The company just released its inaugural Diversity & Inclusion Impact Review. We take a look inside its pages to see how the company's striving every day to build a culture of belonging.

This report is by Johnson & Johnson and was originally published on 10/7/2019

Diversity and inclusion.

They're words you may be hearing a lot lately, but they've long held enormous power at Johnson & Johnson. For more than 130 years, diversity and inclusion (D&I) has been key to the company's success—starting as far back as 1908, when the company hired its first female scientist.

To give you a sense of some of the ways D&I is built into Johnson & Johnson's culture today, the company has just issued its first You Belong: Diversity & Inclusion Impact Review.

Meet the Woman Who's Ensuring Diversity Is More Than Just a Corporate Buzzword

“Johnson & Johnson continues to be a leader in diversity and inclusion. This inaugural You Belong: Diversity & Inclusion Impact Review showcases the progress we’ve made for our people, our culture, our business and our world, through the innovative data- and outcomes-based approach we have taken," says Wanda Bryant Hope, Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer, Johnson & Johnson.

From a unique program that celebrates the work of innovators at the company to an initiative that's helping to bring more workers back into the STEM fields, here are just some highlights from the impact review.

How Johnson & Johnson Is Advancing Its Culture of Inclusion

The best ideas and solutions for healthcare challenges happen when people feel they can bring their authentic selves to work and truly be heard. In order to help achieve this vision—and strengthen its culture of inclusion—the company instituted the Johnson & Johnson Diversity & Inclusion Honors last year.

The goal: celebrate Johnson & Johnson teams across the globe that are making a difference through innovative strategies to build diversity, advance inclusion, and enhance business.

The 2018 winners feature 12 groups, such as the company’s Mental Health Diplomats, who, as part of the Alliance for Diverse Abilities employee resource group, provide mental health awareness and first-aid training to colleagues in order to help create a mental health-friendly workplace.

Other winners include a team from the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson for their work to diversify the patient population in a lupus clinical trial, as well as a group in Latin America that boosted spending with diverse suppliers by 15 times in just one year.

How Johnson & Johnson Is Building a Diverse Workforce for the Future

The company believes that in order to be able to truly understand and meet the needs of its diverse patients, consumers and customers, it needs a workforce that truly represents and appreciates the diversity of the world around us.

Re-Ignite: The Johnson & Johnson Career Program That's Helping People Return to the World of STEM

One way the company is nurturing this idea is by helping STEM2D professionals return to work after an extended break through the Re-Ignite program, a paid "returnship" initiative that launched in 2017 for professionals in science, technology, engineering, math, manufacturing and design (STEM2D) who've been out of their field for at least two years and want to return to that line of work.

Individuals in the program receive skills training and support from mentors throughout Johnson & Johnson for 16 weeks or longer, depending on their location, and can then be considered for a full-time role at the company.

How Johnson & Johnson Is Working to Enhance Its Performance and Reputation

Johnson & Johnson knows that engaging and understanding the needs of global, multicultural audiences is crucial to helping advance the trajectory of health for humanity.

For example, for the company’s Johnson's® Baby line relaunch in 2018, millennial moms shared insights on advertising concepts for this major initiative, which helped the company create advertising that would better connect with parents everywhere.

Johnson & Johnson is also a founding member of the Unstereotype Alliance, a UN Women group that tackles the widespread prevalence of gender bias that's often perpetuated through advertising.

"Diversity and inclusion at Johnson & Johnson is not just a commitment—it’s the reality of how we must live and work," says Michael Sneed, Executive Vice President, Global Corporate Affairs and Chief Communication Officer, Johnson & Johnson. "The best innovations will break through only if our employees feel empowered to bring their unique and diverse perspectives to work each day. That’s what will enable us to deliver on our purpose of improving health for people everywhere."