Diversity and Inclusion

We believe it is crucial for the success of our company to have a diverse workforce comprised of individuals with different ideas, strengths, interests and backgrounds. We see a great benefit in the diversity of our employees, as this helps us to better fulfill the wishes and multi-faceted demands of our consumers around the world and provides a higher-performing workplace. We strive to create an environment where all our employees are heard and appreciated – regardless of gender, nationality, ethnic origin, religion, world view, different abilities, age, sexual orientation or identity.

As part of our global diversity approach, we proactively pursue a portfolio of internal and external activities that welcome diversity and champion inclusion. Throughout the company we continue to support and grow our Employee Resource Groups (ERG) – these are specific networks that give employees from various walks of life a voice, including networks for women, LGBTQ+, experienced generations, and North American people of color. Our global women’s network in Germany counts almost 900 active participants, supported by 14 mentoring circles to foster the professional development of junior colleagues. In North America, we doubled the number of ERGs to ensure they represent the diversity of our employees and our consumer base. In 2019, we focused on education about different cultures and heritages by, among others, celebrating Black History Month, Lunar New Year, International Women’s Day, Pride, Hispanic Heritage Month and Diwali internally across North America. In Europe, we activated on key moments in our main offices to raise awareness on the topics of female leadership, the LGBTQ+ community, and mental health. Globally, we aimed to ensure that our leadership development programs are a fair representation of employees in terms of gender, race, and nations.

To inspire action outside of our company, we are active members in both ‘Charta der Vielfalt’ (‘Diversity Charter’) and the Diversity and Inclusion in Asia Network (DIAN), that allow us to promote communication and the sharing of best practices and insights.

Diversity and inclusion training

Our gender intelligence training follows a holistic concept for the topic of diversity and inclusion. It upskills our employees on the importance of diversity and on the value of inclusion. By the end of 2019, a total of more than 4,300 employees across all markets participated in this training and were challenged to re-visit and think critically about their thoughts and beliefs around diversity, stereotyping, bias in the workplace, inclusion and belonging. In Europe, senior leadership teams started to participate in 2019 and will seek to further roll out the training within their areas of expertise. The extended roll-out of the gender intelligence training is a result of both the commitment of our leadership teams to creating an inclusive and diverse workplace as well as our effort to increase the number of internal trainers. In addition, we created a virtual version of the training to also reach employees in retail, distribution centers and remote locations, that was piloted in North America in 2019 and will be extended to all other regions in 2020.

Mixed leadership teams

We believe in mixed leadership teams as a competitive advantage and driver of success. A prerequisite for increasing the number of women at the highest levels of management is the general promotion of women within the company worldwide at all levels of management. We have various initiatives in place, e.g. with members of the Executive Board agreeing to mentor female talents as well as an equal gender split in our Global and Local High Potential programs to guarantee that our succession pipeline is balanced.

Already in 2011, adidas proactively set itself the goal of increasing the number of women in management positions globally. By the end of 2019, the company had recorded a total of 34% of women globally in management positions (2018: 33%), exceeding the 2020 target of 32%. adidas-group.com/s/employees Pursuant to the German Law on Equal Participation of Women and Men in Leadership Positions in the Private and Public Sector, the adidas AG Supervisory Board determined target figures for the percentage of female representation on the Executive Board, including corresponding deadlines for their achievement, and the Executive Board determined such target figures for the first two management levels below the Executive Board, including deadlines for their achievement, for adidas AG. SEE Declaration on Corporate Governance and CORPORATE GOVERNANCE REPORT

Women in management positions

34%