Geodis to reward managers who drive its global gender diversity aims

Promotion of gender parity will be reflected in Geodis’s bonus structure, as it looks set to reach its target of at least 25% women in management positions by 2023.

Top managers who work to promote women will be rewarded financially, said CEO Marie-Christine Lombard (pictured), noting that women are already represented on all the company’s regional management committees.

“We now want to go further,” she added.

The new Environment, Social & Governance (ESG) indicator, which came into effect on 1 January, will account for 25% of a top manager’s annual bonus, of which one-third will be dedicated to parity.

Mario Ceccon, group human resources director, said: “We are pleased with the steady increase in the number of women in management positions at Geodis – demonstrated by the recent appointments of Shanon Leffler as executive VP human resources for the Americas and Antje Lochmann as MD for contract logistics and freight forwarding in Germany.

“This reinforces our commitment to continue investing in leadership by women through programmes such as the GEEIS (Gender Equality European & International Standard) label for professional equality and diversity, which we are implementing within all the group’s businesses.”

At 2020’s annual global Geodis Women’s Network event, the company pledged to increase the number of women in top management positions from 13% in 2017 to 25% by 2023. The actual figure had risen to 18% by December 2020 and now stands at 20% in key positions.

The main priorities for this year are: implementation of the bonus for parity; continuation of individualised support systems (training, coaching, mentoring, etc); and leadership training courses, said Geodis.

Geodis has its practices audited in 12 countries, over a three-year period. The programme began last year with France, Ireland, Germany and Italy, while this year it will work in the US, Canada, Mexico, the Netherlands and England, and then Morocco, Australia, Poland and Singapore in 2023.

Thanks to the GEEIS label, established by Bureau Veritas, Geodis aims to implement common standards for professional equality and diversity within all its businesses. These include compensation, promotion of women, skills development and gender diversity, it said.