Diversity and inclusion
We need a diverse workforce to be successful as a company, especially as we advance in the energy transition, to help us solve complex challenges that matter, build long term and trusted relationships and make a real contribution to a low carbon future
“Equality and respect go hand in hand. To attract and retain exceptional people, bp must promote diversity of thought and an inclusive approach. We will only succeed in reimagining energy and reinventing bp if we recognize and embrace these factors."
Bernard Looney, chief executive officer
Addressing the gender balance
Both the energy sector and our business have traditionally had a gender imbalance, with more men than women in some roles. This is something that we’ve been working to address over a number of years and while we’ve made some progress, we know there’s still further to go to achieve a gender balance.
Overall, the proportion of women employed across bp continues to be higher than everbefore. 38% (2018 35%) of our workforce were women in 2019. We’re pleased to see improvements in areas of the company where women were previously under-represented and to have women leading some of our core businesses, such as petrochemicals, shipping and treasury, and countries including Canada, China, Mexico and the US. Our graduate intake is almost balanced, with 45% women and 55% men.
38%
women in our workforce in 2019 – higher than ever before
UK gender pay gap reporting
We make sure that employees in similar roles are paid equitably, and in the UK we publish a pay gap report for five bp UK legal entities that employ 250 or more people. This gender pay gap shows the difference in average pay between men and women, irrespective of their roles.
Our 2019 report, the third to be published, shows small improvements compared to 2018, including improvements in our highest pay gap entities, BP Exploration Operating Company Limited and bp p.l.c. The mean gender pay gap remained reasonably static from 2018-19, changing between 1-3% in each of the reporting entities.
Our gender pay gap exists mainly because we employ different numbers of men and women at different levels in our workforce, and in specific roles that attract higher pay, bonuses or allowances.
We are working to reduce differences over time and recognize that this is a long-term representation challenge we need to address.
- See bp.com/ukgenderpaygap for more information on our UK gender pay gap reporting
bp employees by gender in 2019
Graduate hires: We work closely with universities to attract women into scientific and engineering roles.
Experienced hires: We support programmes that help women resume their careers after a break.
Group leaders: We are on track for women to represent a quarter of our most senior managers by 2020.
Executive team: The number of women in our executive team remained the same as in 2018.
Board of directors: We achieved our goal for women to represent 30% of our board.
Ethnicity
In the US we aim to have ethnic minorities making up 20% of our group and senior level leaders and 30% of our workforce by 2025. We reached 22% (2018 18%) for our leaders and 28% (2018 27%) for our workforce in 2019. Our recruitment, development, promotion and inclusion programmes in the US underpin these ambitions. For example, we’ve recently launched our ‘minority rules of the road’, a set of principles that focus on ethnic diversity of candidates.
In the UK, EMEA and other regions, although we haven’t set any specific ambitions for ethnic and minority representation, we recognize that it’s an important issue. We’ve conducted research to help us understand more about our black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) employees in the UK and assess their grades and progress through the company. At present in the UK, ethnic minorities make up 17% of our employees, compared to an estimated 14% of the UK working population.
Employing nationals
Across bp as a whole, 25% of our global leaders are non-US or non-UK nationals. In the upstream we’re making progress on employee nationalization with goals of up to 90% in many countries.
22%
of our leaders in the US are now from ethnic minorities, with 25% targeted by 2050
Accessibility
We want to create a working environment in which everyone can perform to their maximum potential, irrespective of any disabilities they may have. We recognize the importance of accessibility for all and we take action throughour employee-led accessibility business resource group (BRG) to get this right. This group works to help us raise awareness, break down mental or physical barriers and improve access to work. It also helps bp to consider how to improve our support for accessibility.
The accessibility BRG has executive sponsors for each region it works in, raising the prominence of accessibility issues at a senior level. Members of the BRG are also included in discussions about how bp can support accessibility better.
In 2019 we made good progress, extending our accessibility BRG to new countries in EMEA, Asia Pacific and US regions and improving the accessibility of our UK sites to all employees. We formed a mental wellbeing network and further highlighted mental health issues through bp’s global ‘this is me’ awareness campaign, in which our new chief executive officer participated.
Business resource groups
Our business resource groups (BRGs) offer support and advice to employees about diversity and inclusion. They also provide peer support and opportunities for group members to discuss workplace issues as well as leadership exposure and experience for their BRG leaders and teams. The BRGs contribute to our business policies and practices, providing valuable insights for managers and leaders at all levels.
There are six BRGs with more than 20 chapters in the UK and another 20 across EMEA. They represent a wide range of communities, including ethnic minorities, women, LGBT+, people with disabilities, and new parents and carers.