Equity, equality, diversity and inclusion at AbbVie

We believe a diverse workplace is a thriving workplace. Our EED&I strategy supports the health of our business, our culture and our people.

Bringing diversity of thought to the innovation process helps us break barriers and explore new frontiers in science. It is also a cornerstone of our human capital management approach.

Our CEO, Chief Equity Officer and the executive leadership team oversee our global Equity, Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (EED&I) strategy, actions, measurements and results. This executive level accountability ensures we hold ourselves responsible for taking significant steps towards our EED&I goals every year. Our EED&I strategy focuses on specific areas of opportunity in driving awareness and understanding, attracting, developing and engaging talent, and creating connections and community. Each of these areas has specific objectives and associated initiatives, including implementation plans organized by business function and geography. To reinforce this accountability, in 2020 our senior leaders committed to formal EED&I strategy execution goals. They also participated in EED&I immersion sessions to enhance their own learning and understanding equity, equality, diversity and inclusion.

Expand All

At AbbVie, we are committed to equity, equality, diversity and inclusion (EED&I) as these resonate with our core beliefs and also our strategic goals for healthier societies. We embrace the responsibility of making a remarkable impact on patients through the innovative medicines and solutions we create together. This is driven by Our Principles, one of which is Embracing Diversity & Inclusion.

Developing and bringing innovative, life-changing medicines to patients requires diversity of thought – and diversity of thought comes from a diverse workforce. Additionally important, we serve a wide variety of patient populations around the world and it is crucial that as a company, we reflect them and represent their voices.

Embracing Diversity & Inclusion is one of our five Principles. We treat everyone equally, with dignity and respect, and we welcome the diverse backgrounds and perspectives that allow us to achieve better health for societies.

Equity: Equity is about fairness. It is about varying levels of support to acknowledge the roles of certain advantages and differences. It accounts for varying levels of challenge and circumstance to get to the same starting point. It ensures that each person gets what they need. Equity refers to fairness and equality to achieve better outcomes, not just in support and opportunity. Sometimes, equity is the vehicle to equality.

Equality: At AbbVie, Equality is about appreciating differences and treating people with dignity and respect. It is the fair treatment of people regardless of their appearance or where they come from.

Diversity: We believe Diversity is about valuing our individual and collective differences while sharing an infinite range of ideas, viewpoints and backgrounds to broaden our perspective. We seek to build diverse teams at every level of the organization so that our impact can reach people from all walks of life.

Inclusion: At AbbVie, Inclusion takes on an active stance by accepting each person as an important part of our organization. It encourages a continuous collaboration between individuals and teams, allowing for new possibilities to be born out of different points of view. Most importantly, inclusion enables a sense of belonging, and it is through this that we create the most value from diverse teams.

We are committed to nurturing an inclusive culture where different perspectives are valued and new ideas can flourish. Our Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) help foster a diverse and inclusive environment where every voice is heard and valued. With a focus on career, community, company impact and culture – our ERGs help drive business results while also building a sense of community. They also focus on mentoring, professional development, talent attraction and networking.

We have seven ERGs:

Ability@AbbVie
AbbVie Hispanic/Latino Opportunity, Recognition, and Advancement (AHORA)
Asian Leadership Network (ALN)
Black Business Network (BBN)
PRIDE
Veterans
Women Leaders in Action (WLA)

Each group is open to all employees, whether you identify as part of the ERG or are an ally. As part of an ERG, employees have the opportunity to attend events, network, enhance their professional and leadership capabilities, and apply their unique talents and passion to further promote diversity, inclusion and cultural awareness.

In 2020, we were proud to have increased membership across every ERG since the prior year, including 53% overall and 165% outside of the United States.

An important part of our EED&I strategy is to instill an inclusive mindset in all leaders and employees so we can realize the full value of our diverse workforce. In 2020, we prioritized learning and education across the company by launching our virtual Impact through Inclusion Learning Series as well as our global Inclusive Culture Learning Series. To ensure clarity around the globe, we conducted pilot sessions for feedback around key differences and nuances, and brought in external speakers and experts for active listening and impact. All global senior leaders participated in immersion sessions designed to enhance their own learning and understanding of equity, equality, diversity and inclusion. Together, they discussed how to become more inclusive leaders and better stewards of science. In 2021, we rolled out several new courses – with more to come.
Through our Black Business Network Employee Resource Group, we created meaningful educational opportunities to help bring greater awareness to the AbbVie community. These programs were delivered virtually, allowing employees from anywhere in the world to participate.
Since 2014, our executive leaders have been participating in the Executive Diversity Mentoring Program—a program that pairs high performing, high potential, diverse talent with AbbVie senior executive leaders for a one-on-one mentoring partnership. Mentees gain insight into executive-level thinking at the enterprise-level through direct dialogue with successful leaders.
We expanded our diversity recruiting strategy to establish focused partnerships, and expand our commitment to Historically Black Colleges and Universities, as well as Hispanic Serving Institutions.
Our company demonstrated its long-term commitment to racial equality and social justice, which included a $5 million donation to the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund and the Equal Justice Initiative and a commitment of $50 million over five years to partner with nonprofits that share our goals. In addition, we signed the CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion™ pledge and Paradigm for Parity® as well as the Business Coalition for Equality Act.

54%

of global workforce are women

49%

Women in management positions

33%

Proportion of U.S. employees who are members of underrepresented populations

AbbVie is proud to be recognized by leading publications as a top employer, including:

AbbVie has consistently been ranked in the top 100 of Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For® since 2018, and #3 in Biopharma for 2021.

AbbVie ranked #15 on DiversityInc’s 2021 Top 50 Companies for Diversity, an influential ranking of diversity and inclusion practices

The Civic 50 recognizes AbbVie as one of the most community-minded companies in the U.S.

AbbVie ranked No. 25 on PEOPLE “50 Companies that Care” list, which highlights the top U.S. companies that have succeeded in business while also demonstrating outstanding respect, care and concern for their employees, their communities and the environment.

AbbVie earned a spot in the top 10 of Working Mother’s 100 Best Companies in 2020, 2020 Best Companies for Dads, and the 2020 Diversity Best Practices Inclusion Index. AbbVie also ranked as one of the 2020 Best Companies for Multicultural Women and one of the 2020 Top Companies for Executive Women