Equity, Inclusion & Diversity
In 2022 IMD continued to progress successfully on its three-year EI&D action plan, which was based on client and staff/faculty input and designed by our Chief EI&D Officer, Josefine van Zanten, and sponsored by the Executive Committee. Our EI&D Council, chaired by our EI&D Chief Officer, continues to act as the body that oversees and guides EI&D initiatives on campus as well as in IMD’s content. The plan is to build on the EI&D house change model, used by several Fortune 500 companies. This proven change model is also actively used today in our EI&D advisory work.
The three-year EI&D plan, approved by the Executive Committee, aims to contribute to moving the needle on three long-term objectives:
- Achieving broader diversity in the IMD workforce and creating an inclusive environment for all constituents.
- Intensifying research productivity in the areas of diversity, inclusion, and fairness.
- Including the topics of diversity, inclusion, and fairness in the leadership development programs.
1 – Broader diversity and an inclusive environment
The gender pay gap at IMD is currently measured at 3.3%, compared with a national average of between 6% and 10%. This places IMD in the “green” category of organizations across Switzerland and means it is considered not to have salary differentiation based on gender.
Our Faculty Recruiting Committee is also making concerted efforts to broaden our pool of highly qualified candidates to, inter alia, improve gender and other diversity aspects.
Our Inclusion Index, composed of seven questions, is now well integrated into our employee survey and led to targeted actions. Going forward we will use the questions increasingly to improve inclusion on our campus.
Gender split: current employees
Gender split: newly hired employees
Gender split: faculty
Nationality split: newly hired employees
Staff training
In 2022, two compulsory EI&D dedicated development sessions took place for all staff, with a special focus on what staff and faculty can do to own and role model inclusive leadership and improve on an inclusive environment. A dedicated session was delivered to our faculty, based on real life examples and scenarios to address moments of blatant and sometimes very nuanced exclusion behaviors in the classrooms.
Awareness and education through events
In 2022, IMD hosted several EI&D-themed events with faculty, staff, participants, clients, and global business audiences to share insights, raise awareness, educate, and spark reflection and discussion. Faculty and staff took part in three EI&D events on International Women’s Day, during LGBTQ+ Month, and on the International Day of Persons with Disabilities.
MBA participants gathered for four events, including International Women’s Day, faculty sessions on allyship and EI&D in the workplace. In addition, IMD was invited to several external events (NOCA and Medair among others) to stimulate the audience into adopting and role-modeling Equity, Inclusion & Diversity.
2 – Intensifying research
In 2022, IMD produced cutting-edge, rigorous, and relevant research addressing EI&D themes in business management. A number were published in leading academic journals, including three in FT50 leading journals.
IMD is also increasingly establishing itself as a thought leader in EI&D advisory work for international corporations featuring a range of engagements with clients in 2022. As an outcome of our research Inclusive Future, IMD designed a successful iNPS (Inclusion Net Promoter Score), which was piloted by a Fortune 500 client, and is now being rolled out globally.
3 – EI&D in our programs
EI&D topics have become further embedded in many leadership programs. Additionally, the Chief EI&D Officer, as well as faculty members specializing in Equity, Inclusion & Diversity culture change efforts, facilitated several classroom segments in open and custom programs in 2022.
Efforts were accelerated to ensure that a broader variety of role models are represented in required reading materials, such as case studies, and that a balance is sought in speakers, protagonists, examples, and language to mirror today’s world. We will continue to diligently focus on this.
Focus Areas
We are pleased to state that, according to plan, the vast majority of our EI&D goals and activities for 2022 were on target.
EI&D story and position 2022
- Visible EI&D in panels, stories, events, research
- EI&D Council simplified and continued: EMBA representative added, quarterly meetings, and more impactful decisions
Communication / Education 2022
- Improve the diversity of faculty in key programs – pilots started
- Finalization of ‘future of inclusion’ research
- In-house EI&D storytelling (via Spirit communications page)
Recruitment / Retention 2022
- Continue expanding the diversity of faculty, staff, and students (MBA and EMBA)
Upskilling and Embedding 2022
- Recommendations provided to faculty for speaker examples and content to represent today’s world and IMD ambitions
- Increase cases with women and diversity of leaders
- Unconscious bias training (2) and faculty development session
- Integrate EI&D into sales and marketing
- Integrate EI&D into customer-facing steps
Supportive Environment 2022
- Women’s Day, Pride Month, Diversity Awareness Month
- Inclusion Index implemented
- Women’s hygiene products and breastfeeding room
- Equal Pay Certification (final)
EI&D success measures 2022
- Faculty hiring process
- Four internal events (IWD, MBA events, LGBTQ+, Disability)
- Four external events (NOCA, Mediar, customer presentations)