Inclusion and Diversity at Gilead
Inclusion and Diversity at Gilead
Inclusion & Diversity is key to our success.
Building an inclusive and diverse workforce is critical to enabling Gilead’s mission – and, ultimately, will help us create a better, healthier world. We are highly committed to creating an inclusive culture, one that enables all people to do their best work and that is reflective of the diversity of our patients. At the same time, we recognize that we need to do more to accelerate our progress – for our people, for our business and for the world.
Gilead’s overall Inclusion & Diversity aspirations are:
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Be the employer of choice
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Foster an inclusive culture where differences are leveraged to innovate and enable our mission
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Be respected for equitable and socially responsible practices
Defining Inclusion & Diversity at Gilead
Our success depends on every one of our employees, and the ways in which we differ are among our greatest sources of strength. These include visible and non-visible attributes, such as race, gender, gender identity, age, ethnicity, people with disabilities, appearance, thinking styles, beliefs, nationality, veteran status, sexual orientation, and education, among others. Inclusion is a core value at Gilead and means creating and fostering a work environment where our differences are valued, and people feel involved, respected and connected.
Working to demonstrate our commitment to inclusion requires us to:
Encourage and support each other
Recognize and mitigate unconscious bias
Consider multiple pathways to success
Respect people of all backgrounds and experiences
Seek diverse perspectives to drive innovation
Committing to these principles helps accelerate our innovation, increase performance and ultimately achieve our mission – it is more than just the right thing to do. It is essential in driving an inclusive culture and meeting the needs of patients.
Our Commitments
We established a Global Inclusion & Diversity (I&D) Council that is responsible for governance, tracking progress and helping further a culture of inclusion. The Global I&D Council is chaired by Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Daniel O’Day and includes members of the Gilead Leadership Team, Employee Resource Group (ERG) executive sponsors and ERG leads.
Our internal and external commitments include:
- We have set clear internal representation goals, as well as goals related to the suppliers with whom we do business. We have also set goals related to the organizations we support through our corporate giving initiatives. Without engaging in racial preferences, using race as the basis for employment decisions, or quotas, we are committed to:
- Increasing employee and executive representation for underrepresented groups
- Increasing transparency of data, progress and regularly update prioritized actions
- Organizational leaders will meet regularly with their leadership teams to update their talent and organization plans, which includes a focus on attracting, developing and retaining people of diverse backgrounds, as well as measure progress and regularly discuss key diverse talent.
We have enhanced recruiting practices to cast a wider net and a focus on building early talent across the company. We are expanding an ecosystem to support talented professionals of diverse backgrounds. Some examples of this work include:
- Investing in development and internal career mobility through external and internal leadership programs, sponsorship, rotation and other impactful programs identified in partnership with GLOBE (Gilead Leadership Organization of Black Employees)
- Funding 100 scholarships and advancing a strategy to recruit individuals from Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Hispanic-Serving Institutions
- Expanding an early-talent pipeline offering internships, rotational programs, fellowships and development opportunities with long-term career paths in biotechnology
We believe people managers play a critical role in making an inclusive culture real. We introduced programs to train our people leaders on the most relevant inclusion and diversity topics and to hold these leaders accountable for practicing and modeling inclusive behaviors, as well as equipping these leaders to recognize and eliminate racism and inequities. We are actively working to create and implement targeted practices for people managers that are tied to performance measures, including:
- Making resources available to help equip managers to have regular conversations on development tied to inclusive behaviors as part of our performance process and leadership expectations for all people managers
- Helping increase the ability of people managers to discuss diversity topics including trainings about how to discuss race, unconscious bias, inclusive leadership, allyship and psychological safety
Pay Equity
- Gilead is a pay-for-performance company committed to pay equity. Our employee salaries are based on market-based ranges and are assessed annually in consideration of prior-year performance and competitive positioning. All compensation decisions are made without regard to gender, race, color, national or ethnic origin, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, genetic information, religion, or veteran status.
- In the U.S., we conduct an annual review of employee compensation to ensure that our pay practices are race and gender-neutral, and we also commission an annual global pay equity study to gain a more comprehensive view of pay equity across the organization. In 2023, Gilead’s salary ratio for women to men globally was 99.93:100.
Stakeholders and Partners
Numerous business partners and organizational stakeholders exist in Gilead’s ecosystem, including our supply chain and community partners. We recognize we cannot address racial injustice alone, and our engagement with these partners is critical to create meaningful impact. We will leverage our influence and the resources in our ecosystem to engage business partners in our supply chain and organizations dedicated to societal change through K-12 STEAM education, higher education, diversity sourcing and leadership development.
- We continue to invest in our future and address racial injustice in K-12 STEAM education in the communities where we work.
- We significantly fund diversity sourcing to cast a wider net for top diverse talent, leverage external leadership development programs, and partner with community organizations addressing racial injustice. To date, GLOBE has partnered with the company on a $1 million donation to organizations fighting social injustice, and Gilead announced a $1 million partnership with Morehouse School of Medicine to build a data platform about the disparate impact of COVID-19 on communities of color.
- We will increase spend and partner with more minority-owned businesses over the next five years.
