Bentley Motors has set out further details of its diversity and inclusion strategy. A uniquely-designed Flying Spur embodies this company focus as European Diversity month draws to a close, and Pride celebrations begin around the world.
The 101-year old company is going through unparalleled change on its journey towards a climate-positive future. Recognising the fundamental importance of diverse experiences and perspectives to drive creativity and innovation, Bentley aims to become the most diverse luxury car manufacturer. To this end it has set a target of increasing diversity in management to 30 per cent by 2025.
Bentley’s five step strategy focuses on outreach, recruitment, succession planning, culture and development. Early careers talent acquisition will be over-indexed towards organisations with diverse intakes, while the recruitment of established hires will explore new talent pools. To ensure that all talent within the business is supported, succession planning will be reviewed to ensure early identification of diverse talent within the business. Development programmes will ensure that colleagues from all walks of life are able to grow and achieve their full potential. This will be underpinned by measurable KPIs and targets, and Board-led engagement to drive a positive culture and remove unconscious bias. The recently-launched colleague network groups will also help drive engagement within the business through a series of strategic events and activities.
To mark the launch of the strategy, a challenge was set to the Bentley Design team to create an automotive artwork that celebrates diversity in all its forms. Designer Rich Morris, who paints and sculpts in his spare time, rose to the challenge by creating a piece of four-wheeled art using the nine colours of the Progress flag. His design joins the words “Love is Love” through a single, unbroken line, that traces faces, dancing figures and shapes – representing the unifying power of humanity, regardless of race, creed or sexuality. The Unifying Spur will be revealed to colleagues at Bentley’s Crewe factory before embarking upon a programme of external activities in the coming months.
Dr. Astrid Fontaine, Bentley’s Member of the Board for People, Digitalisation and IT, explains:
“We know that diversity drives success, by bringing a greater range of experience, creativity as well as inclusion allows co-operation to play in business strategy, innovation and decision-making. We also want our our business to reflect our global customer base and most importantly of all, to ensure that we all work in an environment where everyone feels safe to bring their true self to work and valued for who they are and what they can do.
“That is why diversity and inclusion are profoundly important to us and as part of our Beyond100 programme we have therefore set ourselves the challenge to become the most diverse luxury car manufacturer. For us this means ensuring there are colleagues from all walks of life in our management structure.
“This goes hand in hand with our ethos that a rich and inclusive culture, where everyone is supported to achieve their full potential, is what will help to drive our business forward for the next one hundred years.
“Through the reveal of the Unifying Spur, the internal activities that it will support – and the external engagements we are planning for it in 2021 – we aim to celebrate the individual talents and idiosyncracies that make us all unique as – whilst at the same time as highlighting the key themes that unite and bring us together.”
