Why Inclusion, Diversity and Equality Matter to Us

By Sarah Sharkey

It’s not just our products that make PMI what we are; it’s our people who make us who we are. They’re our greatest strength, and we're proud of the value we place on equality and diversity and our culture of openness and respect.

Age, gender, religion, sexual orientation and physical ability don’t matter to us; all that matters is having the right people to help us achieve our ambitious goal of a smoke-free future. That’s why we look to attract, retain and nurture the very best talent available - in every single aspect of our international business.

Why Inclusion Matters

To us, defining inclusion means enabling all of our employees worldwide to feel valued, supported and treated fairly.

We look to recruit equal numbers of men and women at entry levels. We have practises in place to remove potential bias from the recruitment process.

Career paths are mapped out with equal learning opportunities. We offer flexible working arrangements and parental support programmes. We’re also building a talent pipeline through our UK dedicated graduate programme, Evolv.

Why Diversity Matters

Our diverse workforce of around 77,000 people worldwide speaks more than 80 languages, with 40 different nationalities in Philip Morris UK alone. But embracing diversity and inclusion in the UK workplace isn’t just about embracing cultures. We support our LGBT+ community and people with different abilities, ethnicities and across generations.

A global network of employees from 23 countries is leading the way in furthering Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender and Others’ (LGBT+) inclusion at PMI. PMI is now a Global Diversity Champions member of Stonewall, the largest LGBT+ network in Europe, with country-specific initiatives including joining the Pride Connection in Mexico.

In the UK, our internal LGBT+ workplace group STRIPES has worked on various initiatives to provide internal support and raise awareness. These include celebrating Pride in store and hosting charity events for World Aids Day. We also partner with Gay Star News, the world’s leading LGBT+ digital publication and sponsor their website’s new health section.

Why Equal Pay for Equal Work Matters

Equal pay in the UK means paying our female and male employees equally for the same job or work of equal value.

In March this year, Philip Morris International became the first multinational to achieve Global EQUAL-SALARY certification through an independent qualitative audit. We were proud to receive this comment from Global EQUAL-SALARY CEO Véronique Goy Veenhuys: "That a leading Fortune 500 company makes such a commitment is a strong signal."

Why Equality Matters

The certification doesn’t directly address our gender leadership gap at PMI but the audit is invaluable in helping us realise any barriers that could hinder equal opportunities for women to advance.

Currently, 42 percent of our workforce is female, with 35 percent of our management positions held by women across the business. Our goal is to leverage the full talents of women in the workplace by increasing that figure to at least 40 per cent by 2022. Current initiatives include helping female talent develop through peer networking opportunities and celebrating our top female talents as role models.

Although women represent just over one fifth of roles in senior management at Philip Morris UK, our UK 2019 report shows that our gender pay gap results are better than many other UK companies. We’re determined to make further improvements to eliminate this gender pay gap. As Peter Nixon, Managing Director UK, remarks "We already have so many inspiring and accomplished women who work for our business; our task is to help nurture that existing talent and attract the next generation of female leaders."

Equality, diversity and inclusion matters at PMI. We embrace differences in people, ideas and perspectives.