Holding Ourselves Accountable
Commitments are essential to communicate our intentions, but they don’t by themselves ensure achievement or completion. At WBA, we’re proud of our commitment to putting DE&I at the center of everything we do, but we also know that to drive real, sustainable change, we need to be trustworthy and responsible. To us, that means defining expectations and holding one another accountable for delivering results.
An inherently diverse company, WBA has a presence in more than 17 countries, directly employs more than 331,000* people and has more than 21,000 stores. We have a long history of embracing diversity and inclusion marked by progress. In 2020, we pledged to accelerate our progress by deepening our data on representation and advancing key metrics to hold ourselves accountable.
The charts below illustrate the diversity of the WBA U.S. workforce for 2019 and 2020. While we’re proud of the progress we’ve made to date, we know that we still have much work to do to increase racial and ethnic diversity at both frontline manager and leadership levels as well as gender diversity in senior leadership. The racial makeup of our U.S. pharmacists held steady year over year; however, we have deepened our commitment to increase diversity in this critical segment of our population to reflect the communities we serve. Our Diversity Donation program is designed to advance pharmacy students from underrepresented groups, such as African American/Black, Hispanic, and Native American. In fiscal 2020**, we gave nearly $1 million in scholarships and discretionary funding to pharmacy schools that show a deep commitment to diversity and inclusion in support of these students.
WBA Diversity
U.S. WORKFORCE REPRESENTATION BY RACE AND ETHNICITY
Composition of Employees as of Fiscal Year-End (August 31, 2020)
2020
People of Color
48.8%
White
50.4%
Undisclosed
0.6%
2019
People of Color
48.9%
White
50.5%
Undisclosed
0.5%
WBA Gender Diversity
GLOBAL WORKFORCE REPRESENTATION BY GENDER
Composition of Employees as of Fiscal Year-End (August 31, 2020)
2020
Female
68.8%
Male
31.2%
2020
31.4%
women
Senior Leadership
68.6%
men
43.7%
women
Managers
56.3%
men
70.2%
women
Non-managers
29.8%
men
64.0%
women
Pharmacists
36.0%
men
2019
Female
68.0%
Male
32.0%
2019
29.4%
women
Senior Leadership
70.6%
men
41.5%
women
Managers
58.5%
men
69.3%
women
Non-managers
30.7%
men
61.4%
women
Pharmacists
38.6%
men
WBA Board of Directors
BOARD REPRESENTATION BY RACE AND ETHNICITY
Composition of Board as of Fiscal Year-End (August 31, 2021 and 2019)
2021
People of Color
25.0%
White
75.0%
2019
People of Color
10.0%
White
90.0%
BOARD REPRESENTATION BY GENDER
Composition of Board as of Fiscal Year-End (August 31, 2021 and 2019)
2021
Female
41.7%
Male
58.3%
2019
Female
30.0%
Male
70.0%
FISCAL YEAR 2021 DE&I GOALS
In 2021, we launched a corporate DE&I goal to help us sharpen our focus and efforts on a few key areas and measure progress along the way. The goal consists of these components:
Increase representation of women globally by 3 percentage points over prior year
Increase representation of underrepresented racial and ethnic groups in U.S. leadership roles by 2 percentage points over prior year
Ensure 100% compliance of diverse candidate slates and diverse interview panels for leadership roles
Spend $500 million with Tier 1 diverse suppliers in the U.S., an increase of approximately $53 million
To help us reach our desired future state, these measures are based on a rigorous assessment of our company performance to date and industry benchmarks. Two of the measures focus on representation in our leadership team because we know representation matters. Two of our goal components are intentionally U.S.-only for fiscal 2021. This is because here we have robust workforce data**** on our team’s race and ethnicity, as well as an established U.S. supplier diversity program. As we continue our work to meet these goals, we’re gathering more robust diversity data in our regions outside the U.S. and expanding our supplier diversity program. The WBA Board of Directors affirmed and approved the corporate DE&I goal, which will account for 10 percent of fiscal 2021 WBA bonus criteria. We’re proud that WBA is leading the way by including DE&I as a performance metric tied to bonuses.
