Wholesale and retail group Musgrave has become the first Irish business to partner with the LEAD Network (Leading Executives Advancing Diversity), which aims to attract, retain and advance women in the retail and consumer goods industry in Europe.
Musgrave CEO, Noel Keeley, signed the LEAD Network CEO Pledge at the annual Musgrave management conference.
It lays out specific actions for Musgrave to drive greater advancement of women across the business including coaching and mentoring, ensuring there are intentional strategies to drive inclusive recruitment, leveraging employee resource groups and educating colleagues on the impact of bias.
Separately, Musgrave has set a target to increase female representation in leadership and senior management roles to over 40% by 2025, from 32% currently.
In addition, Musgrave has committed to achieving over 30% female participation in its executive team by 2025 from 25% presently.
"The LEAD Network CEO Pledge further strengthens our commitment to creating a more inclusive Musgrave, which will play a vital role in helping us to develop a world-class food and beverage business," said Noel Keeley, CEO of Musgrave.
"We have made progress in advancing female participation at senior levels, but our work is not done yet.
"We continue to review and renew our policies on an ongoing basis to ensure we are doing everything possible to encourage women to consider, commit to, and thrive in a career in our industry," he added.
Mr Keeley said the industries in which Musgrave operates have traditionally been male-dominated but that the organisation is actively working to change that.
"The company recently introduced a variety of policies and fundamental changes to business operations aimed at encouraging more women to join the business, and to encourage women in the business to keep advancing their career," he said.
A recent employee engagement survey found that 86% believe Musgrave is an inclusive organisation.
