The Diversity Leaders of Europe

Hermès is Europe's most diverse company according to its employees. As a joint survey by Statista and the Financial Times shows, the French luxury brand moved up five spots from last year's ranking, overtaking Booking.com, DNB and Biocoop. The biggest movers in the top 8 are found elsewhere though.

Microsoft, for example, managed to climb 201 spots to the eighth rank, while Danish supermarket group Salling rose from rank 609 to rank 6 over one year. According to company statements, its efforts in this area include employing 130 diversity coordinators across the country and agreements with 88 municipalities to bolster the employment of people on the fringes of the labor market. However, the ranking itself has to be taken with a grain of salt, since it only measures the corresponding employees' perception of diversity and inclusivity efforts, not the actual steps the companies themselves take.

2021 marks the third year of the annual Diversity Leaders survey. This year, Financial Times polled 100,000 employees across 16 European countries on their perception of company efforts to provide a more diversified workplace. Answers by underrepresented groups like women, People of Color and workers over the age of 50 were given more weight. Statista provided further insight by surveying select HR and recruitment experts.