Hershey overtakes its competitors with not only well-known sweets but also with its highest percentage of female employees. It is not a secret how ruthless the situation has become with the unemployment among women worldwide since the pandemic.
The Hershey Company launched in 2020 The Pathways Project to create a more diverse and safer workplace. The Pathways Project believes ‘DEI’ – (diversity, equity and inclusion) is a key to its adequate progress in questions of women finding hard times to get a job. In 2020, Hershey achieved the planned goal of the year, which was a move to pay dollar-for-dollar pay equity for people of colour and salaried women.
“At Hershey, we are more than female-friendly – we are female-forward”, stated Alicia Petross, Chief Diversity Officer of The Hershey Company.
According to the company’s 2020 Sustainability Report, the percentages of Hershey having gender diversity and female leaders around the world are 48 per cent and 38 per cent, respectively. As well as the pay equity, Hershey has given additional support to women by making fertility benefits to those who are family-focused, the formation of women’s business resource groups, paid paternity leave and the establishment of career development programs for underrepresented groups.
The Pathways Project set its goal to expand dollar-for-dollar pay equity worldwide and increase the gender and colour representation of Hershey employees by 2025. The company plans to achieve 15 to 20 per cent of people of colour and 40 to 42 per cent of women being occupied with People Leader roles.
Alicia Petross continued, “From internal initiatives, such as the International Women’s Day HerSHEy’s bar and our ongoing community engagement efforts to support all youth, this recognition is a testament to our continued commitment to gender equity across our organization.”