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Hennes & Mauritz is a Swedish company and one of the world’s largest retailers of clothing, accessories, footwear, cosmetics and home textiles. The company employs 153,000 people in over 5,000 stores and has operations across 74 countries. In 2020, it had US$20.1 billion in revenue.
Summary
Hennes & Mauritz (H&M) ranks 17th in this year’s Gender Benchmark with a score of 31.5 out of 100. It displays leading practice in 6 out of 34 indicators and is ahead of industry peers on governance and strategy and compensation and benefits. However, the company lags behind on health and well-being and violence and harassment.
Gender equality is one of the focus areas of H&M’s diversity and inclusion strategy. It also discloses two gender-related targets , aiming to achieve a minimum of 30% diversity in senior leadership teams by 2025 as well as enroll eight additional factories in its Women’s Health (WEALTH) Project in 2021. Moreover, consultations with PLAN International led the company to establish more focused approaches on health and safety in the supply chain. H&M publicly shares the difference in average wages and minimum wages at factories in key production markets on an annual basis as a part of its Fair Living Wage Strategy to help ensure its suppliers pay their workers a living wage .
However, there is no evidence the company covers any of the costs for its employees regarding maternal, sexual and reproductive, or mental health . It also does not require suppliers to address the specific health, safety and hygiene needs of their women workers or have an on-site health clinic with credentialed providers. Moreover, while H&M has a non-harassment policy in the workplace and requires its suppliers to have a violence and harassment policy, it lacks an effective remediation process for addressing grievances in both the workplace and supply chain.
See detailed assessment
Ranking position
#17/35
Total score
31.5/100
Measurement area
Score
Rank (0-35)
Measurement area
Governance and strategy
Score
8.5
/20
Rank (0-35):
#13
Measurement area
Representation
Score
5.5
/17.5
Rank (0-35):
#12
Measurement area
Compensation and benefits
Score
3.6
/17.5
Rank (0-35):
#15
Measurement area
Health and well-being
Score
3.3
/17.5
Rank (0-35):
#17
Measurement area
Violence and harassment
Score
4.4
/17.5
Rank (0-35):
#24
Measurement area
Marketplace
Score
2.5
/5
Rank (0-35):
#3
Measurement area
Community
Score
3.8
/5
Rank (0-35):
#7
Total score
Score
31.5
/100
Rank (0-35):
#17
Value chain element
Score
Measurement area
Workplace
Score
5.7
/41
Measurement area
Supply chain
Score
16.0
/41
More about the company
Headquarters
Stockholm, Sweden
Revenue
US$20.1 billion (2020)
Total number of employees
153,000
Ownership structure
Publicly listed
Website
https://www.hm.com/