Executive Update

In June 2020, we made a public commitment to our staff, clients and communities worldwide to take meaningful steps to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion in our workplaces and the markets in which we operate. As part of that commitment, we recognised the importance of holding ourselves accountable through the publication of regular reports on our actions and progress. Our first diversity and inclusion report was published in August 2020 and a subsequent update in November 2020. Since then, we have made progress in advancing our mission to champion diversity and inclusion in all aspects of our business

Notably, reflecting our commitments to data-driven solutions, and measuring and reporting our progress, we have conducted our first survey to assess employee perceptions of inclusion and our second diversity audit. Inclusion survey results indicated 74% of our employees agree or strongly agree that ZIMMERMANN recognizes and values people of all backgrounds and individual differences with an additional 22% of employees scoring this item as neutral. While we are pleased to learn that the majority of our staff hold positive perceptions of our efforts, survey results highlighted some areas of opportunity for us to further strengthen inclusion at ZIMMERMANN and we have begun exploring targeted solutions.

We have also increased our investment in learning and development over the quarter. In February, we launched a bespoke leadership development program, the ZIMMERMANN Leadership Series, for our valued executives and emerging leaders. Across our broader workforce, we rolled out compulsory modern slavery training and added mandatory compliance modules on bullying, harassment, and other workplace health and safety issues to our learning management system.

In addition, we continued our focus on inclusive recruitment by reviewing the language used in our job advertisements for bias, continuing to advertise on diversity-focused job boards, and extending our partnerships with organisations that promote the employment of traditionally underrepresented talent, including CareerTrackers in Australia and Black in Fashion Council in the United States. We also launched Careers Day to provide our staff with an opportunity to learn more about opportunities for growth and development across our business.

Reflecting our commitment to cultivating an inclusive workplace, we have introduced an Annual Personal Day, which is an additional day of paid leave per calendar year for full-time employees for the purpose of celebrating or observing an event of personal or cultural significance.

We have also extended our commitment to inclusion to our clients, expanding our sizing range in response to a regular review of client needs. Also, regarding design, we reiterated our core values of integrity and authenticity, and implemented further processes to prevent inadvertent cultural appropriation of garments.

We also continued our support of marginalised groups in our communities over the last quarter.  In Australia, we engaged with members of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community to work with us on developing an Acknowledgement of Country, which you may be viewed here. An Acknowledgement of Country is a way of showing respect for Traditional Custodians of land across Australia and the continuing connection of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to it. As part of the adoption of an Acknowledgement of Country, we began our Indigenous cultural awareness journey implementing mandatory training across our retail and corporate workforce. Also in Australia, we continued our corporate social responsibility work with AIME—a global not-for-profit seeking to eradicate educational inequality.

Although we have taken many positive steps towards advancing diversity and inclusion over the past year, we know that there is still much work to be done, and that effective change takes time and sustained commitment. We continue to listen and learn so as to improve and extend our efforts. We invite to you to follow our progress through future updates in the Careers section of ZIMMERMANN.COM where you can also review our diversity and inclusion statement, commitments, and year to date progress.

 

Regards,

Chris Oliver, CEO

Simone Zimmermann, Founder and COO

Nicky Zimmermann, Founder and Creative Director

 

 

DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION STATEMENT - MAY 2021

At ZIMMERMANN, we are on an ongoing journey to build a socially responsible brand. We are committed to empowering diverse perspectives and voices, both within our company and in the communities in which we operate.

We value creativity and know that great creativity requires different voices and perspectives. We seek to create a working environment that is diverse, supportive, respectful and encouraging and values uniqueness. We take meaningful action to advance the diversity of our workforce and to promote an inclusive culture, providing resources and training to our talented teams to develop their diversity and inclusion capability. We regularly review our policies, practices, and employee benefits for inclusivity. We endorse a zero-tolerance approach to racism and discrimination.

As a global brand, we recognise we have an opportunity and a responsibility to disrupt prejudices and promote equity beyond our workplace. We continue to seek diverse and inclusive representation in our campaigns and shows. We recognise the diversity of our clients and seek to understand and meet their varied needs, preferences and sensitivities within a viable commercial framework. We partner with organisations that share our commitment to improving the employment of traditionally underrepresented talent and the wellbeing and security of marginalised groups in the communities in which we operate.

