Our corporate values include rejecting all forms of discrimination, requiring mutual respect in our interactions with others, and ensuring a multicultural working environment.

We interviewed Esther Loidl to gain an in-depth understanding of the current situation of Caltech Group in terms of "diversity and inclusion". Esther Loidl joined the management committee of Kedebao on July 1, 2021, served as Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO), and became the first female management committee member of Kedebao in history.

How to understand "diversity and tolerance"?

Everyone is talking about diversity. What is it? Recognize and respect everyone's differences in background and life experience, and actively ensure mutual integration. The term "diversity" usually refers to the diversity of people, the differences between different people, and the individual differences of each person. On this basis, inclusiveness means that people with different characteristics can get along well with each other in the company, and make this culture a driving force for the rapid development of the company.

For example, diversity means that you are invited to a party and allowed to enter. Inclusiveness means that other guests actively approach you, talk with you, invite you to have a drink or dance with you.

For an enterprise, inclusiveness is a culture in which all employees can give full play to their skills.

What aspects of "diversity and tolerance" do Kedebao value?

For us, all dimensions of diversity are important. This includes age, gender, nationality, nationality, religion, specific physical or cognitive abilities, as well as the sexual orientation and identity of the TAs. In short, we focus on all aspects of human diversity.

Why is diversity so important to Caltech?

Our customers are also diversified. When doing business with customers around the world, it is important that our employees reflect and represent the diversity of our business and global activities. More importantly, the best employees often do not act in a straightforward way, but with distinctive personal characteristics and a flexible way of dealing with the world.

At the group level, we require all project teams to meet the requirements of diversity, that is, they include employees from different sub groups, cultural backgrounds, and age ranges, and these employees should also have a certain degree of diversity in work experience and gender. In this way, even young people who are new to Kedebao can promote the development of the project team from a unique perspective. This diversity and different views on issues are becoming a distinctive feature of our enterprise.

As the top priority of pluralism and inclusiveness, what efforts has Kedebao made?

When we can clearly measure various conditions and clearly prove various facts with figures, change comes into being. We found that the higher the promotion level, the lower the proportion of women, which is particularly evident in management positions. Therefore, the improvement of women's status will be our focus in the past, present and future. From 2015 to 2020, Kedebao achieved initial success, increasing the proportion of female managers from 19% to 23%, and the proportion of women among professionals and managers from 30% to 33%.

As the first female member of Kedebao Management Committee, what advice would you give to other women who want to be promoted?

Unfortunately, even today, it is still often believed that women must double prove themselves in the workplace to get promoted, otherwise they may be accused of being "vases", that is, female employees whose work achievements are completely determined by gender. This is a serious derogation to all women who work hard and succeed. Fortunately, I didn't feel this way in Kedebao. My advice to other women is to be yourself, stay true and follow your own path. It turns out that, regardless of gender, rich experience - such as overseas experience - will help you in your future career. I think it is very important and valuable to learn some different things, experience other cultures and adapt to them in our career, which will prevent us from falling into a situation of sitting on the sidelines.

What aspects of "diversity and inclusiveness" does Kedebao also pay attention to?

As I said, it is relatively easier to promote areas where progress can be measured numerically. Another focus of our current attention is ethnic diversity, especially considering that the United States is a multi-ethnic country, which is well reflected in the data in our database. Various business groups have launched many good projects to accommodate the disabled; The achievements of Kedebao Specialty Chemicals Group in this regard are exemplary. In other aspects, such as sexual orientation, there is no effective measure at present, and we generally do not collect information about employees. In Kedebao, we must create a comfortable working environment for all employees with sexual orientation.