Over 80% of Bev/Al Employees Experienced Bias at Work: Study

Some 84% of employees in the beer industry, 90% in the wine industry, and 89% in the spirits industry feel they have experienced bias at work, according to "Fostering Belonging & Inclusion in the Alcoholic Beverage Industry," the second report within Heineken's ongoing Behind the Label program.  In some cases, the bias was intentional; in others, a simple oversight.

The No. 1 indicator of bias, the report says, was that the employee's ideas weren't taken seriously (35%), followed by receiving work duties or assignments that didn't match his qualifications (32%), tied with having an overly critical performance review (32%) and being passed over for promotion (32%).  Some 30% felt they had less access to company leadership, 27% were excluded from teams or projects, 26% felt they couldn't advocate for themselves and 24% received what they considered an unwarranted disciplinary action.

Some 99% say their company has taken steps to become more inclusive and diverse in recruitment and hiring practices, and 70% are confident about their company's ability to improve diversity and inclusion.

Over half of the respondents said the C-suite or Executive level is one of the top two levels with the most diverse growth in their organization, followed by warehouse or operations (40%), director level (38%), sales/nonexecutive (38%) and supervisor level (29%).

The report recommends insuring that employees understand how the chance to participate in projects, to get a promotion and to feel fairly compensated help determine if an employee feels he is valued, and increases trust in their leaders.

More than one-third (38%) ranked clear benchmarks for advancement as one of the top three changes they would like to see the industry make moving forward, followed by greater pay transparency (37%).  

When it comes to pay equity, 60% of women and 58% of Hispanic employees feel there is a lack of pay equality in their workplace.  Older employees – those 40 and up – are more likely to say their workplace doesn't pay equally for similar work.  That's a concern shared by 68% of senior executives.