Live diversity

As an international group with operations in six countries and on three continents, diversity and wide-ranging skills are intrinsic characteristics of our workforce and natural in our way of working. We respect and value the attributes and abilities of each person that works with us, because we believe that individual differences make us stronger as a team and allow us to be a more inclusive and flexible employer that is representative of the communities of which we are a part.

In 2023 we employed over 134 thousand people, of which 8,321 (29.7% more than in 2022) were foreign nationals in the main countries where we do business. The 77 nationalities and 5 different generations make us a diverse, multicultural and multigenerational employer. Because we strive to preserve these qualities and because we have zero tolerance for discrimination based on diversity factors (gender, age, culture or ethnicity, among other factors), our Corporate Internal and External Recruitment Policy establishes guidelines for attracting and selecting talent that follow the rules set out in our Code of Conduct¹.

Our recruitment and selection processes are therefore based on promoting and complying with criteria of ethics, fairness, non-discrimination and equal opportunities at all levels of our organisation. The recruitment and selection teams ensure that profiles are analysed impartially and must apply pre-established criteria relating to experience and qualifications, among others, at every stage of the process. They also ensure compliance with the law, regulations, and risk and privacy management rules, observing the requirements of each country, in particular with regard to the minimum working age.

An example of these practices is Hebe’s recruitment and selection process, leveraged by a digital solution that allows candidates to play an online game that simulates real situations their role entails in stores. Besides aligning expectations in relation to the tasks to be performed, the game helps to screen candidates based on behaviours they demonstrate throughout the simulation, rather than on factors such as gender or age.

As a result of our work in this area, the Financial Times and the online platform Statista recognised the Jerónimo Martins Group as a Diversity Leader.

Gender diversity

We are active agents in advocating for gender equality, a basic principle that we live by every day and which we incorporate into policies and initiatives implemented within the Group and in our surrounding communities. Our human resources (HR) policies include a daily commitment to ensuring that work environments respect equal opportunities on the basis, above all, of merit and skills. To ensure continuous monitoring and identify opportunities for improvement, in 2023 we began an internal in-depth and transversal assessment of all people management practices from the gender equality perspective.

The vast majority (75.9%) of our employees are women, a reality that is common in the sector in which we operate, and we seek to ensure gender balance at all levels of the organisation. In 2023, 67.4% of management positions (managers and operational employees who have a team) and 52.2% of top and middle management positions (managers only) were held by women, and 40% the organisation’s Executive Committee members were women².

Key gender indicators

Our Gender Equality Plan³, the progress on which is reported and reviewed annually, aims to guide the functional areas in the implementation of four action pillars:

1. Formalising gender equality in policies and procedures
   inter alia, through concrete guidelines and rules of conduct that must be followed by all employees, reflected in the Code of Conduct and in Group-wide HR policies, and the management of whistleblowing channels and resolution mechanisms.
2. Monitoring gender indicators
   by analysing indicators for the entire employee life cycle on a quarterly basis and continuously improving the reporting thereof, as well as monitoring investors, analysts and the major sustainability indices that assess our performance in this regard.
3. Facilitating a work, personal and family life integration
   with measures to support parenthood and improve the wellbeing of families, and to provide support in situations of vulnerability and/or social emergency.
4. Empowering and raising awareness of gender equality within and outside the Group
   by sharing information and providing training on the Code of Conduct and fundamental rights, such as equal opportunity and the prohibition of discrimination, establishing external partnerships and participating in working groups.

The 2023-2024 Gender Equality Plan, underpinned by a set of internal and external assessment tools, lays out an action plan with seven dimensions and fifteen measures aligned with the guidelines of CITE – Comissão para a Igualdade no Trabalho e no Emprego (Commission for Equality in Labour and Employment), a Portuguese entity with oversight by the Ministries of Parliamentary Affairs and Labour, Solidarity and Social Security.

In 2023 we strengthened cooperation with public entities and/or civil society organisations that pursue the goal of promoting equality between women and men. Most noteworthy in this regard is our membership of the LEAD Network, the purpose of which is to boost diversity in leadership, particularly among women. We also continued to participate in the “SDG 5 Gender Equality” working group, promoted by GRACE – Empresas Responsáveis, an entity made up of more than 30 organisations in Portugal working together to meet these challenges.

