“We Are Doing This for All of Us”

The newly formed “D&I Committee” will promote the topics of diversity, equity, and inclusion at Freudenberg Sealing Technologies (FST).

“Establishing the ‘D&I Committee’ sends a strong signal that FST is really serious about diversity, equity, and inclusion, or ‘DEI’ for short, inside the company,” explains Gill Hogarth. The HR manager will act as facilitator for the FST committee that was newly formed this past spring.

“When Gill asked if I was interested in joining the new ‘D&I committee’, as one of a few African-Americans in IT over the years at FNST, I hesitated and asked whether she just needed to use my likeness in a publication. If that was the case, then I was not interested, and feared that leadership would never take diversity and inclusion initiatives serious enough to make a difference. Then she explained in detail, the committee’s mission and why she was involved, and her enthusiasm won me over and I agreed to join,” explains committee member Sebrina Hicks. Like the other members, she performs her tasks on the “D&I Committee” in addition to her regular job. In the meantime, she works as a new DEI Talent Acquisition Specialist in HR recruiting new employees and helping FNST to become more diverse and inclusive.

But what exactly is the role of the “D&I Committee”? Jürgen Noll, Senior Vice President of Global Human Resources, says that responsibility for Diversity & Inclusion is with line managers and cannot be delegated, not even to the Diversity Committee. He calls the committee being a “sounding board” that reaches the entire organization, both management and all employees, and keeps a watchful eye on FST’s programs and best practices. In keeping with the important topic and the overarching role of the committee, it was important for FST to attach the committee directly to the Board of Management. “We take the topic of diversity and inclusion very seriously,” says Claus Möhlenkamp, CEO of Freudenberg Sealings Technologies. “That’s why we see ourselves as the sponsors of the committee. The committee itself is autonomous in its assessment of the state of diversity and inclusion in our company. We will meet regularly with the committee to listen to them and discuss proposals and projects.”

Giving a voice to everyone

At the same time, the committee of D&I ambassadors acts as a driving force, shares ideas, makes suggestions and initiates activities on a wide range of D&I aspects to the FST organization. Conversely, they are available to engage employees in an advisory capacity. “If you need someone to talk to, turn to us. There is likely someone with similar backgrounds or issues and is willing to listen,” Hicks said.

“We want to give everyone a voice,” adds committee member Claudio Zoppi. At the same time, he attributes an integrating function to the committee: “We already live diversity and inclusion at Freudenberg in many areas, but we can do much better if we harmonize our activities with each other. In the past, every musician in our ‘D&I Orchestra’ has played for himself or herself. The ‘D&I Committee’ listens to all the ‘pieces of music’ and harmonizes them into a joint concert.”

People are unique

“We are still in the infancy phase,” Hicks admits. In addition to their role as sounding board and advisors, members actively participate in sub-teams that explore topics such as gender-appropriate language in job postings and bias training for managers. “We are not doing this for a few, but rather for all of us,” Hicks emphasizes. In other words, there are countless classifications of diversity, ranging from visible ones such as age, gender, skin color or physical impairments, to invisible ones like socioeconomic background, sexual orientation, culture, ethnicity, religion/belief, family dynamics or chronic illnesses.

In this respect, everyone is different from their colleagues in unique ways. FST is clearly committed to every facet of diversity and affords everyone the same opportunities and freedom to develop within the company. This is precisely the universal commitment that the Diversity & Inclusion Committee seeks to uphold.