BAT Vietnam - Driving Diversity and Inclusion Through Practical Initiatives
Each business and organization will have different strategies in building and promoting a culture of diversity and inclusion, ensuring compatibility with business and investment priorities. A shared pattern is that those strategies are people-centered, respecting the differences of each individual and considering this the driving force for business growth.
First, a worth-mentioning strategy is integrating diversity and inclusion into business goals and success measurement.
Specifically at BAT Vietnam, “Truly Inclusive” is one of six values – the compass for all business activities and people’s behaviors. The company, through this value, embraces diversity and celebrates differences through a diverse workforce, removing prejudices and biases, and evoking the sense of belonging. BAT’s people are curious and safeguard the right to say what they think, and encouraged to debate constructively yet progress together.
BAT Vietnam achieved 45% female representation in its management population (supervisor level and above) in 2023-end. The business also implemented “Mastering Inclusion” training, completed by 100% of its management population, covers crucial topics such as Embracing Inclusion, Authenticity at Work, Bias Awareness, Understanding Privilege, and Conscious Decision-making. A management team well-versed in inclusion and authenticity can lead by example throughout the organization. This can positively impact team dynamics, collaboration, overall employee satisfaction and engagement.
In addition, BAT Vietnam establishes its business strategies, fostering new ideas from employees to contribute to business performance through annual company-wide “Line of Sight” conference, functional workshops; or with Simplification Digital Platform to enable employees to share their ideas on simplification, automation, digitalization results, process enhancements, etc.
The company also builds a feedback culture, emphasizing regular feedback loops, monthly catch-ups, skip-level meetings, and bi-annual surveys cultivates ongoing communication, trust, and continuous improvement.
By organizing engagement events such as Cultural Diversity Day, International Women's Day, Wellness Day, International Men's Day, etc., the organization aims to foster a continuous dialogue around diversity and inclusion.
Secondly, a diversity and inclusion strategy could go beyond the norm through respecting and supporting employees’ demands on career development based on their life stages.
This aims to create a psychologically safe culture where people thrive because of, not despite, their personal differences and circumstances. Considering employees’ personal life goals and business goals helps a business offer customized development plan and benefits.
BAT Vietnam is one of the six pilot markets in BAT Group to implement this strategy. In 2023, the company piloted and conducted 50 life stage conversations for its employees, which enables them to have insights in different priorities in life of each employee.
Thanks to this, BAT Vietnam well supported young talents who would like to go out of the country to expand their international career, at the same time finding learning and international exposure opportunities for employees who are not internationally mobile.
Thirdly, besides internal activities, a business can promote diversity and inclusion through supporting underpriviledged individuals and households with better livelihoods and living conditions.
A specific activity worth-mentioning is support underrepresented women with training, economic development, and raising awareness of social issues, thereby promoting gender equality in Viet Nam.
At BAT Vietnam, for instance, the “Women’s Empowerment” program, in collaboration with the Women's Union of Duc Hue district, Long An, offers 40 underrepresented women in border areas interest-free loans to improve their economic conditions. After 2 years of implementation, among the 40 households supported by the program, there were 11 households doing small business, 2 households working as food and beverage suppliers, and 27 households raising livestock and poultry.
In addition, the Women's Union also coordinated with Agricultural Extension Officers to organize the transfer of science and technology on crops and livestock to these households and cooperative groups. The Union also encouraged these 40 households not to involve in tobacco illicit activities.
Supporting underprivileged households is also an activity that contributes to improving diversity and inclusion in society.
On Tet occasion, BAT Vietnam visited and offered gifts to 50 households in Quarter 8, Long Binh Ward, Dong Nai, including essential consumer products and electric kettles, which not only helps households with practical products but also ensures clean water source for people’s daily activities. This is one of BAT Vietnam’s efforts to promote commitment to water stewardship in the communities where the business is operating.
A diverse and inclusive workplace drives bigger talent pool. This culture helps increase employees’ engagement and trust, promoting innovation and creativity as every idea and concern are listended and adopted; thereby improving performance and achieving stronger business results and profits.
According to an article on Forbes in 2021, companies with a diverse workforce are 35% more likely to experience greater financial returns than their respective non-diverse counterparts. Or Harvard Business Review noted: “We found that the most-diverse enterprises were also the most innovative, as measured by the freshness of their revenue mix. In fact, companies with above-average total diversity, measured as the average of six dimensions of diversity (migration, industry, career path, gender, education, age), had both 19% points higher innovation revenues and 9% points higher EBIT margins, on average.”