Employee Demographics
We know that innovation thrives when we are informed by a diverse set of backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences. Our commitment to equal employment opportunity and affirmative action furthers our purpose to cultivate and celebrate an equitable culture of belonging.
Gilead U.S. Gender and Ethnicity
*Other includes American Indian or Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander.
Gilead Employee Resource Groups
ERGs are an integral part of our Inclusion & Diversity program and are open to all of our employees around the world regardless of background. ERGs foster a sense of belonging and inclusion that can provide support, spark innovation, and accelerate employee development.
More than 8,900 employees, nearly 50% of our workforce, belong to at least one of our six ERGs, demonstrating the impact and important role of these groups at Gilead. Each ERG is resourced to drive actions across five pillars: Recruiting, Professional Development, Culture, Business Impact and Community.
Progressive Policies
We embrace our workforce in its entirety and have instituted progressive policies to ensure our culture is one in which every individual feels seen, heard and respected. Launched in 2019, our new Global Gender Identity and Transition Policy formalizes our core values and practices in a way that encourages employees to express their true gender identity, supports those who transition and aims to foster an affirming workplace for our transgender and gender non-binary colleagues. In response to an internal survey, on U.S. National Coming Out Day in 2019, we announced a new self-identification option that allows employees to self-ID sexual orientation and gender identity. While it’s important to know the number of employees who self-identify in the organization, self-identification also helps foster more inclusive workplaces through education and provides data for future talent development.
Work-Life Balance
We take pride in living our values in the work we do every day. In 2019, we introduced G.Flex, a program offering flexible work opportunities that allows employees to adjust where and when they work based on their individual needs and those of the business.
A Leader’s Message
Daniel O'Day, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer
“I am proud of the work we are doing at Gilead to ensure equity for our employees, the communities we work in and the patients we serve. Inclusion is one of our core values and I believe that it is essential to Gilead's long-term success. Building an inclusive and diverse workforce is the right thing to do, and, at the same time, it is also critical to our future. Diversity catalyzes innovation and ultimately diversity is imperative to our aim of delivering transformational medicines for patients worldwide.”
Our Awards and Recognition
Working Mother
Working Mother recognizes organizations that lead in areas of female representation and advancement, benefits, parental leave, childcare and flex time. Gilead placed among the top 25 on the 2020 Working Mother 100 Best Companies list.
Best Places to Work for LGBTQ Equality
The Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality Index (HRC CEI) provides an in-depth analysis and rating of large U.S. employers and their policies and practices pertinent to LGBTQ employees. Gilead achieved a perfect score of 100 and earned the designation as a “Best Place to Work for LGBTQ Equality.”
5-Star Company in Corporate Inclusion Index
Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility (HACR) recognized Gilead as a five-star company in its Corporate Inclusion Index. Gilead participates in HACR’s index to understand what diversity and inclusion areas to focus on in order to attract, develop and retain Latinx talent.
Best Employers for Diversity
Forbes identifies the best employers for diversity in America, providing insights about what companies are doing to advance diversity and inclusion. Gilead was recognized among the Best Employers for Diversity.
Equality Statement
Gilead is a strong supporter of equal employment opportunity. It is the policy of Gilead to recruit, hire and promote the best qualified person for positions throughout the company and to provide employees with equal employment opportunities. In 2019, Gilead signed the landmark amicus brief in support of protecting LGBTQ+ workers from discrimination under existing federal civil rights laws.
Expanding on Inclusion and Diversity
- Gilead is a research-driven organization seeking talented individuals who are passionate about exploring the limitless boundaries of what is possible. We are seeking people with varied perspectives and experiences to help drive innovation and play a critical role in bringing transformative therapies to people with life-threatening diseases around the world.
- View our open positions here.
- Our vision is to become a biopharmaceutical industry leader for supplier inclusion. We are committed to creating and fostering an inclusive and high-performing supply base through which we leverage the unique talents of small businesses and/or businesses owned by women, minorities, LGBTQ+ individuals, veterans and service-disabled veterans. We build relationships with suppliers that meet our criteria for inclusion and diversity, among other important elements of responsible sourcing.
- In 2019, Gilead and Kite spent $369 million with small and small-diverse businesses. We also improved our supplier vetting process to increase spend with existing diverse suppliers. To ensure sustained focus on supplier diversity, we have apportioned supplier inclusion goals to our procurement leaders. Additionally, we are members of the Diversity Alliance for Science and Western Regional Minority Supplier Development Council.
- Learn more: Supplier Information
- To obtain data-driven recommendations for closing gender and equality-related disparities in hiring and promotions and observe findings on the practices that improve employee satisfaction and retention, Gilead participates in studies and surveys including Women in the Workplace, Working Mother, and Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality Index.
- Partnerships and events are among the many ways we strive to support inclusion and diversity as an organization and expand our impact to local communities. Gilead has strong partnerships with local and national organizations such as the National Sales Network, Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility (HACR), Out and Equal, Executive Leadership Council (ELC) and Lead360. Gilead also participates in the Watermark Conference For Women and the Regulatory Affairs Professionals Society.