We were also part of the Promova Programme developed by CIP – Confederação Empresarial de Portugal (Portuguese Business Confederation) and NOVA SBE to promote gender equality and encourage the promotion of more women to senior management positions through mentoring by executives.

Our contribution to promote gender equality extend to the community. Hebe took part in the Top Women in e-Business project by hosting a workshop for female entrepreneurs, focused on building their personal brand and professional image.

As a result of our work to promote gender equality, we once again improved our ranking in the Equileap index regarding 2022 performance, scoring 59%, 8 p.p. above last year’s result (51%) and 18 p.p. above the average of the companies analysed worldwide (41%).

Generational diversity

The generational diversity of our workforce is a critical success factor in ensuring the skills and experience needed for the sustainability of our business and our leadership. To promote generational diversity and to encourage cooperation between the different generations, we have a number of young talent development programmes in place, which are regularly improved on as a way of keeping them attractive and appropriate to the expectations of the participants and the needs of the business, and of sharing knowledge and experience.

One of the Group-wide programmes is our Trainee Programme⁴, a two-year course that challenges participants to strengthen their skills so that they can become future leaders of the Jerónimo Martins Group, with a significant investment in their training and development. In the first year of the programme, designed to promote their self-knowledge and assess the cultural fit between them and the Group, participants develop two projects with assistance from tutors in different functional areas, based on their individual preferences and the needs of the Companies. The second year offers participants an immersive experience in the retail business and, in Portugal, access to a mentor who guides them. This programme gives all participants several opportunities to meet with the Group’s top management, allowing them to share their career expectations and influence their path within the organisation from the outset. In 2023, Trainee Programme saw its assessment model improved, which now incorporates the renewed Group Values and associated behaviours⁵, and had 55 participants from the three main countries of operation (Poland, Portugal and Colombia).

Summer Internship Programme involves a two-month internship. In 2023, 102 university students in Portugal and Poland, mostly those taking a bachelor’s degree, developed projects during the summer months with tutors and were given opportunities for development. In Colombia, we had 23 trainees during the year.

At local level, Campus Ambassador Programme allowed 37 participants to represent the Jerónimo Martins employer brand at their universities in Portugal, also giving them the opportunity to learn more about our businesses and introducing them to the retail sector. In addition, and to strengthen our relations with universities in Portugal and reinforce our positioning with young talent, we created a department focused on establishing partnerships and protocols with universities, which include participation in academic research and innovation projects.

Recheio saw 37 students participate in various Campus Recheio activities, an initiative to strengthen its employer brand which included education, vocational and seasonal internships, ambassador programmes, academic work and visits to the business.

At Jerónimo Martins Agro-Alimentar, young talent programmes include education and vocational internships that provide an introduction to this business area, while the Futuro JMA programme offers operational internships that are fully customised to the specificities of the agrifood business. In total, 25 people took part in these JMA programmes.

At Ara, SENA programme – National Learning Service – and the government programme to encourage the hiring of young people between the ages of 18 and 28 are the main mechanisms for integrating young talent, under which 740 and 2,755 people were hired, respectively.

Biedronka was recognised for its efforts to build a strong employer brand with the HRM Institute’s Employer Branding Excellence Awards and third place in the Employer Branding category in Poland’s most prestigious public relations competition, Złote Spinacze. The Company’s seasonal employment campaigns were also recognised by the Employer Branding Institute and Siła Przyciągania.

Regarding older adults, we also invested in creating opportunities and hired 735 people over the age of 55 during 2023. Particularly of note was the second edition of Easter at Pingo Doce, which had 36 participants. This initiative gives family members of employees over the age of 55 the opportunity to work at the Company for a short period of time.

In an effort to bring together the different generations within its teams, Hebe has developed a training programme for area managers with four objectives: intergenerational communication, cooperation, feedback, and a culture of appreciation. The Company also held a video campaign to reinforce the different perspectives of each generation and to foster effective communication between them, which had 8,517 views.

¹ Our Code of Conduct is available on our corporate website, on the Ethic and Integrity page.

² The composition of the remaining specialised committees can be found on the Specialised Committees page on our corporate website.

³ Our 2023-2024 Gender Equality Plan is available for consultation on our corporate website, on the Living Diversity page.

⁴ More information about the Trainee Programme is available on our corporate website.

⁵ More information about our Values is available on our corporate website.