The FT and Statista have launched a new ranking of European employers that stand out for their overall diversity efforts. The Diversity Leaders ranking surveyed more than 80,000 employees across 10,000 listed and privately held companies in a range of sectors. The report includes an inaugural ranking of 700 leading businesses surveyed across 10 European countries, praised by staff for their approach. This is the first ranking of its kind to assess companies’ success in promoting all types of diversity, including gender balance, disability, openness to all forms of sexual orientation, and an ethnic and social mix that reflects wider society, rather than just one aspect of diversity.

Topping the list this year are the Dutch headquarters of Booking.com, a US travel company; Colgate-Palmolive, a consumer goods multinational with European headquarters in Switzerland; and Willmott Dixon, a British family-owned building group. All three of them scored highly in many categories. The full list of the 700 companies with the highest total scores can be found here and a full overview of the topic here.

“Based on our expertise in international research-projects focusing on employee-satisfaction, we are very happy to highlight the important topic of diversity at the workplace together with the Financial Times for the first time. While we found that there has been a lot of progress made towards achieving diversity, we also see remaining challenges that put companies under increasing pressure. To measure how the challenge of diversity is addressed by the companies to the good of their own success and society at large, we provide a well-founded ranking which leads to more transparency in the employer-market” said Hubertus Bitting, Chief Research Officer at Statista.

The special report also features articles by FT correspondents on the recruitment challenges of German manufacturing; the diversity deficit in European banking; slow progress in Switzerland; UK and continental European experts’ advice on how majorities can make minorities feel included; and a guest column by Marlène Schiappa, France’s secretary of state for gender equality and the fight against discrimination.

Note to editors regarding methodology: The ranking criteria can be found here. Statista and the FT were both excluded from the list of companies eligible to be ranked to avoid any perceived conflict of interest.

About Statista
Statista is the global No. 1 business data platform. Statista, founded in 2007 in Germany, has around 700 employees in its offices in Hamburg, London, Milan, Madrid, Copenhagen, New York, Los Angeles, Paris, Singapore and Tokyo. Statista is a leading data and business intelligence portal which conducts international market and consumer studies and surveys and publishes rankings and other company lists in collaboration with media partners, including the Financial Times.

About the Financial Times

The Financial Times is one of the world’s leading business news organisations, recognised internationally for its authority, integrity and accuracy. The FT has a record paying readership of one million, three-quarters of which are digital subscriptions. It is part of Nikkei Inc., which provides a broad range of information, news and services for the global business community.