At least 17 Heritage and History Month cultural appreciation and awareness events are celebrated each year in the U.S. At Johnson & Johnson, we celebrate them all with our colleagues across the globe.
A true culture of inclusion that enables respect and dignity to flourish is rooted in being open to understanding and welcoming people with different cultures, abilities, backgrounds and perspectives. It is a first step to building trust, acceptance and appreciation.
Understanding the rich and extensive histories of varied communities around the world helps us better meet the needs of our patients and consumers. That’s why a core element of our strategy is expanding our knowledge of different cultures and their history, providing colleagues with tools to recognize their own biases and understand how to be more inclusive in thought and actions.
Did you know?
Strengthening Inclusive Mindsets
Some of our actions in 2022 to deepen employee insights into different cultures and backgrounds that help to build inclusive practices include:
- Building cultural competency skills: In 2022, we expanded the immersive Exploring Our Diversity series with modules covering the history, challenges and achievements of the Asian American Hispanic and Latin communities in the U.S. We encourage all employees to engage with the educational series to better understand this history of discrimination and bias as the first step toward creating greater inclusion, equity and tolerance within our Company and our communities.
- Reinforcing a brave culture: Janssen’s Brave culture initiative fosters decisive action and a “speak-up culture” in which all voices are heard. In 2022, the inaugural Brave Table brought together Janssen leaders for a robust, open and honest discussion around the human cost of health inequity to provide employees with deeper insights into our impact and responsibilities and respond to employee questions. During the year, additional Brave Table round table discussions were held with internal and external thought leaders to encourage diverse perspectives.
Patients are at the heart of every decision we make. We must bravely come together as one diverse and inclusive team to win for patients and deliver for customers who are counting on us.
Scott White
Company Chairman, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, North America
In Johnson & Johnson’s 2022 Our Credo survey, 86% of respondents agreed with the statement: Johnson & Johnson provides an inclusive work environment where each employee is considered as an individual.
- Advancing allyship: At J&J MedTech, allyship is the “spark” that enables our culture of belonging and ensures we are building a just, equitable and inclusive workplace. In J&J MedTech’s Spark Allyship series, J&J MedTech defined eight allyship behaviors and provides resources for employees to apply these in their work and strengthen relationships with our colleagues and customers. J&J MedTech hosted quarterly global events to help employees deepen insights into inclusive behaviors and equitable culture. For example, one event hosted Indra Nooyi, the former Chief Executive of PepsiCo, in a captivating conversation with Ashley McEvoy, Executive Vice President and Worldwide Chairman of J&J MedTech, in a discussion ranging from work-life balance to addressing health inequities.
- Bringing DEI to life across the business: In our APAC region, our teams developed the APAC DEI Business Impact Report to capture how DEI comes to life across our business in APAC. A facilitation guide was provided for business leaders in APAC to help them use the report to explore how they can enhance awareness and practical advancement in DEI in all business interactions. The APAC team also launched a quarterly publication, DEI CenterStage, highlighting dimensions of DEI in local APAC markets to help employees understand history, culture and DEI influences across the region.
J&J MedTech’s Eight Allyship Behaviors
Allyship is an active word.
We must...
Create
room for others to be heard.
Work Diligently
to address our biases. We all have them.
Acknowledge
that others experience challenges and unique obstacles that we may not understand.
Recognize
your gifts, talents and advantages and try to utilize them to benefit others.
Seek
Allyship education has no endpoint. Be a seeker and an active self-starter in the daily work of Allyship.
Listen & Learn
with humility and an open mind.
Act
if you witness or experience behavior that is inconsistent with our values, use your voice and/or consult leadership.
Own
our mistakes, but give ourselves and others grace when we falter.
Strengthening Capabilities
We provide training and education to support leaders and employees on their DEI journey. DEI themes are embedded into many of our Enterprise training programs, backed by structured learning frameworks and tools.
- Centralizing learning: In 2022, we delivered a new streamlined learning experience for Johnson & Johnson with J&J Learn, a global learning and development platform that integrates the curricula from our multiple learning organizations across the Enterprise, including leadership development programs, Human Performance Institute programs and more. As a single source for all learning and development needs, J&J Learn advances equitable access to learning resources, enabling all employees to incorporate learning into their daily practices and create their preferred career path.
