Kohl’s Makes Pledge for Progress in Diversity and Inclusion

In 2020, Kohl’s shared our commitment to our new diversity and inclusion strategy focused on Our People, Our Customers and Our Community and our mission to empower more families through equity, diversity and inclusion. While this has always been part of our culture, our new strategy accelerates how we are embedding diversity and inclusion throughout our business by being intentional about our programs and practices and holding ourselves accountable with measurable goals and results.

Today we are proud to share our Pledge for Progress, outlining our key areas of focus for impactful change. Supporting our Pledge are our Core Beliefs: 

• We believe embedding equity, diversity and inclusion in everything we do requires an ongoing journey of listening, learning and taking action. 

• We believe civil rights are human rights and that anti-racism and our commitment to non-discrimination are critical to upholding Kohl’s core values, ethical practices and Code of Conduct. 

• We believe Kohl’s can create lasting change by addressing inequities to positively impact our people, customers and community. 

• We believe Kohl’s is accountable for inspiring empathy, creating an environment of belonging and identifying and addressing bias. 

We look forward to sharing our progress throughout our journey, and will report on our progress in our annual Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) report each spring.

Our Pledge for Progress

OUR PEOPLE

• We pledge to take action to increase diversity across our associate population to better reflect our customers and our country. We’ll accomplish this by:

  • Expanding our talent attraction practices to make more meaningful connections with underrepresented professionals, with a specific focus on partnering with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities, as well as building relationships with Black and Hispanic professional associations.

  • Enhancing our hiring practices, leveraging new recruitment tools and expanding our search parameters to require diverse candidate slates at every level of the organization.

• We pledge to increase representation of women and Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) across our leadership ranks. We’ll accomplish this by:

  • Formally reviewing the composition of leadership on a quarterly basis and taking action to drive significant change.

  • Offering new development, mentorship and sponsorship opportunities for underrepresented talent across our organization. 

• We pledge to maintain strong inclusion and address opportunities to strengthen belonging among underrepresented associate groups who experience lower engagement. We’ll accomplish this by:

  • Requiring ongoing training to drive inclusive leadership, manage bias and appreciate the value of differences.

  • Embedding diversity and inclusion as a required component of individual leadership goals, ensuring our leaders understand they are accountable for behaviors and actions that build equity and belonging.

  • Committing to ongoing listening sessions, leadership presentations and Business Resource Group engagement that serve to maintain an ongoing dialogue while championing the value of diversity and inclusion.

  • Evaluating and improving our policies and practices to drive equity across our business practices and “people processes” including (but not limited to) talent management, performance, development, engagement, compensation and benefits. Our policies must directly connect to our inclusive values and our ethical standards -- and we will not tolerate language, behaviors and actions that are divisive, marginalizing or disrespectful of the inclusive culture we value at Kohl's.

OUR CUSTOMERS

• We pledge to increase relevancy among Black and Hispanic customers. We’ll accomplish this by: 

  • Launching and leveraging an in-house Diversity Design Council to develop, purchase and/or curate culturally-relevant products.

  • Leveraging our scale, resources and expertise to empower diverse creators and businesses.

  • Creating a brand voice and amplifying cultural moments to deliberately include, reflect and celebrate the diversity of Black and Hispanic families. 

  • Enhancing the diverse representation of Black and Hispanic families across all marketing and storytelling channels. 

  • Partnering with influencers and ambassadors who lend their voices to racial equality.

  • Driving a consistent environment of belonging for Black and Hispanic customers through meaningful messaging, relevant product offerings and a welcoming omni-channel experience that inspires and speaks directly to unique cultural interests and needs.

OUR COMMUNITY

• We pledge to invest more to support the unique needs of diverse, underserved communities with a focus on addressing disparities in career development, family support, housing and wellness. We’ll accomplish this by: 

  • Working with all charitable partners supporting family health and wellness, as well as non-profit organizations who engage in our Kohl’s volunteer program, to identify, enhance and report Kohl’s charitable support of BIPOC, LGBTQ+, women and People with Disabilities. 

  • Enhancing equity, economic empowerment and quality of life for women, along with Black and Hispanic communities, with an elevated focus on our hometown of Milwaukee, including enhanced partnerships with organizations like Milwaukee Urban League, Employ Milwaukee, Acts Housing, Safe & Sound, and Boys & Girls Club of Greater Milwaukee.

• We pledge to double our spending among diverse suppliers. We’ll accomplish this by: 

  • Creating a Supplier Diversity team to embed and activate supplier diversity best practices across our supply chain processes.

  • Creating reporting tools and technology to assess and track progress in supplier diversity growth.

To learn more about Kohl’s commitment to diversity and inclusion, or to access Kohl’s 2019 CSR Report, visit Corporate.Kohls.com.