Our global DEI strategy, backed by Our Credo, sets the foundation for ensuring leaders at all levels have both the responsibility and opportunity to invest in DEI for themselves and their teams. We provide training and education to support leaders and employees on their DEI journey, whether it’s about goal setting, hiring and developing talent, tools for courageous conversations or cultural immersion.
90%

In order to be an exceptional leader at Johnson & Johnson, you need to demonstrate a focus on diversity, equity and inclusion.
In 2021, we enhanced our accountability to strengthen our culture of inclusion and continue building a diverse workforce to drive more equitable outcomes in the following ways:
Expanded DEI Goal setting to all people leaders across the Enterprise: In 2021, we broadened our enterprise-wide DEI goal setting program beyond our most senior leaders to all 27,000 people leaders across Johnson & Johnson. Each of these leaders was asked to commit to at least one annual DEI goal. Along with people leaders setting their DEI goal, we had an additional 20,000 individual contributors opt in to include DEI goals. Progress made against these goals is tracked in our HRIS and assessed in the year-end performance review process, which is linked to compensation. 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.
Raised the bar for our most senior people leaders: In addition to our DEI goal setting for all people leaders, we placed special emphasis on driving accountability for approximately 300 Vice Presidents leading some of our largest teams. Each of these leaders receives a VP DEI Scorecard, which incorporates both representation and inclusion measurements and links their goals to our Health for Humanity 2025 Goals (see section: DEI and ESG: Partnering to Accelerate Change). These VPs also participated in training on defining a diverse slate of candidates, creating a diverse interview team, and ensuring that job requirements are essential for the role. Additionally, leaders met to share best practices and lessons learned.
Delivered training and tools for people leaders at all levels: Through 2021, we provided training and resources specifically designed to help people leaders understand the expectations and challenges they face in building a diverse workforce and creating a culture of inclusion as well as ways to address these opportunities (see section: Educating for Inclusion).

Engaged people leaders in sharing knowledge: During 2021, we ran six online Knowledge Exchange Sessions, involving our DEI leadership and other experts from our organization. The sessions were designed to deepen understanding about the why, what and how of creating a diverse workforce as well as an inclusive and equitable culture. The sessions were voluntarily attended by thousands of leaders and published on our internal portal for on-demand viewing.
The personal commitment to DEI by each member of our leadership has made a tremendous difference in the success of our teams. They have sought to understand the needs of the organization by having open and transparent conversations with our teams. Through this, we have been able to ensure there is an understanding that DEI is not just a metric or goal, but that it is embedded in the fabric of how we work.
Improved self-identity reporting: In order to support our aim to improve gender, ethnicity, race, veteran, disability and LGBTQIA+ representation at all levels in our business, we aspire to improve the way our global employees can tell us more about who they are. This helps us to:
- Better understand the diversity composition of our employee population
- Identify workforce trends and opportunities for our people
- Focus our efforts where they are needed most to advance our culture of inclusion
To facilitate this, in 2021, we leveraged technology to improve self-ID reporting in the U.S., with an aim to roll this out to other countries in the future. The improvements allow employees to self-identify in different ways such as:
- Recognizing intersectionality by enabling employees to self-identify as more than one race
- Enabling employees to opt in to include their preferred pronoun in their organization profile
- Integrating personal profile updates with other routine HR tasks to make it easier for employees to self-identify
Colleagues appreciated this system improvement, and in 2021, 58% of users in the U.S. reviewed and updated their personal information.
Incorporating inclusive behaviors into partner feedback: As part of our year-end assessments process managers can ask business partners to provide feedback on their teams’ performance. This feedback form in our HRIS was updated so partners could share examples of the team member’s inclusive behaviors. The update is a reflection of collaboration across HR that will improve our understanding of how inclusive actions connect to creating a culture of belonging within teams and across functions. An example of a question in the feedback form: “Can you share examples of how they seek, listen to and incorporate diverse points of view and foster an environment in which people feel respected for their individual point of view. Please provide specific examples on areas of strength and areas of opportunity to support their continued development."
Improving Black economic empowerment in South Africa: Our teams at Janssen South Africa continue to embed DEI as a way of life and in 2021, achieved a Level 8 Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) rating by the Department of Trade & Industry of South Africa for the second year. This was achieved through consistent focus on enhancing inclusive decision-making supported by a dedicated B-BBEE Steering Committee, introducing programs for upskilling the workforce and building capabilities for the future as well as continued support for local organizations advancing healthcare such as the South African Depression and Anxiety Group and the Public Health Enhancement Fund.