Reaffirms Commitment to Equal Opportunity,
Announces Additional Steps
In an earnings call held today, Signet Jewelers Limited
(“Signet”) (NYSE:SIG), the world's largest retailer of diamond
jewelry, Signet Chairman Todd Stitzer stated that the company has
consistently worked to improve policies and practices around equal
employment opportunity and workplace culture, resulting in better
than benchmark female representation in leadership positions. He
also announced that the company will take additional steps in the
spirit of continuous review and improvement.
In the past decade, the Signet has:
- Adopted employment policies and
practices to ensure equal career advancement via standardized
processes for setting salaries and promotions based on objective,
measurable metrics
- Implemented training and performance
measurement tools to cultivate leadership traits and prepare team
members for promotion within the organization; and
- Provided advanced, EEOC-approved
training courses to help managers recognize and prevent workplace
behaviors that do not respect all team members.
By numerous indicators, Signet outperforms national averages in
the percentage of its store management staff who are female. In
their 2016 Women In The Workplace report, McKinsey & Company
found that the percentage representation of females in non-senior
management of U.S. corporations across all industries was 37%.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that 44.1% of all
first-line retail sales supervisors are female. In the jewelry,
luggage and leather goods subsector of this same report, the
percentage of female first-line supervisors is 61.5%. At Signet,
68% of the company’s store management staff are female. The
Company’s ongoing efforts to promote women in the workplace is
reflected at all levels of leadership.
According to McKinsey, 29% of all C-Level executives in the
retail sector are female. At Signet, 33% of all C-Level executives
are female, and 4 of Signet’s 11 or 36% of independent members of
its Board of Directors are female. The latter is almost double the
average percentage of female directors at S&P 500 firms, which
according to a 2015 Catalyst report, is less than 20 percent.
“Signet’s Board, management team our valued team members are
proud of these accomplishments which were built on a sound
framework of policies and practices and a strong workplace culture
dedicated to equal opportunity and respect,” said Stitzer. “We know
that our commitment requires continuous review and improvement, so
as we continue our quest to be an employer of choice, we are taking
a number of additional steps to ensure our policies and practices
are functioning as intended and to identify areas where we can
further improve.” These include the following:
- Formation of a new Board Committee
focused on Respect in the Workforce that will focus on programs and
policies to support the advancement and development of our female
Team Members. The directors who will serve on the new committee
include Virginia Drosos, CEO of Assurex Health and prior
Group President of Procter and Gamble; Marianne Miller
Parrs, formerly Executive Vice President and Chief Financial
Officer of International Paper Company; Eugenia Ulasewicz,
who served as President of Burberry plc America Division; and
Helen McCluskey, formerly CEO of The Warnaco Group. These
women comprise all of Signet’s female directors and all are very
familiar with the company since they joined the Board between 2008
and 2014.
- The new committee will appoint an
independent consultant to conduct a thorough review, which will
cover current and future company policies and practices regarding
equal opportunity and workplace expectations, including those
covering non-harassment, training and reporting, investigation and
non-retaliation.
- The committee will also establish an
independent Ombudsperson office to act as an informal third-party
avenue to provide confidential advice to employees to address
concerns regarding issues in the workforce and to provide options
and strategies to assist them in resolution of workplace concerns.
The Ombudsperson is in addition to Signet’s currently available
resources and will provide additional assurance to Team Members and
management that fairness and respect will always be the touchstones
of how we treat each other.
“We do not tolerate discrimination or harassment of any kind and
we want to be sure that the framework we have in place for
reporting, and responding to any such issues is robust and
effective,” said Stitzer. “It is the intention of this Board and
the senior management team to make certain that our culture and our
Team Members are fully supported at every level, because culture
and people have helped make Signet the leading company in our
industry.”
About Signet and Safe Harbor Statement:
Signet Jewelers Limited is the world's largest retailer of
diamond jewelry. Signet operates approximately 3,600 stores
primarily under the name brands of Kay Jewelers, Zales, Jared The
Galleria Of Jewelry, H.Samuel, Ernest Jones, Peoples and Piercing
Pagoda. Further information on Signet is available at
www.signetjewelers.com. See also www.kay.com, www.zales.com,
www.jared.com, www.hsamuel.co.uk, www.ernestjones.co.uk,
www.peoplesjewellers.com and www.pagoda.com.
This release contains statements which are forward-looking
statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation
Reform Act of 1995. These statements, based upon management's
beliefs and expectations as well as on assumptions made by and data
currently available to management, include statements regarding,
among other things, Signet's results of operation, financial
condition, liquidity, prospects, growth, strategies and the
industry in which Signet operates. The use of the words "expects,"
"intends," "anticipates," "estimates," "predicts," "believes,"
"should," "potential," "may," "forecast," "objective," "plan," or
"target," and other similar expressions are intended to identify
forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are
not guarantees of future performance and are subject to a number of
risks and uncertainties, including but not limited to general
economic conditions, regulatory changes following the United
Kingdom’s announcement to exit from the European Union, risks
relating to Signet being a Bermuda corporation, the merchandising,
pricing and inventory policies followed by Signet, the reputation
of Signet and its brands, the level of competition in the jewelry
sector, the cost and availability of diamonds, gold and other
precious metals, regulations relating to customer credit,
seasonality of Signet's business, financial market risks,
deterioration in customers’ financial condition, exchange rate
fluctuations, changes in Signet's credit rating, changes in
consumer attitudes regarding jewelry, management of social, ethical
and environmental risks, security breaches and other disruptions to
Signet's information technology infrastructure and databases,
inadequacy in and disruptions to internal controls and systems,
changes in assumptions used in making accounting estimates relating
to items such as extended service plans and pensions, the impact of
the acquisition of Zale Corporation on relationships, including
with employees, suppliers, customers and competitors, and our
ability to successfully integrate Zale's operations and to realize
synergies from the transaction.
For a discussion of these and other risks and uncertainties
which could cause actual results to differ materially from those
expressed in any forward-looking statement, see the "Risk Factors"
section of Signet's Fiscal 2016 Annual Report on Form 10-K filed
with the SEC on March 24, 2016 and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q
filed with the SEC. Signet undertakes no obligation to update or
revise any forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events
or circumstances, except as required by law.
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Signet JewelersInvestors:James Grant, VP Investor Relations, +1
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