
Our four values "HOPE": HUMANISM, OPENNESS, PROXIMITY and ENTHUSIASM guide the way we behave every day, the way we work and make progress in our business, the way we connect with our communities, and the way we develop people.
HUMANISM
Sharing responsibility, respect for others
Attention to individuals, whether they're consumers, colleagues or fellow citizens, is at the heart of our decisions.
OPENNESS
Curiosity, agility and dialogue
Diversity is a source of wealth and change as well as a constant opportunity.
PROXIMITY
Accessibility, authenticity and empathy
Engaging with communities in our common quest to find better health through better food for the greatest number.
ENTHUSIASM
Boldness, passion and appetite
There are no limits. There are only obstacles to be overcome.
DIVERSITY, EQUITY AND INCLUSION
At Danone, we know that delivering a positive social impact begins within our business, by creating a diverse and inclusive workplace internally. An empowered and fulfilled workforce will successfully deliver Danone's mission and ensure we meet the needs of our diverse consumers.
Our ambition is for every Danoner to feel included, heard and valued for the unique contribution they bring.
You can learn more about our global inclusive diversity initiatives here on Danone.com.
UK & IRELAND
To help foster a diverse and inclusive culture at Danone UK & Ireland, we relaunched our Employee Network Groups (ENGs). Our ENGs aim to bring a voice to traditionally under-represented groups. We want a workplace where everyone feels like they belong.
We currently have six ENG’s, formed by our staff and supported by a senior sponsor. Working to drive positive change, our groups focus on:
Women’s Empowerment
LGBTQIA+
BAME
Working Parents
Carers
People with Disabilities.
An Includability Committed Employer
Our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion has been recognised externally and we became an Includability Committed certified employer in the UK in 2023.
Being part of the Includability network highlights the fact that we are committed to creating an inclusive, sustainable and mentally healthy workplace culture for everyone.
PROMOTING INCLUSIVE BEHAVIOURS
We are proud of the strong gender balance in our UK & Ireland business. We continue to evolve our policies, including smart working arrangements, flexibility for parents returning to work, and transparent succession planning.
GLOBAL PARENTAL POLICY
The Global Parental Policy is an initiative which aims to offer a consistent standard of support to all parents-to-be employed across the world.
Danone’s global parental policy is based on three key elements:
- Pre-natal support such as adapted working conditions and nutritional advice during pregnancy;
- Extended parental leave, covering both men and women, which includes 18 weeks for the birth parent or 14 weeks for the legally adoptive parent and 10 working days for the secondary caregiver;
- Post-natal support including job protection measures and return-to-work support, flexible working conditions, and support for breastfeeding by providing lactation rooms for mothers in offices that employ more than 50 women.
Supporting working parents at Danone UK & Ireland:
- Our Working Parents Employee Network Group (ENG) is dedicated to creating a supportive workplace for working parents, enabling them to thrive in their careers while balancing parenting.
- We’ve created a comprehensive re-onboarding plan to help managers fully embed Danoners back into the business following family leave.
- Our Product Access Scheme allows Danoners to claim reimbursement for Danone products, including Alpro Growing up Drinks, Actimel Kids and eligible Follow on Milks.
EMPOWERING DIVERSE COMMUNITIES THROUGH OUR ECOSYSTEM OF PARTNERS IN THE UK AND IRELAND
In 2018, Danone joined the LEAD Network (Leading Executives Advancing Diversity) whose aim is to attract, retain and advance women in retail and consumer goods industry in Europe.
Danone UK & Ireland is proud to be a major partner of D&I in Grocery (part of GroceryAid). D&I in Grocery is a programme which combines experience, inspiration, and practical solutions to help organisations work together as a community of partners to create tangible progress in the space of diveristy, equity and inclusion. As a major partner, we have access to multiple areas of the programme, including a cross-company mentoring programme, access to learning resources and an opportunity to attend and lead a session in the D&I in Grocery LIVE event, which brings the industry together at the largest D&I event in the grocery sector.
Find out more here.
We have been working with Talent Mapper to integrate diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) considerations in our talent practices. We shifted our approach to focus on candidates capabilities and potential to ensure opportunities are accessible to a more diverse talent pool. This includes the implementation of a skills assessment tool to assess candidates; based on the skills required for the role, rather than focusing on experience. A new job advert template removes potentially biased language, prioritises skills over experience, and includes transparent salaries and deadlines. We have adopted more robust assessment tools and all hiring managers complete inclusive hiring training. We have also added “ReciteMe” to our Careers Website to improve the accessibility for neurodiverse candidates. The next phase of this project will involve working with our BAME ENG group to attract candidates from under-represented ethnic groups.
Find out more here.
