‘You have to start somewhere - and it won't always be perfect’

With cobblestone streets, wood-beamed buildings, and a distinctive “chocolate box” atmosphere, the picturesque town of Weinheim is known as one of the most beautiful destinations in Germany – it’s also the birthplace of one of the biggest manufacturing conglomerates in the world.

In 1849, German entrepreneur Carl Johann Freudenberg laid the foundation for The Freudenberg Group, specializing in luxury tanned goods. Now employing over 50,000 workers across 60 different countries, Freudenberg has 29 unique brands under its wing.

As global head of HR, Sarah O'Hare acts as a uniting force among these cultures. But, even with a team of almost 800 HR practitioners, it’s no mean feat.

“Each division, each region, has a de facto head of HR,” she tells HRD. “We’re predominately in three major regions, Europe, the Americas, and Asia, each with a different number of headcount in sales generated from those regions. As a global conglomerate, we're organised into certain groups because we don't make one particular product or serve one industry or customer.”

‘With DEI, we blend our ideas’

With so many companies under one belt, rolling out universal initiatives and plans can be tricky. For O’Hare, she believes it’s important to let the respective HR heads have their own say in what will work for their individual culture – and it’s her role to unite them all under an umbrella collective.

“When it comes to diversity, equity, and inclusion we blend our ideas,” she says. “This has evolved over time — it's not like we had all the answers in the beginning. It’s really a discovery process.

“For many businesses, you have to start somewhere and it won't always be perfect. At the start, when we decided we needed to move the needle forward, we came together as the executive HR team to talk about how to align all of our ideas.”

O’Hare and her team of HR leaders spent a lot of time debating, discussing, and trialling new ways of working. And in a company that’s 174 years old, coming up with an authentic and strategic DEI plan was something O’Hare was very excited about.

“Our organization started in Germany, is headquartered in Germany with all German executives,” says O’Hare. “It started in a certain way that you could understand and was reasonable for its time and space. However, as we naturally grew, our executive determined they needed to diversify our business portfolio and our customer base — we started to look at diversity from a business perspective.”

20% female representation by 2025

Back then, as O’Hare tells HRD, diversity wasn’t much of a topic. However, The Freudenberg Group was already, at its heart, a pretty diverse company. Running across 136 nations, operating in so many countries, they were already nailing DEI without really knowing it.

However, that doesn’t mean there wasn’t room for improvement.  

“With all this diversity that we have, it doesn't mirror the communities in which we operate at a macro level,” says O’Hare. “We look super diverse and we’re proud of that — that's part of Freudenberg’s success. However, we also recognised at some point there were deficiencies in our representation at the executive level.”

When O’Hare started at Freudenberg, there were only two women in the top 50 executives. Her goal was to have 20% female representation by 2025, giving herself a pragmatic 10-year goal to move that needle from just five percent. And she’s on track.

“What looks different in the last several years is that we're having the conversation, we're putting specific targets in place so we have a focus that and treat this topic as something to be discussed, not just a byproduct of our business portfolio,” says O’Hare.

“We have the commitment of a broad group of individuals who’re holding on to this topic. They’re making sure it stays in front of the organization, in front of the culture, in front of the senior management team and in front of HR. That's part of the success.”

The cost of authentic DEI

The age-old question of just how much CEOs should delineate to their diversity efforts has plagued HR departments for decades. For O’Hare, she believes employers can instigate real change without spending a penny.

“I didn't spend a minute in the early years of my efforts asking for any money,” she tells HRD. “I thought there was an enormous amount of progress that could be made with zero. To me, the money is in the time, energy and attention of the people who’re going to implement initiatives to help move the needle.”

At the beginning of her career, O’Hare did pay for diversity training for an executive team with a highly reputable global consulting firm. But she cautions that going into the C-suite and asking for that budget, you need to be prepared to answer their questions.

“Why are we focusing in this area? Why is this topic coming up? Why are we talking about? Writing about it? Why do you want me to do something different when we're so successful?”

At Freudenberg, O’Hare looked at the data before making any budgetary requests. By assessing everything from race to gender to age to nationality, she could see that gender was where there was a diversity disconnect.

“We decided we need to do something there,” she says. “We knew we could focus on that topic, we could let the business groups do other things that were important to them in different countries. In Germany, it's a lot about disability; in the US it might be more about race, for example. It’s about understanding what’s needed in your organization, where you can improve, and building on that.”

Family values in 174-year old company

Setting aside DEI, it’s clear that Freudenberg has a strong sense of belonging, commitment, and transparency — something that may seem rare in a multinational manufacturing business. However, when you consider that the group is still very-much “family owned” — a structure laid out by its founder and patriarch – it makes a lot more sense.

“We're still privately held by the family,” says O’Hare. “That’s embedded into our culture, that it always remains in family hands. Although no family members work in the company, it started with one person just like a family tree.”

This perfect mix of traditional family values mixed with innovation and progressive ideas makes Freudenberg a standout in its field. And this emanates down into its culture, values, and future plans.

“What makes Freudenberg so unique is that we’re primed to push the boundaries,” she says. “We always had a German CEO, now we have an American with Iranian heritage. We have strong female representation in the top 50 executive team, we’re pushing diversity at all levels – we’re evolving.

“That’s part of the secret for us - from an old German company in a charming cobblestone town to where we are today feels impressive. And I'm very incredibly proud to be a part of it.”