Allbright has published its annual review of gender equality among Sweden's publicly listed companies. Axfood, which won the Allbright Award in 2022, proudly remains on the green list in 2024.
Allbright has published its annual review of gender equality among Sweden's publicly listed companies. Axfood, which won the Allbright Award in 2022, proudly remains on the green list in 2024.
– For Axfood, it is essential to be on the green list of gender-equal companies every year, says Monica Längbo, HR Director at Axfood.
Diversity, gender equality, and inclusion are fundamental to our business. We aim to mirror our diverse customer base. One of our goals is to become Sweden's most inclusive food operator by 2030.
Allbright is a politically independent, non-profit foundation dedicated to promoting gender equality and diversity in leadership positions within the business sector
–We aim for a workplace free from discrimination and offensive treatment, where all employees have fair conditions and feel they can be themselves. We serve over five million customers every week, and to best meet their needs, we need to harness our employees' diverse skills, perspectives, and potential, says Monica Längbo.
Diversity and Inclusion within the Axfood Family
For a long time, Axfood has been committed to creating an inclusive work environment. We have actively promoted gender equality and embraced diverse international backgrounds for many years. We have measured gender equality and international backgrounds since 2014.
The latest review shows that both the proportion of leaders with an international background and the proportion of female leaders overall increased within the group during 2023. The proportion of leaders with an international background increased from 17.3 to 17.8 percent, and the proportion of female leaders from 49 to 51 percent. However, breaking down the proportion of female leaders to those with employee responsibility and team leaders shows that there is not a balance at all levels. The proportion of female leaders with employee responsibility is only 38.8 percent in the white-collar category and 30 percent in warehousing and transport. At the same time, women in team leader positions are overrepresented – 63.4 percent. This shows that we still have a way to go in terms of increasing gender equality among leaders with employee responsibility and team leaders in stores.
The work to become Sweden's most inclusive food operator continues. – Throughout 2024, we have analyzed our data by company, region, and group level, enabling us to implement targeted measures where we have identified potential. We continue to utilize our inclusion measurement, which is part of the employee survey, and this year we will be able to compare the results with the previous year's at the team level, says Stefan Arkelius, Head of Leadership and Employee Experience at Axfood
Examples of how Axfood works with diversity and inclusion:
- We measure the balance between women and men at all levels.
- We ask questions in the employee survey related to inclusion to highlight what we need to work on further.
- For each leader in the management team, a man and a woman are identified annually as potential successors.
- We annually map salaries within the group to prevent unjustified differences in pay and other employment conditions between genders.
- There are as many women as men participating in the group's leadership training programs.
- We have a competency-based recruitment process that ensures an objective selection of final candidates through tests and questions.
- Inclusion is a natural part of both our core values and our leadership model.