We know that meaningful change requires honest reflection, genuine commitment, and ongoing learning. We continue to actively listen to and learn from our staff, clients, and communities and engage with experts on how we can advance diversity and inclusion both as an employer and as a brand. To drive accountability, we track and regularly report on our progress to our teams, partners and communities.

OUR COMMITMENT

As previously announced as part of our June 2020 Diversity and Inclusion Statement here, ZIMMERMANN has made the following commitments:

• Reinforcing zero tolerance for racism or discrimination in our workplaces
• Increasing diversity in recruitment across our business
• Ongoing training for all our teams – corporate and retail – to support our commitment to diverse and inclusive workplaces
• Ensuring we have diverse representation in our campaigns and shows – both behind the scenes and on the runway
• Partnering with other organisations in the communities we operate to improve the participation of diverse talent in our industry, and to promote safe, respectful and equitable communities
• Encouraging our partners to make similar commitments and to be active in the conversation about how brands can be a force for change
• Establishing a Diversity and Inclusion Group (D&I Group) to lead and drive our actions

Our commitments are supported by substantive actions, initiatives, and projects to drive measurable results, and are reviewed and extended over time to advance our progress.

OUR PROGRESS

Governance

In July 2020, we established the ZIMMERMANN Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) Group. Comprised of senior leaders with varied racial and ethnic backgrounds, roles, experience and locations across our business, and chaired by our Chief Operating Officer, the D&I Group leads, drives, and tracks delivery of our commitments to diversity, equity and inclusion. Group members meet bi-monthly to review progress on our stated commitments, explore new opportunities for building a more equitable organisation, and agree on new commitments to advance our progress. To ensure our efforts are results-driven and best-practice, the D&I Group has engaged two external experts, one in Australia and one in the US, to provide guidance and recommendations on its initiatives and progress. We have also established a revolving observer seat to provide more employees from across our business with an opportunity to contribute to the group.

Learning and Development

Reflecting our commitment to developing the diversity and inclusion capability of our team, we have implemented a mandatory face-to-face unconscious bias training program for all leaders and hiring managers, customised for our industry and tailored to support the achievement of our diversity and inclusion goals. Going forward, all new managers and hiring managers will participate in annual immersive training on unconscious bias as their career development progresses. 

We have also implemented a new global learning management solution that covers mandatory workplace behaviour content, tailored to each region in our business. Topics include anti-racism and EEO, modern slavery, wellbeing and anti-bullying and harassment. Every team member, whether in our stores or in our offices, is required to complete courses relevant to their region and these courses will form part of the onboarding of every new team member joining us at ZIMMERMANN.

We have also strengthened our commitment to supporting the career development and progression of our valued talent. The ZIMMERMANN Leadership Series is a bespoke leadership program designed for our valued executives and emerging leaders and will be run annually for new managers.

Recruitment

Reflecting our commitment to increasing the diversity of our recruitment, we have implemented targeted advertising of open positions on diversity-focused job boards. In addition, we have implemented processes to ensure all job advertisements are welcoming to diverse talent. Also, as noted above, all hiring managers are required to undertake unconscious bias training tailored to their role.

We have also established partnerships with organisations committed to the employment of traditionally underrepresented talent, including  CareerTrackers in Australia and Black in Fashion Council in the U.S.

CareerTrackers is an Australian non-profit with a mission to build Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander representation across sectors of professional employment and nurture the emerging leaders for our future. The organisation works with students from Year 12 through to university linking them to multi-year paid professional internships in relation to their dreams and aspirations. Partnering with employers, universities, and a broader ecosystem of Indigenous services, CareerTrackers create a long-term sustainable pathway for students to enter professional employment. ZIMMERMANN’s partnership with CareerTrackers supports Fashion Textiles Design students with the goal to create a full-time role at the completion of their studies. The first design student commenced their placement in November 2020.

Also in Australia, we have introduced a structured and paid Graduate Training Program to introduce talented young people into our industry more effectively than traditional short-term work experience programs. We have set a diversity target for the program such that at least one of the three Design graduates will be an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander student or from a minority background.

We have resolved to use the Australian program as a template in our US business in lieu of unpaid internships in order to create a better training experience and a more positive work environment.

