Employee Experience

Significance

Importance To Berry Global and our Stakeholders

A diverse workforce unites people with varied perspectives, backgrounds, and experiences, sparking the development of innovative solutions, products, and approaches that are critical for our business to stay competitive and meet changing consumer demands. By working to create an environment where all members of our workforce feel included and treated fairly, regardless of their background, we help enhance employee morale, job satisfaction, loyalty, and overall productivity. 

Our Employee Experience strategy demonstrates our commitment to meeting evolving societal expectations with ethical leadership as businesses are increasingly evaluated for social responsibility.

Our Customers: By fostering a diverse and inclusive workplace, we can better connect with our diverse customer base and deliver innovative solutions to meet their unique needs. We believe that cultivating an environment that is inclusive of the broad range of cultures, backgrounds and experiences represented among our employees, customers and suppliers is integral to our business success.

Our Investors: Our commitment to inclusion for all makes us more adept at attracting top talent, fostering innovation, and adapting to changing market dynamics - factors that contribute to long-term growth and financial stability.

Our Approach

Berry is committed to advancing inclusion for all as part of the employee experience because it benefits our business while also being the right thing to do. When we cultivate a diverse, engaged, and cohesive team where all feel welcome and respected, we innovate, operate, and perform better in service of our customers, shareholders, and communities. People are at the heart of everything we do. We are dedicated to building a workforce that reflects the rich diversity of our global community. Our approach goes beyond simply hiring talent—we actively cultivate an inclusive environment that values different perspectives, backgrounds, and experiences. By embracing our employees’, customers’, and suppliers’ unique contributions, we create a dynamic, innovative workplace that drives our collective success. 

Berry actively engages with local organizations dedicated to advancing inclusion for all. By forming meaningful collaborations, we extend our impact beyond our corporate walls and contribute to broader social progress. We are embedding inclusion into every aspect of our business—from our hiring practices to our operational processes. This holistic approach ensures we maintain our competitive edge as a global leader committed to embracing human potential.

In 2024, we strengthened our Employee Experience initiatives through multiple channels. Our engagement survey now includes nine new Employee Experience-focused questions to help identify key cultural priorities. We also partnered with an external Employee Experience consultant who conducted senior leadership interviews, providing valuable insights to guide our strategy. Additionally, we expanded our training program to include Employee Experience components around a culture of inclusion for all: A dedicated module in our annual compliance training and unconscious bias training in our Leadership Development Program.

Highlights and Target Progress

Key Metrics

The below metrics are based on Berry's fiscal years unless otherwise noted.

Key Strategies

We believe that our employees are integral to achieving more together for customers and our communities. We attribute a significant part of our success as a company to our ability to recruit, hire, retain, and develop a positive and productive workforce. We are committed to creating a workplace where ideas, energy, teamwork, and dedication fuel our success and where all employees can thrive and meet their potential.

In 2024, we launched our I Can B Me at Berry strategic initiative, spearheaded by our global leader of Employee Experience, which strives to foster a people-first culture that is inclusive of a broad range of cultures, backgrounds, and experiences represented among its employees, customers, and suppliers. We are continuously learning and making progress on creating a welcoming environment with a culture of inclusion for all. This not only increases the critical business need to retain talent but is also critical in our recruiting and staffing strategy. Bringing together individuals contributing as their authentic selves at #OneBerry, ultimately fulfilling our customer promise.

Our strategy is supported by two inclusion goals we set in 2021 as part of our commitment to embedding equity into our business practices – to increase the percentage of women in salaried roles to at least 40% by 2027, and to increase the percentage of people of color in U.S. based salaried roles to at least 18% over the same timeframe. As of 2024, the percentage of people of color in U.S. based salaried roles decreased from 17.1% in 2023 to 16.7%. Additionally, we have increased the percentage of salaried roles are held by women from 37.2% to 37.4% from 2023 to 2024.

We are committed to advancing our Employee Experience efforts by building a sustainable strategy that focuses on driving impact across four main pillars – People, Culture, Marketplace, and Community.

People | Develop a talented and diverse workforce

We aspire to build and maintain a high-performing, talented, and diverse workforce at all levels within Berry that is reflective of our communities.

Culture | Build an inclusive and equitable culture

We are cultivating an inclusive and equitable workplace culture in which employees thrive and are supported to reach their fullest career ambitions.

Community | Advance DE&I through partnerships

We are advancing equity in our local communities by building meaningful partnerships with groups and organizations focused on inclusion.

Marketplace | Imbed inclusion in our business

We have a responsibility to integrate inclusion throughout our business processes and relationships in order to maintain a competitive advantage as a global leader.

CEO Action for Diversity

We are proud to be a signatory of CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion™. This is the largest CEO driven business commitment to advance diversity and inclusion within the workplace. As part of this commitment, we pledge to cultivate a workplace where diverse perspectives and experiences are welcomed and respected, and where employees feel comfortable and encouraged to discuss diversity and inclusion.

Employee Resource Groups

I Can Be Me at Berry

The ‘I Can B Me’ culture-based initiative aims to cultivate a workplace environment where every Berry employee feels valued, respected, and empowered to bring their authentic selves to work. Our aspiration is to foster a culture of acceptance and belonging that brings out the best in all our people. ‘I Can B Me’ is deployed across the organization through our Business Resource Groups and Inclusion Ambassadors, employees leading the charge for inclusion at our manufacturing facilities.

Berry's Business Resource Groups

In 2024, we relaunched our Employee Resource Groups as Business Resource Groups. These are voluntary, employee-driven groups that advance Berry’s shared purpose, values, and our promise to employees, provide a sense of community and connection, create opportunities for professional development, and welcome all employees across the organization. They also have measurable performance metrics that have a direct impact and value for the business, and have been empowered to be able to deploy the ‘I Can B Me’ culture across our organization.

Supplier Diversity

Berry is committed to supporting economic development efforts with diverse suppliers to the extent that jobs may be provided, entrepreneurship may be advanced, and useful goods and services may be produced at competitive prices. We expect our suppliers to adhere to similar principles and support and develop supplier diversity programs within their organizations.

Disclosures

Contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

DG 5: Gender Equality

We value diversity, equality, and inclusion, and strive to achieve gender equality by creating equal opportunities for all, regardless of gender. We are also committed to challenging harmful gender norms within our industry by encouraging more women to pursue careers in the manufacturing and engineering industries.

SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth

We strive to embed equality across all our operations and create a supportive work environment where every employee can access decent work opportunities irrespective of their background.

SDG 10: Reduced Inequality 

By actively addressing biases, promoting fair treatment, and providing equal opportunities for underrepresented groups, we help reduce inequalities within our organizational sphere and industry. 

SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals

The elimination of equality is only possible through collaborations with various stakeholders, including non-governmental organizations, communities, and governmental bodies. Partnerships strengthen our internal commitment to diversity and enable us to apply DE&I principles to our wider business dealings.
 

GRI and SASB Alignment

GRI 405(3-3) Diversity and Equal Opportunity
GRI 405-1 Diversity of Governance Bodies and Employees

Last updated: March 17, 2025