The Diversity Standards Collective helps us to create DEI informed advertising and communications that consider diverse needs in relation to the marketing, functionality and appeal of our products. The learnings of our partnership helped shape the Danone Production Charter, which guides product development, communications and how we take our brands to market.
Find out more here.
We have become an includabiilty committeed employer! This means we’ve met the minimum standards in the six areas assessed by experts, certifying our commitment to inclusion: Diversity & Inclusion, Sustainability, Talent Management, Mental Health, Wellbeing, Leadership & Governance.
Find out more here.
As an early adopter to the B Corp movement, at Danone we started our global journey as a B Corp in 2015 and in the UK and Ireland we quickly followed suit, accrediting our Dairy business in the UK in 2017. By 2022 we were fully certified across all our categories and factories in the UK and Ireland, thanks to the commitment of our 2,400 Danoners. We're proud to be part of a movement that focuses on 'better business' for people and the planet.
Find out more here.
Find out about our global ecosystem of partners here: People & communities - Danone
LEARNING & DEVELOPMENT
Embracing The "squiggly" career path
Squiggly careers embrace nonlinear paths, transferable skills, and constant learning. We recognise there is no longer a 'one size fits al'l approach to careers, learning and development.
At Danone UK & Ireland, our employees are in the driving seat of their career and are encouraged to explore what is possible to develop new skills. They design their your own purposeful career and are supported and inspired to achieve their goals.
Always learning
We believe an 'always learning' mindset is the key to unlocking both our individual development and our collective strengths and performance as a business.
We offer learning & development for every employee to ‘learn their way’ through relevant, inclusive and accessible development opportunities that enable personal and business growth, now and for the future. If we want to grow our business, we have to grow our people.
To support this vision, we focus our efforts on equipping all employees with the tools and techniques to define their development needs, ensuring we have the right development options in place to support these needs, and strive to deliver these in the most inclusive way.
Skills Based Development
To enable diversity and a breadth of career opportunities for all in Danone, and ensure we are ready for the jobs of the future to meet the challenges of tomorrow, we base our development around skills.
These can be functional, leadership, or transversal and are selected based on our employees' development needs now and for future roles.
Tailored Learning Journey
We understand that 70% of learning comes from on-the-job experiences, so feedback and practice are key to embedding new skills into daily habits. 20% of learning emerges from interactions with others; so we have dedicated peer learning sessions and an internal coaching programme to support with this. But we also know the power of dedicated learning time – this essential 10% comes from training.
Our employees have access to local and global opportunities, from in-person training sessions to immersive virtual experiences, and a wealth of digital learning.
Early Careers in the UK and Ireland
Our early career opportunities are designed to empower our new starters on their professional journey, ensuring they have the skills and knowledge needed to thrive in their chosen careers.
We provide a comprehensive onboarding experience, designed to set our people up for success from day one. This includes access to high-quality learning and development support, peer-to-peer coaching series and a series of business knowledge to help people get to grips not only with their own roles, but with their wider understanding of Danone.
Our early careers programme is designed to help people seamlessly transition into their target role, equipped with the skills and knowledge to succeed, excel and advance within Danone.
You can find out more about these opportunities over on our careers hub.
HEALTH & SAFETY
Staying safe at work
At Danone, people are at the centre of everything we do and are at the heart of our business. With that, we take safety, health and wellbeing aspects into account in all our business decisions.
Our WISE2 Programme supports our Danoners to feel safe at work. We strive for a caring workplace culture where people can return home safely at the end of every working day. In order to establish a strong safety culture, we set and follow global and local policies and standards.
Our HOPE values believe that health, safety and wellbeing should always come first. We contiuously review our progress and we create, apply and regularly revise our rules for a safe and healthy working environment for all.
Health and Wellbeing
At Danone we believe our purpose as a business is to nourish life. We live that internally by building a culture that supports a healthy working environment and by providing the opportunities for all our employees to take care of their holistic health, safety & wellbeing.
The opportunities and benefits we offer are a true representation of our diverse employees and their evolving needs. We champion health & wellbeing at all levels across Danone UK & Ireland, encouraged and enabled by people managers who embed safety and wellbeing into everything that we do.
Our Be Well Program is focused on three key pillars:
- Mental Wellness: Be capable and resilient to achieve emotional balance
- Physical Well-being: Take care of physical health to have the energy to enjoy life
- Nutrition: Using Danone’s expertise to foster healthy and sustainable food choices and diets
MENTAL WELLNESS
- Bupa Healthy Minds / Irish LifeWorks
- GroceryAid UK
- Mental Health First Aiders
- Flexible Working
PHYSICAL WELLBEING
- Private Medical Insurance
- Health Screening
- Gym Membership Discounts
- Healthcare Cash Plan
NUTRITION
- Access to healthy food at our offices
- Access to Danone products for free through our Product Access Scheme
- Educational sessions on nutrition