BIFC (Black in Fashion Council) is an American organisation established to represent and secure the advancement of Black individuals in the fashion and beauty industry in the United States. BIFC envisions workplaces where Black people are represented and amplified at every level, holding jobs in both C-suite and junior-level positions, and work alongside allies to create diverse spaces that directly reflect what the world actually looks like at large. ZIMMERMANN's partnership with BIFC will allow us to continue to work towards building a foundation for inclusion and diversity in the US, utilizing the BIFC resources and guidance. BIFC will also partner with us to provide feedback, counsel and amplification of ways in which we are delivering on our commitments. In addition, we have access to the BIFC Jobs Board to list roles and search for diverse candidates to fill roles.

Supplementing our external recruitment initiatives, our Careers Day provides all team members with an opportunity to learn more about the varied opportunities available to them across our business so that they can continue to acquire new skills and develop their careers at ZIMMERMANN.

Workforce Diversity

We recognise that to create substantive and enduring changes in the diversity of our business, we must be clear about where we stand today. In order to hold ourselves accountable and make quantifiable changes, we must also be more transparent.

We have taken the time to review our organisation and learn more about our team to ensure that we better reflect the uniqueness of our client and our communities in different parts of the world. In the US, collecting information on the gender, race and ethnicity composition of our workforce is required as part of the Equal Employment Opportunity survey and data (EEO-1 Data). In Australia and Europe, organisations may only compile this information through voluntary disclosure. In order to gain more visibility beyond the US, we conducted an optional and anonymous survey in July 2020. To track our progress, we repeated the survey in May 2021.

A summary of the information we have collected in relation to our team is set out below.

ZIMMERMANN’s GLOBAL WORKFORCE

Our corporate offices are located in Sydney (83% of employees), New York (11% employees), and Paris (6% of employees). In terms of organisational function, 43% of our team is employed in Corporate/Office roles and 57% in Retail/Store roles.

Employees participated in our voluntary survey from each of our corporate offices located in Sydney (ZIMMERMANN Global HQ), New York and Paris, as well as our 38 stores across cities in Australia, USA, UK, France and Italy. In total, 48% of our employees completed this survey in July 2020 and 60% in May 2021. Currently our team is made up of people from 35 nationalities. Self-identification data for gender and race and ethnicity is provided below.

Gender Diversity

	May 2021	June 2020
Female	94%	94%
Male	6%	5%
Non-Binary/Other	<1%	<1%
Prefer Not to Say	1%	1%

Race/Ethnic Diversity

	May 2021	June 2020
White	66%	66%
Asian or Pacific Islander	17%	15%
Multiple/Two or More Races	8%	9%
Hispanic or Latinx	3%	4%
Black or African American	2%	2%
Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander	<1%	0%
Other	2%	2%
Prefer Not To Say	2%	1%

 

ZIMMERMANN in the USA

 

In the United States, we collect diversity data to comply with EEO-1 reporting requirements of the Federal Government. A summary of our most recent EEO-1 Report is provided below. To align with government reporting schedules, the EEO-1 Report is dated 17 April 2021.

The data is presented using traditional gender categories of male and female. ZIMMERMANN respects that gender is non-binary and adopts a more inclusive identification in our voluntary global survey.

Gender Diversity

	April 2021	June 2020
Female	86%	87%
Male	14%	13%

 

Race/Ethnic Diversity

	April 2021	June 2020
American Indian or Alaska Native	1%	1%
Asian	9%	11%
Hispanic or Latinx	15%	15%
Black or African American	9%	5%
Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander	0%	1%
Two or More Races	15%	16%
White	51%	48%

 

Content Diversity

Shows and Campaigns

We have committed to ensure that our shows, campaigns and brand content reflect the diversity of the different communities that we operate in.

The casting of our runway shows continues to evolve - as we have moved from our first presentations in Australia, to shows in New York over the past several years and since the pandemic, our latest digital presentations. To view our most recent presentations and their casting, you may visit our Fall 2021 Collection Presentation and our Spring 2021 Collection Presentation, both shot in Sydney.

