Over the past years, HelloFresh has built a team of people who are a reflection of the brand’s personality: optimistic, empathetic, intuitive, forward-thinking and inspiring. With more than 11,000 employees around the world, we are proud that our working atmosphere is one of friendliness and respect for all, regardless of gender identity, race or sexual orientation. As the company grows, we are formalizing these values further to ensure inclusiveness for all of our people.

One of the measures included formalising our DE&I efforts, following the lead of our team in the US. In that market, we hired a Director of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion who has been driving our efforts since the second half of 2020. Our employees in the US also pioneered our current Employee Resource Groups (ERG’s): GET (Gender Equality Team), FreshPride, LiMES (Leveraging Inclusivity For Minority Employee Success) and FreshParents. At our HQ in Berlin, we have a core team, supported by volunteers who help on an ad-hoc basis. While there are some examples of differences between markets (for example, in ANZ we celebrate NAIDOC week - National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee), the overall team structure is similar in all countries: A core team is in charge of the diversity agenda as well as setting and tracking objectives.

Objectives to further foster diversity and inclusion

At HelloFresh, Diversity and Inclusion means looking at a number of different areas. These include gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, age, culture, ethnicity, intellectual diversity, diversity in leadership and mental health. This year the Berlin HQ D&I committee agreed on a set of objectives, making actions and responsibilities tangible for the first time. The objectives include enabling more diversity and inclusion within all levels of the organisation - from promotions, women in technology and recruitment. In addition, the committee is set out to build a more inclusive environment through education and transparency. For example, the team in Berlin is including D&I in its onboarding session and the team in London has organised a company-wide D&I training session. The DE&I function in the US has hosted Implicit Bias Training, Inclusive Hiring Training, Executive DE&I Training for the executive leadership team, and ongoing listening sessions to gather employees and offer them a safe space to share experiences and empathize with one another.

Led by employees, sponsored by Senior Leadership  

Both committees and ERG’s are employee-led but with close support and sponsorship from the Senior Leadership team. 

Thomas Griesel, co-founder of HelloFresh says: “There are over 70 nationalities of all colors, ethnicities, creeds and sexual orientations and so many different cultures represented in our Berlin HQ alone. I’m extremely proud of that. At the same time, it’s important to recognize that diversity doesn’t automatically include equity and inclusion. That’s why we’re taking this very seriously and doubling down on our efforts.”   

D&I is about inspiring others

The team in Berlin meets regularly on a biweekly basis and assigns clear ownership of tasks amongst each other to be as organized as possible.

Dina Mehrez, head of the D&I committee in Berlin says: “While we’re still working towards fully leveraging the diversity within HelloFresh and always improving inclusion, I am inspired by the consistent effort to achieve this. The HelloFresh DNA emphasizes both egoless environment and data drivenness, which means that there are constant efforts to weed out subjective judgement and prejudices.”

“I’m also very proud of the diversity-related events over the years, where I’ve seen some of my colleagues open up courageously and honestly share their experiences in a truly inspiring way. There’s no better way to advocate for diversity and inclusion than hearing each other’s stories and building that connection”, Dina continues.