Champion Better Lives

Champion
Better Lives

Our culture and workplaces are a reflection of our values.
We strive to be ambassadors for diversity, inclusion and respect for human rights, across our business and in society. These values are embedded in our employee policies and programs, in our philanthropic initiatives that support our communities and in the partnerships with those who help make our products.

CHAMPION BETTER LIVES

GOALS

DIVERSITY & INCLUSION

Achieve gender parity with equal representation in leadership positions at the VP level and above by 2023

Increase female representation in factory management by 25% by 2025

WORKER EMPOWERMENT & WELL-BEING

Roll out our Wage Management Strategy to all of our strategic and key suppliers to address fair and timely compensation for factory workers by 2023

Make empowerment and life-skills programs available to 250,000 workers across our supply chain by 2030

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT & PHILANTHROPY

Increase volunteer hours 25% by 2025, compared to a FY18 baseline

Supporting a Diverse and Inclusive Workforce

We respect and encourage individuality at Ralph Lauren. Our company’s innovation, creativity and continued success depends on our diverse, talented workforce. By investing in a culture of inclusion and celebrating differences, we ensure everyone has a sense of belonging and can thrive.

One way we are ensuring we have a robust talent pipeline is through recruiting, interviewing and hiring leadership that reflects the diverse communities we serve. As a Company, we have taken the ParityPledge in Support of Women In Leadership and the ParityPledge in Support of People of Color, underscoring our commitment to interview at least one female candidate, at least one Black candidate and at least one candidate from other underrepresented groups for each role at the VP level and above. Ongoing education helps us maintain an environment where every employee feels safe and respected. All employees, including Board members, completed unconscious bias training this year, and we are delivering allyship and advocacy training in FY21.

It’s important that everything we do reflects our values, especially our love of people and culture. We are, with great intention, working to ensure our sources of inspiration are respected and strengthened when they are represented through our brand. This principle guides our creative process from product design and development to marketing and advertising. By 2020, all of our design, production and merchant teams will complete training on inclusive and culturally aware design.

Read more about our diversity and inclusion efforts in our 2020 Global Citizenship & Sustainability Report.

Unlocking Gender Parity in Fashion

In 2020, we achieved our gender parity goal for equal representation of women in VP-level and above positions three years ahead of schedule. In the U.S., we achieved gender pay equity, providing equal pay for equal work, and we will expand our pay equity assessment to our global workforce in the coming year.

This year, we also partnered with Parity.org to craft and publish "Unlocking Gender Parity in Fashion," a roadmap for the fashion industry to progress in achieving gender parity. The paper offers a five-point plan and unifying philosophy that will allow fashion companies to accelerate gender equity in our industry. The actionable tools and practical solutions offered in the paper were informed by a series of roundtable discussions, led by Ralph Lauren and Parity.org in 2019, with coauthors that include PVH, Lacoste, Tiffany & Co. and Movado Group Inc.

Read the paper and learn more about strategies for fostering gender parity in the apparel retail workforce.

Empowering Women in the Supply Chain

The talent and commitment of half a million workers in our supply chain make the timeless style and quality of Ralph Lauren pieces a reality.

The talent and commitment of half a million workers in our supply chain make the timeless style and quality of Ralph Lauren pieces a reality. On average, women make up half of the apparel supply chain workforce, yet the vast majority of supervisor positions are held by men. To address this disparity, we partnered with the International Finance Corporation on their Gender Equality and Returns Program (GEAR). GEAR advances women from basic factory worker roles by training them in people management and technical skills. We’ve launched GEAR in select Bangladesh factories and will continue rolling it out in the region over the next year.

We also continued our work with the HERproject™ in Bangladesh and launched the HERhealth program in five factories. The program provides information on women’s health topics such as healthy eating, personal hygiene and maternal health. The HERproject has benefitted over 20,000 supply chain workers to date, half of which were in the HERhealth program. We’re looking forward to expanding HERhealth to Cambodia next year.

Standing up for Pride

We aim to create a culture of belonging where everyone can be their best selves and succeed, both in the workplace and our communities.

We aim to create a culture of belonging where everyone can be their best selves and succeed, both in the workplace and our communities. As part of this mission, Ralph Lauren and the Ralph Lauren Corporate Foundation have proudly supported the LGBTQIA+ community for more than 25 years.

In 2019, we partnered with the Stonewall Community Foundation in support of their mission to drive positive social change and LGBTQIA+ awareness. During Pride 2019, we designed a five-piece gender neutral collection from which a portion of the proceeds for every item sold was donated to Stonewall. We also engaged our employees in these efforts by providing donation and volunteering opportunities to give back to the LGBTQIA+ community.

Within our own company, we are proud to offer transgender- inclusive healthcare benefits and to support our employee community group RL Pride. This global, employee-led group now has more than 500 members and helps drive LGBTQIA+ education and awareness. In Pride Month 2019, RL Pride hosted nearly 30 events across our offices worldwide.

Read our 2020 Global Citizenship &
Sustainability Report
and Standards Supplement

REPORT

SUPPLEMENT

Our 2019 Global Citizenship & Sustainability Report and Supplement and relevant Global Citizenship & Sustainability policies are available here.