'World's No.1 in Gender Equality Diageo' CEO Lee Kyung-woo: "We Will Lead the Social Value of Gender Equality Culture"

Diageo, Equilib '2019 Gender Equality Report and Rankings' Ranked No.1 Globally in Gender Equality
Encouraging Growth and Development of Female Employees, Aiming to Increase Female Leadership to 40%
Proactively Implemented Full Remote Work in Response to COVID-19... Creating a Better Workplace

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Seon-ae] “Diageo has been continuously providing various institutional supports that enable work-life balance to create a work environment free from gender discrimination and to prevent career interruptions for female employees. Moving forward, we will actively implement and lead social values such as gender equality culture and family-friendly culture to grow into an organization where all employees are happy.”

On the 5th, Lee Kyung-woo, CEO of Diageo Korea, announced the company’s goal to become a leading company in terms of diversity and inclusion ahead of the UN-designated ‘International Women’s Day’ (March 8), which promotes the improvement of gender status. This was a reaffirmation of the company’s commitment to live up to the status of a global ‘gender equality company’ that was ranked first worldwide in the gender equality category in the ‘2019 Gender Equality Report and Rankings’ published by Equileap last year.

Equileap is a market research and consulting organization that evaluates 3,519 companies across 23 developed countries based on 19 gender equality metrics including gender balance, wage gap, paid parental leave, and sexual harassment policies. The British-based liquor company Diageo was highly praised for its continuous efforts to establish diversity and inclusion.

To implement a workplace culture of gender equality and family-friendliness, Diageo has been operating a ‘Global Family Leave System’ since last year. Through this system, female employees are guaranteed at least 26 weeks of fully paid maternity leave regardless of their work location, and male employees are guaranteed 4 weeks of fully paid paternity leave. Furthermore, by 2025, the company plans to exceed the current 44% female representation on the board of directors and have more than 40% of senior management positions held by women.

CEO Lee also plans to raise the proportion of female leadership to 40% to encourage the growth and development of female employees at Diageo Korea and to respect diversity. Despite being a liquor company where male employees naturally outnumber females due to the nature of the business, the company actively discovers and nurtures female employees. Additionally, it is focusing on creating a positive workplace environment by actively conducting women’s conferences and mentoring programs among female employees.

2019 Diageo Korea's International Women's Day Conference.

He recently received attention for his swift response amid the rapid and widespread spread of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19). To ensure the safety of employees and their families, he proactively implemented remote work, and for employees who found remote work difficult or impossible, he instructed twice-daily temperature checks. He also encouraged maintaining a 2-meter distance at work and flexible working hours to preemptively block any potential risks.

Meanwhile, the industry evaluates that Diageo Korea’s actions will serve as a model in the Korean market. Although International Women’s Day was officially designated in 1975, 45 years later, the economic participation rate and employment rate of Korean women still rank among the lowest in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries, and they are not free from employment discrimination such as wage disparity and glass ceilings. According to a survey conducted last year by Saramin, a job matching platform, targeting 1,226 office workers on the ‘status of glass ceilings in the workplace,’ 48.1% of Korean female office workers responded that they feel the presence of a glass ceiling. This figure is 1.8 times higher than that of men (26.4%).

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.