British American Tobacco named as a Diversity Leader by the Financial Times

British American Tobacco (BAT) has been named as a Diversity Leader by the Financial Times  in its inaugural Diversity Leaders report, published today.

The report, which lists the top 700 companies across 10 European countries*, recognises companies that have achieved a diverse and inclusive workforce across a number of criteria. These include gender balance, openness in all forms of sexual orientation, as well as having an ethnic and social mix within the workforce that reflects wider society.

The report has been compiled from extensive research, which surveyed over 80,000 people across the 10 countries, with the 700 companies who received the highest total scores awarded as the Diversity Leaders 2020.

Hae In Kim, Director, Talent and Culture at British American Tobacco, said: “We are delighted to be recognised as a Diversity Leader by the Financial Times. We are a truly international company – we are present in over 200 markets around the world, with a workforce of over 55,000 people. We have always celebrated and respected each other’s differences as we value what makes each of us unique. For us, our diversity has always been one of our core strengths and one of our key values.

“We have around 140 nationalities represented at management level within our Group and our headquarters in London is made up of more than 84 nationalities. We have a thriving LGBT+ employee network, B United, and our International Women’s Day campaign was recently acknowledged as an example of best practice for a second successive year. 

“We are also continuing to work hard to improve gender diversity within the Group. Currently, women make up 27% of our Main Board, while in last three years we increased female representation in senior management by 7%. We also have female executives on all our senior functional and geographical leadership teams, and 49% of our 2019 graduate intake were women, ensuring a sustainable pipeline of women for senior management roles.”