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Diversity and inclusion

We recognise the business value a diverse workforce brings, and we continue to make progress in creating a workplace that values differences. Again we increased the number of women in senior leadership positions. We continued to address areas for improvement identified by our staff.

Chart 1: Gender diversity

1. Gender indicator: Increase the proportion of women in senior management to a minimum of 20%. We have increased our effort to attract women candidates and introduced development and mentoring programmes targeted at female staff. Nearly 30% of the professionals we hired in 2008 were women, including nearly a fifth of those we hired for technical roles. By the end of 2008, 13.6% of the most senior leadership positions were filled by women, up from 12.9% in 2007.

2. Nationality indicator: Have local people fill more than half the senior management positions in every country we operate in.

In 32% of countries, local nationals filled more than half the senior leadership positions, compared to 33% in 2007.

3. Diversity and inclusion indicator: Improve staff perceptions of the inclusion of their workplace, as measured by the Shell People Survey.

In the 2008 Survey, 67% of employees were positive about inclusion in their part of Shell. Much work has been done in 2008 and 2009 to find ways to spread inclusive behaviour across Shell. For example, offering tools and tips for having more inclusive meetings and for creating inclusive virtual teams.