In addition to Enterprise training, Johnson & Johnson delivered DEI-focused training initiatives across the Enterprise in 2022:
- Educating for conscious inclusion: In 2022, we launched our Conscious Inclusion for Leaders training to vice presidents and directors throughout Johnson & Johnson. By leveraging case studies, the instructor-led workshops focused on driving behavioral changes leaders can make to actively create a more inclusive culture. Throughout the training, employees recognize and mitigate their own unconscious biases while creating personalized conscious inclusion plans. Post-workshop surveys found that 87% of participants felt ready to implement their plans upon completing the course. In 2023, we will continue rolling out Conscious Inclusion training, adding an e-learning module and a discussion toolkit as we reach all people leaders.
Conscious Inclusion participant
Educating on Conscious Inclusion Externally
In line with our goal to promote better care for people of color by addressing unconscious bias in healthcare, we co-launched a cross-sector partnership initiative called: “Unconscious Bias and Disparities in Healthcare: A Call to Action,” with a Continuing Medical Education program at its core. The program targets healthcare providers in communities of color and assists them to enact changes in their daily practice to improve patient care and outcomes.
Did you know?
Gender is defined as the social, psychological, cultural and behavioral aspects of being man, woman or other gender identity.
Speaking the Same DEI Language
To help us all use the same inclusive language, our Office of DEI developed an interactive DEI Glossary comprising commonly used DEI terms. This global tool is the result of a collaborative effort with regional leaders across the Enterprise to ensure the content is representative and inclusive of all Johnson & Johnson employees and the communities we serve.
- Advancing inclusive conversations: In our APAC region, our DEI Advisory Council created a series of tutorial videos and accompanying thought-starter guides covering topics such as authenticity; cultivating candor; mutual respect and trust; and fair and equitable leadership.
Johnson & Johnson Switzerland conducted a guided social experiment to help people understand unconscious bias. In the experiment, sixteen Johnson & Johnson employees were asked to define the key characteristics of a person based on just one look.
Eliminating Microaggressions
In 2022, several teams tackled addressing microaggressions in the workplace:
- To help colleagues understand, recognize and act upon all forms of microaggressions in the workplace, our Women’s Leadership & Inclusion (WLI) ERG developed a comprehensive toolkit and training program that is available for WLI members, allies and all colleagues. The toolkit defines different types of microaggressions and offers examples of each, with explanations, and emphasizes the value of identifying microaggressions, calling them out and correcting them.
- In Latin America, teams in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Mexico all partnered with in-country DEI experts to create localized microaggression trainings that focused on how microaggressions appear in each country. The (In)Visible Attitudes campaign was then launched across the region in Spanish and Portuguese, hosting workshops and training to educate employees on what microaggressions are, how they may appear within the respective country, and how to create behavioral change.
- MedTech team members around the world also sparked four important internal conversations in the Together Around the World video series to help promote empathy, awareness and conscious inclusion on topics such as microaggressions, language as an inclusion driver, fitting in and creating safe spaces to be heard.
Did you know?
The term “microaggression” is used to describe subtle behaviors which make a person feel less valuable to a relationship, team or an organization because of a perceived difference.
Increasing Accountability
We drive accountability for DEI across the organization, including across all people leaders at Johnson & Johnson. People leaders are expected to be role models of DEI behaviors and reinforce making DEI how we work every day. This helps people leaders to drive real, measurable DEI impact that will make Johnson & Johnson stronger, more innovative and more successful across all dimensions of our business.
We maintain several tools and processes to hold our people leaders accountable, including:
- DEI goal setting: All 26,000+ people leaders at Johnson & Johnson are asked to commit to at least one annual DEI goal each year. Progress against these goals is tracked in our Human Resources Information System and is assessed in our year-end performance review process, which informs ratings and compensation. This helps people leaders drive real, measurable DEI impact that will make Johnson & Johnson stronger, more innovative and more successful across all dimensions of our business. Additionally, thousands of employees who are not in people leader roles voluntarily committed to specific goals to advance DEI.
- VP DEI Scorecards: VPs leading some of our largest teams receive a DEI Scorecard, which incorporates both diverse representation and inclusion measurements and links their goals to our Health for Humanity 2025 Goals (see section: DEI in context). Our eligible VPs are required to participate in training on how to compliantly advance DEI and leverage the scorecard to drive progress.
- Sharing knowledge: Key people leaders shared personal experiences and best DEI practices to human resources and business leaders in online Knowledge Exchange Sessions. The sessions deepened understanding about creating a workforce that represents the communities around us and building an inclusive and equitable culture.
