PEOPLE

Meeting between two young women

OUR CULTURE

In 1972 in Marseille, Danone’s CEO, Antoine Riboud, outlined a vision for the company, where economic and social goals would be interdependent. It was visionary thinking - ahead of its time - and ever since, this dual project, as it became known, has been the cornerstone of Danone’s mission as a company.  

 

 
 
 
With nearly 100,000 employees in more than 57 countries, Danone’s most immediate area of positive social impact is its people. With that in mind, our human resources strategy is built around the following pillars:
 
  • Culture and Engagement
  • Health and Safety
  • Inclusive Diversity
  • Learning and Development
  • Social Dialogue
In 2020, Danone pushed this vision even further by becoming the first publicly traded company to adopt the status of “Société à Mission,” a French legal status that brings with it specific obligations for social responsibility. That decision was not divisive: it was approved by 99% of Danone’s shareholders at its annual meeting.

OUR VALUES

Our four core ‘HOPE’ Values: HUMANISM, OPENNESS, PROXIMITY and ENTHUSIASM are our “moral compass”. 

 

Every day we make decisions that have an impact on our business performance, on society and on our ability to reach our ambitions.
The
HOPE Values guide us when facing complex or difficult decisions; since they represent our shared principles.

H

HUMANISM

 

 

At Danone, people are at the heart of everything we do.

 

 

O

OPENNESS

 

 

We welcome new ideas from the world

we live in.

 

 

P

PROXIMITY

 

We believe that building close relationships leads to better understanding and trust. 

 

E

ENTHUSIASM

 

We are passionnate about bringing health through food to as many people as possible.

 

ENGAGEMENT

At Danone, our employees help co-build our strategy. Through the Danone People Survey and Pulse programs started more than two decades ago, all Danone employees worldwide – regardless of seniority, position, or location – have the opportunity to express themselves, share their convictions, and put their opinions into action to build the Danone of tomorrow. 

 

In particular, the Danone People Survey measures the engagement of our Danoners, through an evaluation of the strength of the employer-employee relationship, in order to determine whether Danoners are enabled to be successful, and whether the culture and the environment support their well-being.

 

In 2022, 90% of all Danone employees worldwide participated in the Danone People Survey. As part of Danone’s collaborative strategy, Danoners have the opportunity to participate in building their local action plans. In 2022, more than 31,000 Danone employees volunteered to be part of this initiative that will help address areas of focus for 2023 and beyond.


HEALTH & SAFETY

In the constantly evolving economic and social environment, adapting to health and safety challenges is a priority for Danone.

In 2004, we launched WISE, our program to develop a health and safety culture (which has now evolved into WISE²).

Our goal is to continue the current trend over the past 20 years and reduce the number of workplace accidents, as well as to raise general awareness around education, healthcare, and wellbeing.

Dan’Cares program

In 2010, Danone launched the Dan’Cares program with the goal of providing all Danone employees with quality healthcare coverage of major risks, while taking account of different market practices. 

 

About 70% of Danone employees live in emerging countries where healthcare systems are often expensive or difficult to access. Dan’Cares’ specificity lies in its scope of application: it is destined to be rolled out in all Danone subsidiaries, including in countries where such coverage is not traditionally provided. 


INCLUSIVE DIVERSITY

 

 

With sales in over 120 countries, our teams, consumers, and community represent a rich array of geographical specificities,cultures, communities, and lifestyles. Valuing diversity and fostering inclusion is all about recognizing, respecting, and leveraging human differences to encourage employees to be their best selves, fuelling teams’ performances.

 

At Danone, we are committed to creating and an inclusive and diverse environment, one where all Danoners feel comfortable being themselves and contributing to their highest potential.  

 

Our brands have an opportunity to exert positive social impact globally as well as locally. They should represent the diversity of our consumers in their communications, as well as in the product choice they offer across their various markets.

 

Our commitment to diversity extends to our suppliers as well, and we are making a special effort to contract with women-owned and minority-owned businesses. 

DRIVING PROGRESS THROUGH A COMBINATION OF TOP-DOWN AND BOTTOM-UP APPROACHES

We know that a commitment from the top is key to nurturing diversity and inclusion. We have two dedicated Executive Committee members who are charged with making sure these issues feature prominently at high-level company discussions.  We also believe that our passionate Danoners around the world are our greatest assets when it comes to having a real, on-the-ground impact. We empower Danoners across different functions and countries to become “Inclusive Diversity” (ID) champions. Currently, we have more than 400 ID champions who work with our HR and leadership teams to make sure that we are achieving our diversity and inclusion goals across the company. 

PROMOTING GENDER BALANCE

Diversity in Leadership

We are proud of the progress we have made in recent years to improve gender balance at all levels across our organization and we are inspired to go even further in the coming years.

gender balance

Global Parental Policy

Father playing with his baby

The Global Parental Policy is an initiative which aims to offer a consistent standard of support to all parents-to-be employed across the world. 

Danone’s parental policy is based on three key elements:

  • Pre-natal support, such as adapted working conditions and nutritional advice during pregnancy.
  • Extended parental leave, covering both men and women, which includes 18 weeks leave for the primary caregiver of the new birth or 14 weeks for the legally adoption, and 10 working days off for the secondary caregiver.
  • Post-natal support including job protection measures and return-to-work support, flexible working conditions, and support for breastfeeding by providing lactation rooms for mothers in offices that employ more than 50 women.

OUR INCLUSIVE DIVERSITY EFFORTS RECOGNIZED BY EXTERNAL INDEXES

EMPOWERING EVERYONE WITHIN OUR WIDER ECOSYSTEM OF PARTNERS

BUSINESS FOR INCLUSIVE GROWTH

To help tackle social inequalities and promote inclusive growth, we partnered with the OECD to launch the ‘Business for Inclusive Growth’ (B4IG) coalition in 2019. B4IG brings together more than 40 companies, organizations and philanthropic organizations. Each member has pledged to advance human rights and promote inclusion in their workplaces and supply chains.


LEARNING & DEVELOPMENT

 

 

Our ambition is to provide diverse and varied learning opportunities to all employees around the world. When most of the learning is done on the job, through the support of each manager, we provide training programs to all Danoners: internally developed content as well as best from the external content, incl. some with certifications.

 

Our internal experts are very involved to create high quality internal learning solutions; many managers are also being recognized for facilitating sessions and being involved in our face-to-face events.

 

 

Our Campus X ecosystem has been recognized to be at the front edge of Learning system, aiming at providing a wide range on content to our Danoners both functional and leadership content (50,000 different content as of now). It’s leveraged by approx. 20,000 Danoners every month


SOCIAL DIALOGUE

 

 

Social dialogue between management, trade unions, and employee representatives is an essential tool for Danone. It helps to align collective efforts to improve the group's performance. 

 

For the past several years, this dialogue has been carried out at an international scale through worldwide agreements with labour unions. Signing these agreements ensures working conditions are continuously improved. It is key for Danone’s success, and the wellbeing of its employees. 

 

Since 1989, 10 international agreements have been signed between Danone and the International Union of Food and Allied Workers. These agreements establish a common foundation of social policies, such as equal and non-discriminatory hiring processes, safe and healthy working conditions, and the right to training throughout the company.