Diversity, Inclusion, and Equal Opportunity

Avery Dennison is a diverse company, operating in more than 50 countries and offering a broad and varied portfolio of products and services. Diversity is central to our success and to our competitive advantage. It is critical to innovation because the best solutions come from a mix of ideas, perspectives and backgrounds. Inclusion—ensuring that all of these diverse perspectives are considered—is equally important. Our ambition is to offer a working environment where every employee’s voice is heard and where all employees can realize their full potential. Both diversity and inclusion shape our workplace culture and inform the ways we engage with customers, suppliers, partners, and the communities in which we have a presence. Diversity and inclusion are priorities within our company, and we seek to advance both through robust and progressive policies, programs, and systems. 

Governance

Our diversity and inclusion efforts are led by our director of diversity and inclusion, who is supported by our cross-functional, cross-divisional DEI Council, which represents the regions in which we operate. The Council is chaired by our CEO and advised by our Chief Human Resources Officer. 

In recent years, our DEI efforts have included training our managers globally on unconscious bias; increasing the number of sites offering flexible work arrangements; adding an inclusion index to our annual employee engagement survey; and providing training around cultural awareness. We are signatories of the CEO Action for Diversity and Inclusion pledge, illustrating our commitment to advance diversity and inclusion in partnership with other like-minded organizations. 

Diversity and Inclusion Councils

In 2020, we established regional diversity and inclusion councils in North America, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), North Asia, and South Asia. Because diversity is defined differently in different places, each council develops initiatives relevant to their respective regions. We also established regional diversity and inclusion executive councils in some regions to enable direct collaboration with our business leaders, integrate diversity and inclusion with our business strategies, and accelerate DEI initiatives. Our regional councils consist of regional leaders and leaders of our employee resource groups (ERGs). 

Goals

Our initial diversity and inclusion efforts focused on gender diversity, with a goal to achieve 40% female representation in manager and above roles by 2025. In 2020, we began to broaden our DEI focus by increasing our efforts addressing diversity in race and ethnicity. With 22% of our U.S. workforce self-identifying as racial or ethnically diverse, we have made it a priority to increase that number so that our U.S. operations better reflect the racial and ethnic makeup of the nation. At least annually, our Board of Directors reviews progress towards our sustainability goals which includes our goals for diversity and inclusion. The Board evaluates progress towards meeting our 2025 sustainability goals when evaluating our Chief Executive Officer’s compensation. A portion of our CEO’s 2020 performance evaluation is dependent on our progress toward achieving our 2025 sustainability goals, including further increasing leadership diversity. 

Employee Voices Inform DEI Strategy

In 2021, Avery Dennison engaged an outside consultant to work with us on developing a richer understanding of our workforce diversity and inclusion needs and opportunities, and supporting the design and build of a comprehensive DEI strategy for our global company. The work, led by our director of diversity and inclusion, is steeped in the employee voice, from an inclusion assessment survey to listening sessions and focus groups. Findings from this work will shape our diversity and inclusion strategy and actions. Our goal is to ground our DEI efforts in our employee experience, basing our priorities in part on what employees tell us are the most critical needs. 

Inclusion Index

Avery Dennison employees complete an annual engagement survey that includes three questions regarding inclusion. We record and track the percentage of employees who respond favorably to each of these three questions. In 2018, 75% of employees responded favorably. By 2020, that number had increased to 81%. While we are proud of this improvement, we are taking a deeper look at our data to better understand employee perspectives across various demographics. We aim to use these findings to further improve our culture of inclusion.

Talent Acquisition

In the United States, we are updating our recruitment and talent attraction processes with the aim of further diversifying our workforce. We established a partnership with the INROADS internship program to provide opportunities throughout our organization for young people of diverse backgrounds. Through the program, we will place ten students into paid summer internships, where students will learn skills and make connections that could make them possible candidates for employment with our company. We are also building relationships with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) to recruit talent from their student bodies. 

Increasing Transparency, Inside and Out

In 2021 we made our Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) statistics—which the U.S. Equal Opportunity Commission collects to ensure compliance with federal anti-discrimination laws—publicly available in our most recent ESG Download. We have also made significant advancements in our system of workforce analytics so that we can better understand our demographics and human capital management. 

Reviewing Pay Equity

In 2018 and 2019, we conducted an analysis of our core pay processes with the help of a third-party, with the aim of ensuring pay equity among employees in comparable positions. We began by looking at compensation for our more than 500 employees at the director level and above. In 2019, we analyzed all global professionals in our company, about 9,000 employees. Based on our analysis, we made adjustments to pay practices where needed and found overall that our pay practices are equitable. We are committed to conducting similar reviews on a regular basis. In 2020, we performed an analysis internally and adjusted pay equity as necessary based on our findings. 

Expanding Our ERGs

In 2019, we expanded our support of employee resource groups (ERGs) globally, which bring together employees with shared interests, characteristics, or experiences and a common desire to make Avery Dennison a more open and inclusive workplace. Participation in these groups is not limited to individuals in these categories, but rather is open to all employees interested in learning about the experiences and challenges of their colleagues. ERGs also provide team members with peer support and career-development resources. 

Currently, our ERGs include 20 groups that drive inclusion, create community, and promote advancement for women, employees of color, LGBTQ+ employees, veterans and others. Each ERG has an executive sponsor who helps remove barriers and provides resources for the group, while also ensuring that its initiatives align with business strategies and community-relations objectives. 

Increasing Understanding Through Training

We offer formal training and learning opportunities that help create awareness of, and appreciation for, the differences among our employees. These include sessions on cultural awareness, workstyle appreciation, and conflict resolution. Training is available to both individuals and teams through either facilitator-led sessions or self-paced online learning and can be tailored to specific regional needs. The courses are available to all of our current employees; soon, they will be a formal part of the orientation we provide to new employees.

Mentoring 

Many of our regional teams offer mentoring programs for Avery Dennison employees from underrepresented populations. Most of our efforts are currently at the local level and we are working to scale the most successful programs so that we can offer them enterprise-wide.

Equal Employment Opportunity Data

Below are the statistics we supply annually to the U.S. government to demonstrate our compliance with anti-discrimination laws. We made the decision to share these publicly for the first time in 2021 as part of our commitment to increased transparency.