Banking, investment services, insurance firms and pharmaceuticals are the most diverse and inclusive companies across the globe, according to the latest Refinitiv Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) index.
The 2020 D&I Index Top 100 uses Refinitiv’s Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) data to measure the relative performance of close to 10,000 companies representing over 80% of global market cap across more than 450 ESG data points.
Top 100
The industries leading this year’s D&I Index Top 100 are banking, investment services & insurance firms with a total of 18, followed by pharmaceuticals with nine and telecommunications services, speciality retailers and personal & household products & services with seven respectively.
The United States leads the Top 100 list with 20 firms followed by the UK with 13, Australia with nine and Canada and France with seven. EMEA leads the way with the most culturally and gender diverse boards. Regionally, Africa is leading the way with on average 34% of female managers. Germany is the only country that has maintained a positive increase in the percentage of culturally diverse board members.
The D&I Index highlighted in Refinitiv’s latest Diversity and Inclusion report, along with the metrics used are available on Refinitiv Workspace and Eikon – used by financial professionals to evaluate sustainability-related risks and opportunities of companies across their investments, as well as empower diversity-lens investing strategies.
Key findings of the Refinitiv Diversity and Inclusion report for 2020 include:
- Globally the cultural diversity of board members has increased from five years ago but has stalled at around 30%.
- The number of companies with an official flexible working policy has increased by 54% over the last five years.
- A total of 25% more companies have a career development policy in place than five years ago.
- Regionally the largest increases have been seen in Oceania with a 40% increase.
Leading lights
Unsurprisingly, BlackRock, Inc., Natura & Co Holding SA, Accenture Plc and Royal Bank of Canada, all of whom advocate strongly for D&I and have robust diversity and inclusion practices and policies in place, top the list in first, second, third and fourth place, respectively.
The D&I Index uses innovative analytics to rate and score companies across four main pillars: Diversity, Inclusion, People Development and Controversies. Only companies with scores across all four pillars are assigned an overall score (the average of the pillar scores). The top 100 ranked companies with the best overall D&I scores are selected for the Index.
“Congratulations to the 2020 D&I Index Top 100 most diverse & inclusive organisations globally. We are delighted that our D&I Index continues to be used as a guide to help firms across the globe create a more effective workforce through diverse teams,” said Debra Walton, chief revenue officer at Refinitiv.
“The global pandemic has certainly brought to light a renewed focus on diversity and inclusion, reinforcing the reality that we are all in this together. Data-based insights and transparency are a fundamental element of a successful movement to achieve more diverse and inclusive workplaces. At Refinitiv, we are committed to using our data to further our own goals and to provide those insights into the broader market.”
Top 25 Index ranking and their corresponding overall D&I percentage score (%):
| Ranking | Company | Overall Score |
| 1 | BlackRock, Inc. | 81 |
| 2 | Natura & Co Holding SA | 80.25 |
| 3 | Accenture Plc | 80 |
| 4 | Royal Bank of Canada | 79 |
| 5 | Industria de Diseno Textil SA | 78.5 |
| 6 | L’Oreal SA | 78 |
| 7 | Allianz SE | 77.75 |
| 8 | Telecom Italia SpA | 77.75 |
| 9 | Novartis AG | 77.5 |
| 10 | Bank of Nova Scotia | 77.25 |
| 11 | CCC SA | 77.25 |
| 12 | HERA SpA | 77 |
| 13 | Sony Corp | 76.75 |
| 14 | Toronto-Dominion Bank | 76 |
| 15 | Owens Corning | 76 |
| 16 | HP Inc | 75.75 |
| 17 | Enel S.p.A. | 75.25 |
| 18 | Estee Lauder Companies Inc | 75.25 |
| 19 | Societe Generale SA | 75.25 |
| 20 | Vodafone Group plc | 75 |
| 21 | Telefonica SA | 74.75 |
| 22 | Infrastrutture Wireless Italiane SpA | 74.75 |
| 23 | Roche Holding AG | 74.5 |
| 24 | Home Product Center PCL | 74.5 |
| 25 | Salvatore Ferragamo SpA | 74.5 |
Environmental, social and governance
Diversity and Inclusion in the workforce are core environmental, social and governance (ESG) themes, which financial professionals are more frequently incorporating into their investment strategies and capital allocation decisions. COVID-19 has shone a light on why diversity is critical for business recovery and resilience. As companies look to adapt to a new way of conducting business post-COVID-19, diversity and inclusion factors need to be on the agenda alongside financial resilience, environmental risks and workforce health.
Sang Lee, managing partner at Aite Group, commented: “The continued industry interest in the D&I index reflects the increased investor appetite to invest in environmental, social, and governance-related areas and the changes that are happening across all sectors of the capital markets.
“Some of the largest asset managers in the world have this year become much more active in engaging in shareholder voting on the issue of improving diversity, and even the world’s oldest private banks have taken to the industry stage to discuss their investment strategies around ESG.”
The global pandemic and social unrest this year has reinforced the focus on diversity and inclusion in the workplace coming from different business stakeholder groups.
Elena Philipova, global head of ESG at Refinitiv, said: “Our Diversity and Inclusion Index, now in its fifth year, emphasises the critical importance for companies to commit to, measure and report on their diversity journey beyond gender. A sustainable and resilient workforce is the fuel for businesses, especially during volatile times. Refinitiv remains fully committed to using our data assets, expertise and influence to champion the importance of diversity and inclusion in the workplace – including our own.”
Diverse and inclusive workplaces
The D&I Index, launched in 2016, ranks the top 100 publicly traded companies globally with the most diverse and inclusive workplaces. For the second annual report, Refinitiv analysed trends in diversity and inclusion data, covering the following areas: trends in diversity and inclusion data reported by public companies over the last five years; long/short portfolio analysis using the Portfolio Analytics app in Refinitiv Eikon; and the constituents of the Refinitiv 2020 Diversity and Inclusion Index (based on the second quarter 2020 index rebalance).
The full D&I Index Top 100 list can be found here.
