Seat at the table

Following the Black Lives Matter protests earlier this year, diversity and inclusion (D&I) has never been more important in the modern workplace. But what does D&I mean for LeasePlan? Tjahny Bercx, Chief People & Performance Officer, shares his views.

What’s your view on diversity and inclusion?

It’s a broad topic, but if I had to sum it up, I’d say that D&I is about creating an environment in which everyone not only has the freedom and confidence to be themselves, but is also supported to succeed.

For me, though, it’s really important to highlight that D&I isn’t just a ‘work thing’ – my hope is that, by championing D&I within LeasePlan, we are also working towards the inclusion of people from diverse backgrounds outside of our company as well, starting with our customers and partners.

I believe the actions each one of us takes on a day-to-day basis – at a personal and organisational level – can really have a positive impact on society at large.

What are your D&I focus areas?

Essentially, we want to structurally embed D&I in all of our activities and business processes. That starts with our D&I policy, which sets out what we expect from employees in terms of D&I and establishes how it should be embedded in our key internal processes, especially recruitment.

We’re also taking action on a number of specific areas where we think we can improve. For example, we’re working hard to ensure gender equality at all levels within LeasePlan, including senior leadership, through our ‘Talent to the Top’ initiative. We’re also educating our employees around unconscious gender, sexual orientation and racial bias, as well as equalizing the benefits of our LGBTQI+ employees, regardless of the country they live in.

It’s a big and important agenda but it will only grow as the conversation deepens both across LeasePlan and in society more broadly.