Lion New Zealand has been announced as a Deloitte Top 200 finalist for the Barfoot & Thompson Diversity and Inclusion Leadership Award.

“We are honoured to be selected as a finalist from among Aotearoa’s most successful companies,” Lion New Zealand Country Director Craig Baldie said.

“As a leading FMCG company, we are committed to creating a fair and inclusive culture, where our people feel they belong, and everyone is respected.

“Diverse and inclusive organisations are more innovative and productive and ultimately, have better financial performance. We know that feeling like you belong is strongly linked to engagement, feeling valued and encouraged at work. To deliver the best products, services and experiences for our customers and consumers, we need a workforce that reflect the markets we operate in.

“In what has traditionally been a male dominated industry, we are breaking down gender biases. Our gender strategy has included initiatives across people recruitment and retention, building internal competency, and enhancing our parental leave and domestic abuse policies.

“We are hugely proud of the work we’ve done over many years to enable flexible working, close the gender pay gap and achieve 50% female representation across the company. We are now going further than being a 50/50 female/male employer, striving for deeper gender balance by targeting a minimum 40% representation for both men and women in teams of five or more, by 2030.

“Lion is stronger for valuing the unique contribution and diversity of our people and creating a gender inclusive workplace where women can thrive.

“We extend our congratulations to all the finalists and look forward to The Deloitte Top 200 winners announcement in December.”

The Deloitte Top 200 Awards celebrate outstanding individual and management team performances among New Zealand’s largest companies.

Selection as a finalist in the Diversity and Inclusion Leadership category highlights and honours businesses that have successfully developed and implemented a specific strategic programme to achieve a substantial performance improvement in diversity and inclusion metrics, demonstrated by material progress in business performance and employee engagement over the longer term.

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