Our Diversity & Inclusion journey
Creating a diverse and inclusive culture is never done or complete. It’s not a sprint but a marathon that requires continuous effort from management, leaders, teams, and every single employee. Our goal is to continuously cultivate and enhance the unique culture at idealo, ensuring that every day we fulfill our promise: At idealo, we want you to be exactly who you are!
Walk the talk!
Tolerance, freedom, and the recognition of the diverse realities of our employees' lives form the foundation of our togetherness at idealo. These principles are deeply rooted in our code of conduct. But it’s not enough for them to be merely words on a page—we strive to bring them to life every single day. Again and again, and now more than ever!
Inclusion agreement for people with severe disabilities
In 2019, we launched our first inclusion agreement. We make clear that inclusion is not just an abstract concept but a concrete task we all want to fill with life in our daily work. Our measures aim to improve the environment of employees with disabilities and to promote diversity and equal opportunities within our company. As such the Representative for severely disabled persons at idealo works closely with the Management, the People Team and other functions at idealo and within the Axel Springer Group to create awareness and take concrete measures to make idealo an inclusive workplace.
Communities of Belonging
idealo is about participation, be it for sustainable or social matters: our employees take responsibility and idealo provides the space where these initiatives can grow. And now we are taking this one step further. We encourage and support our colleagues to constitute communities of belonging at idealo and in the Axel Springer Group to exchange within the respective community and to create visibility for certain groups and their topics.
Attract & hire diverse talent
We believe that our workforce must reflect the beautiful diversity of our millions of customers in Europe to create products that matter and add value to our customers. Therefore, we train our Recruiters, Hiring Managers and Leaders to challenge their unconscious biases and to hire for diversity to make their teams stronger not uniform.
Safe Spaces
LGBTQ+ and other marginalized people are repeatedly exposed to verbal and physical attacks in their everyday lives. As part of the Axel Springer Group, we support the "Safe Spaces" initiative to offer people in an emergency an open door to a safe space - and not just when they work for idealo.
Inclusive Language
Language creates reality! That's why we invite our employees to reflect on their language habits, to discuss them in the team and to make sure that people and groups are not only meant, but also named.
"We’ve already implemented various measures over the years to address and improve the lack of representation of women in leadership as well as Tech positions. Being part of the Gender Balanced Leadership Initiative allows us to align and focus our efforts to reach the target we set for ourselves.”
Caroline Erler Head of People
Our commitment for a balanced leadership at idealo
At idealo, women make up 45% of our workforce across all levels (as of 2024). However, if we focus solely on leadership positions — meaning all idealos with managerial responsibilities — the proportion of women stands at 42% (as of 2024), ranging from team leads to top management. While this is already significantly above the national average of 27% (as of 2021), we recognize that if we truly want to contribute to diversity and fair representation, we cannot be satisfied with the current situation.
Therefore, as part of the Axel Springer Group's Gender Balanced Leadership (GBL) Initiative, we have set ourselves the goal of increasing the proportion of women in leadership positions at idealo to 44% by 2026. (German press release, Sept 9th, 2021)
But why?
This goal within the framework of the GBL initiative is the first step for idealo to set its own targets in the area of Diversity & Inclusion and to continuously monitor their progress. We are confident that the planned measures and changes at the leadership levels offer a significant opportunity to make our entire organisation more diverse. Therefore, we currently see the focus on leadership positions as the most effective lever to advance diversity and inclusion across all dimensions.
Diverse Teams in the Tech Department at idealo
We firmly believe that diverse teams lead to better and more sustainable business success, foster more significant innovation, and positively influence corporate culture. However, women remain significantly underrepresented in technical roles, and we are determined to change that! Our goal is to encourage more women to pursue tech careers, integrate them into our Tech & Product teams, enhance their visibility, and promote their growth, ultimately working to close the gender gap in the tech industry.
Why do we need diverse leaders (not only) in tech companies?
Diverse leadership brings a wealth of experiences and perspectives. It inspires new approaches to thinking and problem-solving, fosters a growth mindset, and creates an environment that is open to innovations and new ideas.
We are convinced that having more visible role models can help people see various career paths as both achievable and desirable.
D&I at idealo in figures
Nationalities
Average age at idealo
Women vs. men at all management levels (as at August 2024)*
Women vs. men in the entire workforce (as at August 2024)*
*We’re currently only processing binary genders but we’re working on a solution to represent our employees in our systems and figures as they identify themselves.
Become part of an increasingly diverse community!
We want to move e-commerce in Europe together. This requires a wide variety of perspectives, experiences, personalities, and skills. Check our current vacancies!