Our top priorities are more than a guide. They are hard-and-fast commitments we made to our Board of Directors as part of a company-wide mandate to advance DE&I. Our fiscal 2021 priorities included:
- 1
Evolved leadership accountability: strengthen supporting talent practices (diverse slates, diverse interview panels) and link to pay
- 2
Better data and insight: capture international diversity demographics and provide solid global all-team reporting, with a focus on attracting and retaining women and people of color
- 3
Greater visibility: raise the voice and profile of the Global Inclusion Council and Business Resource Groups to support inclusive business decision making
- 4
Supplier Diversity: increase spend with diverse-owned businesses and expand supplier diversity program internationally
- 5
Ongoing education: develop organizational curriculum on DE&I, linked to new WBA value of ‘Inclusion’
“Having diverse representation at the top is not only a driver of company performance, but also an enabler of a culture of inclusion. I’m proud of the stand we’re taking by holding ourselves accountable to building a workforce that reflects the communities we serve. But I also know there is still much work to be done. Our commitment to DE&I and pledge to be accountable will help guide us along our journey to drive sustainable change in the coming weeks and months.”
- Carlos Cubia, Senior Vice President and Global Chief Diversity Officer, WBA
There are many reasons that WBA values external recognition and awards, beginning with the opportunity to gain diverse points of view. External recognition tells us that we’re working on the right things and going about them the right way. It sets us apart from our competition and provides valuable insights and feedback. It gives us credibility and validation and signals to our customers, patients and suppliers that they are interacting with a company that shares their values and uses its purpose to drive meaningful impact and change. Most importantly, these awards recognize and celebrate our team members’ hard work and achievements and make them proud to be a part of our community.
Awards and Recognition
- Top 25 Employer
- Recognition for Walgreens Supplier Diversity
- Recognition for Walgreens Top Employers
- Recognition for Walgreens Top LGBTQ+ Friendly Companies
- Recognition for Walgreens Supplier Diversity
- Recognition for Walgreens Top Employers
- Recognition for Walgreens Top LGBTQ+ Friendly Companies
- Recognition for Walgreens Supplier Diversity
- Recognition for Walgreens Supplier Diversity Programs
- Up three spots from 2020 to number 8 in 2021
DiversityInc
Named a Noteworthy company in 2020, Walgreens was thrilled to learn it placed at No. 39 on the 2021 DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity. This well-regarded ranking of diversity and inclusion practices in corporate America recognizes the companies that are doing the best when it comes to creating and retaining a diverse workforce; enacting fair and equitable measures for their employees; supporting diverse vendors; and creating an environment where leaders are held accountable for their daily actions and encouraged to promote equality on all levels.
“Founded in 1901 and based in Deerfield, Illinois, the company [Walgreens] isn’t just ‘at the corner of happy and healthy’ when it comes to medicine and pharmaceuticals, it’s also an ardent champion of diversity, inclusion and social responsibility, helping in the fight against poverty, food insecurity and a lack of good quality education. Walgreens is also a staunch supporter of data transparency, not only to help meet its diversity goals, but to also hold leaders accountable for their efforts in those areas.”
Recognizing Advancement, Commitment and Engagement: HBA ACE Award
Sustaining High Achievement: Disability Equality Index
*All figures are as of Aug. 31, 2020, excluding equity method investments. Including its equity method investments in U.S. drug wholesaler Amerisource Bergen, Chinese pharmacy chain GuoDa and other companies, WBA employs more than 450,000 people in more than 25 countries.
**We did not have fiscal 2021 numbers at the time of publication.
***The Walgreens pharmacist diversity data in the report is a restatement of previously published data, due to refining of our reporting processes.
**** In the U.S., under equal employment opportunity laws, we are required to invite our employees to self-ID by race and ethnicity to monitor progress in combating historical discrimination practices in employment. This information is part of the employee record, and the data is also used in conjunction with Affirmative Action planning and reporting which we are required to do as a Federal Contractor of the U.S. government.
