Women Love Working at Henkel — Here’s a Few Reasons Why

Sponsored by Henkel

Image Courtesy of Henkel

Image Courtesy of Henkel

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It’s pretty much a guarantee that you have used Henkel’s products. For more than 140 years, the company has been driving innovations across its three business units and holds leading market positions thanks to its strong brands such as Persil, Dial, Schwarzkopf and Loctite. What started as a three people business in 1876 has grown into an international company with more than 52,000 employees worldwide. Recently they shared with Fairygodboss their mission, values and why women love working at Henkel.

What is the mission of the company? 

We want to create value – for our customers and our consumers, for our teams and our people, for our shareholders as well as for society and our communities. Our vision at Henkel is to be leading with our innovations, brands and technologies. For us, “leading” exceeds the definition of being number one in terms of market share or size. While strong positions in attractive markets are important, it takes more to be “leading with innovations, brands and technologies." It requires leadership in value creation, responsiveness to volatile markets, and changing customer and consumer demands, as well as in innovation, quality, service and sustainability. 

What are Henkel’s core values? 

Henkel has five core values that guide all our actions: 

  • We put our customers and consumers at the center of what we do. 

  • We value, challenge and reward our people. 

  • We drive excellent sustainable financial performance. 

  • We are committed to leadership in sustainability.

  • We shape our future with a strong entrepreneurial spirit based on our family business tradition. 

At Henkel, we come from diverse cultural backgrounds, have different experiences and operate in a broad range of markets and industries. Our clearly defined values, which are shared, understood, and lived by all our employees, are critical to our success as an organization. 

What differentiates Henkel from others in this industry?

Henkel is proud to be a global leader in sustainability. Innovating and achieving more with less is at the heart of our sustainability strategy and culture. We want to improve our products and solutions through innovations and smart thinking – to create more value at a reduced ecological footprint. 

Maintaining a balance between economic success, protection of the environment and social responsibility has been fundamental to our corporate culture for decades. Our employees live by our values and are engaged in the local community.

Describe 1-5 employee benefits that positively impact women who work at Henkel. 

In North America, Henkel has implemented various benefits to positively impact and support female employees. A few of these include:

1- Our gender-neutral parental benefits support employees through various stages of family planning. 

  • Our parental leave policy provides six weeks of paid time off for bonding with a new child resulting from birth, adoption or surrogacy. This is in addition to short-term disability benefits paid for an eligible employee who gives birth.

  • Henkel reimburses employees for qualified expenses in connection with the adoption of a child. 

  • Henkel provides gender-neutral fertility benefits for up to three cycles of assisted reproductive technology.  

2- We have a  longstanding tradition as a family business. This means we support not only our employees, but also their families. Our partnership with Bright Horizons provides employees access to reliable and affordable back-up child and elder care, as well as discounted academic support and tutoring resources.

3- At Henkel, we acknowledge the importance of a healthy work-life balance to fuel our employees’ creativity, ingenuity and productivity. We support the evolving needs of our diverse employees through policies that ensure flexible, safe working environments and arrangements for all.

4- To support inclusion, Henkel has 15 Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) with over 1,000 members in our facilities throughout North America that offer networking, career development, and volunteer opportunities. Our ERGs include the Professional Women’s Forum and the Women’s Professional Network whose missions are to foster a strong corporate and community connection among women at Henkel. Henkel is also proud to be a part of NEW (Networking of Executive Women), an external partnership that allows our employees to participate in their speaker series and professional coaching. 

5- Through our digital upskilling and Global Learning Hub initiatives, we offer every employee learning opportunities and training tailored to their needs. Additionally, we reimburse employees who are interested in furthering their education by going back to school.

What career development opportunities can women expect from this organization? How is career pathing approached?

At Henkel, we recognize that individual people need individual journeys. That’s why we encourage all our employees to craft their own career path by exploring different roles within our organization. Our extensive global footprint paired with the diversity of our businesses and job functions open up countless opportunities for employees and gives you room to grow both professionally and personally. 

Henkel’s approach to career pathing is summarized in our “Triple Two” philosophy: we urge our employees to experience different perspectives at Henkel through at least two job roles, two different countries, and two business units. These job rotations provide team members the unique opportunity to boost their international experience, expand their skill set, and broaden their horizons. 

Why should women want to grow their careers here? 

At Henkel, you never have just a career, you also have a purpose: creating more sustainable value. Whatever drives you to take action, you can influence how people live their lives, how industries operate or how we fulfill our mission to better society as a whole. Your work will always connect to the bigger picture. 

Is there anything else women should know about pursuing a career here?

At Henkel, you will grow in a vibrant, diverse culture of trust and belonging. We know our team is our biggest asset, and we fully believe each of their voices should be heard and valued. We promote diversity of our employees in all dimensions. Their experiences, knowledge and creativity are the foundation for our competitive advantage. 

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