Dentsply Sirona continues to be a driving force for promoting women throughout the organization and goes beyond in impacting the entire dental industry. In celebration of International Women’s Day on March 8, it has reaffirmed and expanded its longstanding commitment to empowering women worldwide. In line with the day’s 2023 theme of “Embrace Equity,” Dentsply Sirona continues to be a strong advocate for more measures in the dental industry to promote women, ensuring they have the opportunity to experience true equity, while having their voices heard, their expertise recognized, and their achievements celebrated.
Dentsply Sirona has been promoting women in dentistry for years with a range of successful measures and initiatives. The Company has also made diversity, equity and inclusion a key focus of its sustainability strategy “BEYOND: Taking action for a brighter world.”
“Embracing Equity goes beyond equality for women in the workplace,” says Lisa Yankie, Chief Human Resources Officer at Dentsply Sirona. “It is about taking action to ensure a fair opportunity for all women and finding ways in which we can make progress for a better future in this area.”
Company-wide programs drive diversity, equity and inclusion
Internal initiatives at Dentsply Sirona to promote women empowerment include ‘DS Women’, an Employee Resource Group that works to help elevate female talent through professional development, affording women opportunities to ensure lead practices and take center stage in the company. DS Women has grown to include members in 40 countries across eight global regions, and sponsors events throughout the year, including the Chicago Women’s Breakfast - a top event for female dental industry leaders attending the Chicago Dental Society’s Midwinter Meeting.
“As a leader in the dental industry, we have the opportunity and the obligation to be a leader in the promotion, commitment and actions to drive gender equity,” said Glenn Coleman, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Executive Sponsor of DS Women. “While we recognize and appreciate this is an ongoing journey, I am proud of where we are and in the direction we are going."
Dentsply Sirona also hosts training and awareness sessions for all employees around the world on how to identify and eliminate unconscious bias, while building inclusivity inside and outside the workplace. In addition to this, and as part of its sustainability program, the Company is a signatory of the Paradigm for Parity commitment, pledging toward the goal of achieving full gender parity by 2030. Dentsply Sirona is working to achieve both gender parity and gender pay parity by 2025. As of this past year, 44 percent of the Dentsply Sirona global workforce is female, including 49 percent of those at or above the Director level. In July 2022, the global gender pay gap across internal professional managerial levels was at 1.3 percent, a drop of nearly four percentage points from the previous year.
Driving change in the industry
Dentsply Sirona also looks beyond its own employees to bring about change in the dental community through several initiatives and actions. Dentsply Sirona sponsors a global speaker development program called FirstTo50 which promotes women dentists, specialists and dental assistants as speakers at industry events and provides structured speaker training for all levels of experience. Two classes and a total of 16 women participated in the FirstTo50 programs in 2021. In 2022 the program expanded from two to five cohorts. Former and recent graduates have spoken at many industry-leading events, including Dentsply Sirona World 2021 and 2022 in Las Vegas and the PEERS (Platform for Exchange of Experience, Research and Science) meeting in the UK.
In addition, Dentsply Sirona is a partner of ‘Women in DSO’, an association that provides mentoring, learning and development programs to women in dental service organizations. To promote diversity in those who enter the dental profession, Dentsply Sirona also recently announced a partnership with the National Dental Association, to help fund NDA programs and support opportunities to provide minority communities with access to excellent dental education, leveraging Dentsply Sirona’s dental technology to educate dentists and student dentists of color.
Fundraising Campaign in favor of “CARE”
To celebrate International Women’s Day, the DACH chapter of DS Women ERG has organized a fundraiser for Dentsply Sirona employees. Running from February 7th to March 31st, the objective is to raise 2,000 euros for the German non-profit organization CARE, which helps women and girls in need in their fight for comprehensive and equal human rights around the world through multiple educational, well-being and economic empowerment initiatives.
Dentsply Sirona’s latest Sustainability Report is available for download here: https://www.dentsplysirona.com/sustainability