Like our shows and presentations, our campaigns are an important opportunity for us to express the creative vision for our season and we continue to work to build on their diversity. To view our most recent Campaigns, please visit our Spring 2021 Campaign, Resort 2021 Ready-to-Wear Campaign and our Resort 2021 Swim Campaign.

We continue to review our Runway shows, presentations, campaigns, and lookbooks, and to report on the representation of diversity in these brand communications.

Social Media

Over the past 12-month period, representation of Black, Indigenous and non-white ethnic groups on our major social media platforms has been in excess of 30% of images featuring people. We are committed to providing more consistent racial, ethnic, and cultural representation and diversity in our social media feeds, the content of which is commonly derived from our shows, presentations, campaigns, and brand events.

Inclusive Workplace & Culture

As part of our ongoing efforts to foster a more diverse and inclusive workplace, we have implemented a regular pulse survey to tap perceptions of inclusion, equity, and belonging. The results from the survey will be used to track our progress and to provide us with insights into areas where we can improve. Results of our first survey administered in April 2021 indicated 74% of our employees agree or strongly agree that ZIMMERMANN values people with diverse backgrounds and experiences with an additional 22% of employees scoring this item as neutral. While we are pleased to learn that the majority of our staff hold positive perceptions of inclusion, survey results highlighted some areas of opportunity for us to further strengthen inclusion at ZIMMERMANN and we have begun exploring targeted solutions.

Actions we have taken to date to foster an inclusive workplace and culture include reviewing all of our internal training materials, particularly for our retail teams, to ensure that these guides and resources are inclusive and aligned with our core values. In addition, in response to a review of our employee benefits, every full-time employee at ZIMMERMANN is now entitled to an Annual Personal Day, being an additional day of paid leave per calendar year, for the purpose of celebrating or observing an event of personal or cultural significance. We have also strengthened our employee education regarding reporting inappropriate workplace behaviour. In this regard, we have in place anonymous reporting hotlines to raise workplace incidents in all regions.

Inclusive Design

Aligning with our core values of integrity and authenticity, we have implemented further processes to prevent inadvertent cultural appropriation in our design process. We have also extended our commitment to inclusion to our clients, expanding our sizing range in response to a regular review of clients needs.

Corporate Social Responsibility & Community

Partnerships

AIME is an Australian based global organisation that has worked for 16 years as an IMAGI-NATION{Factory} looking to eradicate educational inequality for marginalised ​children and build bridges to a fairer world. The organisation provides support and mentorship for marginalised students to complete secondary schooling and transition into tertiary education and employment; equipping them with the tools they need to be entrepreneurs and for companies to fast-track diverse leaders into senior management to level the organisational playing field. AIME specifically targets 13 to 17 year-old school students from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and other marginalized backgrounds with the aim of mentoring them to “re-imagine” their future to access tertiary education and post school pathways.

As part of an ongoing partnership, ZIMMERMANN is working with AIME to provide operational expertise and in-kind services to support the production and distribution of its 'most meaningful Hoodie in the world' program, a source of fundraising for the organization. Looking ahead, AIME and ZIMMERMANN are working towards promoting careers in Fashion Design in 2021, consisting of co-designed and co-produced online material delivered through a Learning Management System, which will be accessed globally by students and educators. We have also joined the AIME Fundraising Committee.

Acknowledgement of Country

In Australia, we engaged with members of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community to work with us on developing an Acknowledgement of Country for display in our Australian stores and on our website. An Acknowledgement of Country is a way of showing respect for Traditional Custodians of land across Australia and the continuing connection of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to those lands. As part of the adoption of an Acknowledgement of Country, we began our indigenous cultural awareness journey implementing mandatory training across our retail and corporate workforce.

Advocacy

We share the steps we are taking towards positive change with our business partners, advocating to drive diversity and inclusion in the fashion industry through collective change efforts.

Community Feedback

While we regularly receive encouraging and positive feedback from our community, we equally appreciate the feedback on what we can do better. Any complaint or unpleasant experience with our brand from any person is welcomed.  We are listening and we are acting. To contact us, please email clientservices@zimmermann.com.

Future Updates

We recognise there is much work to do and effective change takes time, but we are committed to taking the actions necessary to create a more diverse and inclusive ZIMMERMANN. As our D&I Group continues its work, we will provide regular updates on our progress and the initiatives we are implementing here and in the Careers section.