JD.com is China’s largest online retailer and biggest overall retailer, transforming to be one of the biggest service provider and supply chain-based technology. The JD.com is proud to be included for the first time, with other industry leaders, on the 2023 Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index (GEI), published on January 31.
The Chief Officer from Human Resources Department of JD.com, Pang Zhang, spoke about JD.com’s inclusion on the prestigious list, saying, “We are delighted to be enlisted in the GEI of year 2023, it is a sign of being recognized progress made by JD.com to build a diverse and inclusive atmosphere. We sincerely believe that the development of the employees should never be bounded by any gender preferences and that employees’ growth is more importnant than business growth.”
Ms. Zhang went on to say, “If one can offer diverse, equal and inclusive atmosphere along with benefits of long-term growth opportunities, it can greatly help the employees to earn a sense of belongingness and contentment, the organization is focused to create higher value for the society as whole.”
Bloomberg’s GEI Brings Much-Needed Transparency to Gender-Related Policy
The GEI seeks to bring transparency to the practices and policies within companies as they related to gender. In doing so, they make this unbiased, third-party information available for investors who evaluate social, governance and environmental (ESG) data when choosing when and where to invest their money.
The 2023 Bloomberg GEI considers 45 countries and many thousands of companies. Of them, only 484 would score at or above the threshold established by Bloomberg. Being one of these 484 represents phenomenal commitment toward the adoption of industry-leading gender and inclusion policies.
For JD.com, being included on this list demonstrates the culture of equality that JD.com has developed and continued to build since the business’s founding by its Chairman Richard Liu.
Being included in the Bloomberg index provides third-party validation for the findings published in JD.com’s 2021 ESG Report. This internal assessment of the company’s environmental, social, and governance (ESG) sets out its vision across a number of values including:
- Openness
- Fairness
- Impartiality
- Equal Recruitment
How the Index Ranks Companies
The index considers companies based on five categories:
- Talent Pipeline & Leadership
- Culture of Inclusiveness
- Gender Pay Parity & Equal Pay
- Sexual Harassment Guidelines
- External Brand
Why JD.com Stood Out for this Honor
JD.com received a well-rounded score across all five categories but it scored particularly well in no. 2 (Equal Pay) and no. 4 (Sexual Harassment Policy.
Initiatives and policies that supported JD.com with its Award include the following:
1. Nurturing Female Leadership
JD.com strongly values and recognizes female employees’ contributions to the company. It is committed to developing its roles in leadership throughout the company.
It is noted in JD’s ESG Report in 2021, 10,000 female employees took part in professional development training, including but not limited to, management training and technical skills development.
2. Promoting Accessibility and Inclusion
In addition to ensuring all employees should earn equal pay for same work, JD.com actively seeks to increase opportunities for individuals living with disabilities.
JD Retail has a program called “Sunshine Angels” and it seeks to offer opportunities to people with physical challenges in online consumer service jobs.
Currently, this program is made up of 70% women (who happen also to have a physical disability) and was recognized by APEC Women Leadership Forum as a leading innovation in empowerment for women with disabilities in 2013.
3. Family-Friendly Programs
JD.com also recognizes the importance of supporting young families. The company provides feeding rooms for nursing parents along with designated parking spaces and specialty services for those who are pregnant and nursing.
Parents, regardless of gender, who are caring for young children are also offered kindergarten services through the early years of parenthood.
These parent-supportive services and policies demonstrate JD.com’s commitment to family-friendly policies. These practices have helped hundreds of employees navigate work and parenthood.
4. Employee-Supportive Culture
JD.com recently expanded its employee housing by 10-billion-yuan RMB and increased its employee child support fund.
The employee child support fund is to support JD.com employees’ children should a parent loses their life or their ability to work. The fund can cover the child’s expenses and education to graduation from College.
About JD.com
The company that would become JD.com was founded by Richard Liu in 1998 and began to take shape in the early 2000s. Since then, it has grown to a leading supply chain-based technology and service provider. It continues to build its network and grow its reach around the globe.
