OUR COMMITMENT TO INCLUSION AND DIVERSITY

Increase the Representation of Diverse Associates Along our Talent Pipeline

We recognize that having a diverse Associate base can help make us a stronger company and better able to serve our broad base of customers around the world. As we aim to increase the representation of diverse Associates along our talent pipeline, we are working to increase our efforts to recruit more diverse talent while continuing to focus on providing diverse Associates greater access to development opportunities.

To support our recruiting strategies, we continue to build on the training we offer to our talent acquisition teams, including through educational opportunities focused on inclusion and diversity. We use a tool in the U.S., Canada, and Europe designed to help identify and reduce potential unconscious biases in job descriptions and other recruiting materials. Our talent acquisition department has also established an inclusion and diversity committee that aims to increase proactive outreach to diverse communities, engagement with diverse candidates, and awareness and education with internal decisionmakers involved in hiring processes.

We are actively pursuing opportunities to increase minority candidate representation in early career positions, and we continue to work to expand the ways we approach our search for early career professionals. To inspire a broader range of candidates to consider careers at TJX, in fiscal 2022, we developed and expanded relationships with several nonprofit partners in the U.S.—such as Leadership Enterprise for a Diverse America, The Posse Foundation, Bottom Line, and Thrive Scholars—and have worked with them to support events, career development, and recruitment opportunities for underrepresented high school and college students. We have also enhanced our outreach to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and partnerships with diverse on-campus organizations for recruitment events. We believe these connections can help us create a pipeline of future diverse talent with TJX. Learn more about how we’re working to build a more diverse workforce in our Recruitment section.

Associates at TJX have the opportunity to access an array of development and retention opportunities internally and through external partnerships. TJX’s Global Leadership Curriculum and our Emerging Leaders program are among our strong internal professional development resources. We also have partnered with community-based non-profit organizations—such as The Partnership, Conexión, and a third-party leadership academy designed for Black executives and early- to mid-career managers in the U.S. and Europe, and through Business in the Community in Europe—to create access to external professional development programs for our diverse Associates. We are proud of our culture that prioritizes development and advancement within our organization, as we simultaneously work to build a more diverse pipeline of talent to support our efforts to increase diversity at all levels of our organization.

Equip Leaders with the Tools to Support Difference with Awareness, Fairness, Sensitivity, and Transparency

To support our efforts to fully integrate inclusion into our culture and business practices, we recognize that it is important that leaders from the very top and through every level of our organization exemplify and model a culture of inclusion. We have made it a priority to equip our leaders with the training and tools needed to better understand and embrace working with those who are different than themselves. By adding a focus on inclusion to our Leadership Competencies and Cultural Factors, we aim to formalize inclusion as a foundational value that represents who we are as a Company and how we expect our leaders and Associates to show up every day. As part of this, we are developing tools to support leaders across the Company in reflecting on and implementing inclusion-based values and behaviors. In tandem with this process, we are updating our Leadership Development Toolkit to help leaders across the Company deepen their understanding and implementation of inclusion-based values and behaviors. We are also enhancing our Global Leadership Curriculum to provide our newly hired and recently promoted leaders with tools to champion inclusion and encourage, empower, and engage their direct reports.

In addition to providing tools to support their own learning, we are also equipping managers with resources to help them engage in dialogue with their teams, including support for managers in our stores and distribution centers, to lead discussions with Associates around inclusion, diversity, and other challenging topics, such as unconscious bias.

Empower all Associates to Integrate Inclusive Behaviors, Language, and Practices in How We Work Together and Understand our Role and Responsibility in Inclusion

Inclusion is an ongoing journey, and everyone can play a part. For many years, TJX has offered education to increase Associates’ inclusion and diversity awareness. We believe this helps our Associates better understand how to foster a stronger culture of inclusion in the workplace, and we expect to continue to focus on these foundational education and awareness-building initiatives. When onboarding new hires, our orientation materials emphasize the high value we place on inclusion and diversity, and current Associates have access to an array of online learning resources. In fiscal 2022, we enhanced our education efforts to include an inclusion and diversity awareness training program, which was completed by thousands of TJX leaders globally, as well as a “Standing for Racial Justice” webinar series for Associates in our U.S. home office. Some of our other activities in this area include rolling out an updated unconscious bias training globally, new inclusion and diversity trainings and materials in Europe, and a speaker series on inclusion and diversity in Canada, among many additional initiatives.

To promote awareness and align with best practices, we are also working to continue to encourage honest conversations and Associate feedback. Over the past two years, our inclusion and diversity teams in the U.S., Europe, and Canada have conducted Associate listening sessions and focus groups to help guide open conversations, solicit input, and grow our collective capacity to be champions of inclusion. In fiscal 2022, we launched Inclusion & Diversity Advisory Boards in the U.S., Europe, and Canada, which are intended to empower cross-functional groups of Associates from our stores, distribution and processing centers, and offices to advise on our current and future inclusion and diversity work. Across various functions within the organization, Associates are setting up committees to better incorporate inclusion and diversity into our everyday work—including in merchandising, where teams are finding opportunities to use an inclusion and diversity lens on product assortments as appropriate for our opportunistic buying and off-price business model.

This past year we also launched a new global mentorship pilot initiative to foster Associates’ development by connecting them with leaders in our organization. The pilot is focused on Associates in our Associate Resource Groups and includes formal mentoring relationships, informal mentoring, and facilitated mentoring roundtables that are designed to generate group conversations on topics that were identified during focus group sessions, including career guidance, executive presence, self-awareness, and authentic leadership.

Additionally, in fiscal 2022, we also launched our new Being Inclusive framework to support all Associates, including managers and other leaders, in becoming more self-aware, committing to supporting others, and championing inclusivity. In the U.S., we are bringing this framework to life through our Being Inclusive Every Day initiative that helps leaders facilitate conversations in our offices, stores, and distribution centers.