“You will have a better and stronger company that will make better decisions if there is diversity.”
That’s how Dr. Ted Love, President, and CEO of Global Blood Therapeutics (GBT), highlighted the importance of diversity, equality, and inclusion (DEI) to the success of biotechnology companies during a session at BIO Digital 2021
But, “We all have to admit that we need to do better,” said Michel Vounatsos, CEO of Biogen, during a speech by BIO Digital.
“We realized then. Improving performance is a mission – creating more value,” he said.
DEI excels in biotechnology
During BIO Digital, BIO launched DEI’s second annual biotechnology survey, Measurement Diversity in the Biotechnology Industry: Promoting Equity and Inclusion, which showed that there is still progress in integrating DEI into biotechnology companies, but there is still work to be done.
What can we do? Here are three practical, concrete things companies need to do to improve diversity, equality, and inclusion in the workplace – improving patient outcomes through innovation.
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Create pipelines of talent from underserved communities.
Creating career opportunities for members of disadvantaged communities in the biotechnology workforce is critical.
But the first step: we need to create talent pathways so that members of these communities can join the biotech workforce, to begin with.
While it helps to raise the bar somewhere, we need to address the root cause, specifically the talent pipeline.
“We need to work proactively…with more diverse community colleges and universities” and consciously sustainably work in the pipeline “. With that in mind, Biogen has trained more than 250 black scientists in the Boston area, Drs. said, Michelle.
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Get up, reach out your hand.
“You have two hands on the corporate ladder – one to pull you up and one to pull someone back,” said Todd Sears, founder of Out Leadership, during a session on growing LGBTQ leadership in biotechnology. BIO is the first member of the Out Leadership Advocacy Association, the first global LGBTQ+ network to provide tools for innovation and transformation in global businesses.
Given this analysis of the ideal corporate learning framework, proposals to increase EID in companies include the creation and promotion of Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), which are employee-led voluntary groups composed of individuals who meet at the level. of the community. or demographic factors such as race, ethnicity, gender, or common interests. Another recommendation is to implement sponsorship programs to educate emerging leaders and talent about the importance of sponsoring their careers, with an emphasis on empowering underrepresented workers.
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Collect and learn from the data.
During a session on DEI’s future in biotechnology companies, Gisselle Perez, Director of Human Resources at DE&I and Biogen People Relations, said it would be appropriate to “learn more about our employees” about DEI’s future efforts. improvement. This is in line with a research recommendation to collect employee demographics annually and track improvements and work to be done.
It’s important to note that 1 in 5 companies reduced their color representation at the board level by at least 5% from 2019 to 2020, according to the new BIO report. Also, only 13% of color managers increased by at least 5%. This is just one example of how data collection and analysis can help your company understand the progress being made and the work that needs to be done.
… For as long as it takes.
BIO is committed to achieving the objectives of the BIO Equality Agenda to combat injustice against poor communities and combat systemic inequality. Investing in the current and next generation of minority scientists and increasing opportunities for women and other underrepresented populations in the sector are two important pillars of this agenda.