Head, Heart, and Guts: How the World’s Best Workplaces Are Changing the World of Work

 With more than 100,000 employees in 220 countries and territories, DHL is the definition of a truly international company — which means plenty of challenges when it comes to rolling out a unified strategy and common core values.

“For multinational company leaders, it’s vital to consider the varying regional and country-level perspectives,” says Buettner. “You need to really get to know and understand local cultural sensitivities.”

DHL relies on an annual employee survey to assess employee trust across the company, examining responses at the local level and then looking for patterns within regions and globally. A sounding board and steering committee featuring members from different countries also act as liaisons between the regions and global management board to review things like employee engagement and diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.

“The main focus is really on trust, and how our people feel,” says Buettner. “It’s not important what we as a management team want…What’s important is how people feel, how people understand. And this is why we get feedback: To see what we can do better.”

For DHL, inclusion means adjusting diversity efforts to fit local cultural norms in its 220 countries. “Diversity is not the same everywhere,” warns Buettner.

She points to an experience in Saudi Arabia, in which DHL wanted to hire more women, however, women in the country were forbidden to share a workspace with men. As a workaround, DHL created a dedicated workspace where women could join the team; currently, DHL’s sales director and HR director in Saudi Arabia are both women.

DEIB is also very much about understanding the difference between equality and equity, says Buettner. After COVID hit, DHL decided to pay out a €300 bonus to everyone. While there was initial discussion about adjusting payouts regionally to reflect exchange rates and local costs of living, in the end, DHL opted to pay everyone the same amount — the rationale being employees in developing countries were likely struggling more than their colleagues in more developed places.