Lidl joins the UN Women’s Empowerment Principles initiative

With this step, Lidl Cyprus continues to promote equality both within its own company as well as its value chain. The company is convinced: Equal opportunities and diversity are core components of long-term corporate success.

Underlying this is the company’s desire to actively contribute to the promotion of women at work, which Lidl has enshrined in its company’s corporate principles and code of conduct. These are available on the Lidl Cyprus website at https://corporate.lidl.com.cy/en/sustainability.

The United Nation’s Women’s Empowerment Principles

The WEPs were established in 2010 by UN Women and the UN Global Compact. They represent the first worldwide initiative to target the topic of promoting and strengthening the role of women in companies.

The following seven principles aim to offer guidance to companies in promoting gender equality:

1. Establishing an equality-friendly corporate leadership culture
2. Treating all women and men fairly at work – adhering to international human rights and non-discrimination
3. Guaranteeing the health, well-being and safety of all employees
4. Promoting the education, training and development of women
5. Promoting entrepreneurship among women, strengthening women’s participation in the procurement market, respecting the dignity of women in all marketing measures
6. Promoting gender equality through community initiatives and advocacy
7. Measuring and reporting all progress in the area of gender equality
8. Derived from economic practice, the voluntary principles are intended to support companies in adapting existing or introducing new, necessary regulations and programmes for the advancement of women.

Equal opportunities for all – Lidl is already well on its way

Lidl has already put the vast majority of the basic guidelines laid out in the WEPs into practice, and continues to develop them as a priority within their sustainability strategy. Currently a large proportion of Lidl employees across all corporate levels are female.

At Lidl, every employee is offered the same career opportunities. Standardized salary structures are based on objective criteria such as professional experience, qualifications and skills. In addition, the company offers all employees equal access to training and development opportunities.

A further aim for Lidl is to bring more women into leadership roles at middle and senior management level. This presents the particular challenge of creating a positive work-life balance, both for women and men: Here, Lidl takes proactive steps to ensure that all employees are informed about organizational solutions regarding pregnancy, maternity and parental leave.

To ensure an employee-friendly and fair working environment, the company has designated so-called persons of trust: Independent and impartial contact persons who employees can approach both about general staff issues as well as complaints relating to diversity and gender equality issues.

In addition to these internal measures, Lidl also demands equal opportunities for its partners along the supply chain: Lidl Cyprus published, on its website, an extended position paper on corporate due diligence regarding human rights and environmental protection in purchasing merchandise goods. In its position paper, Lidl states clearly that gender equality and equal opportunities are considered core elements in meeting its corporate due diligence obligations in its global supply chains. These are available on the Lidl Cyprus website at https://corporate.lidl.com.cy/en/sustainability/position-papers.