Inclusion and diversity
Home / Sustainability / Ethics and transparency / Inclusion and diversity
At AstraZeneca, our inclusion and diversity (I&D) mission is to create an inclusive and equitable environment where people belong, using our diversity as a competitive advantage to push the boundaries of science and deliver life-changing medicine to patients.
Our global commitment to I&D sits within our great place to work strategic priority. I&D is central to our commitment to being a great place to work for the benefit of our employees, our business and for society. I&D is woven into the fabric of everything we do, reflected in our Values and the behaviours that underpin them.
See how we turn commitments into action in our Sustainability Report 2023
Our I&D strategy
We have three key focus areas which work together to deliver our global I&D strategy:
Inclusion
We aim to cultivate inclusion and belonging by fostering an environment where everyone feels valued, heard and respected.
Diversity
We are working to build and sustain a diverse leadership and talent pipeline by embedding I&D into our ways of working and creating conditions for all people to succeed and thrive.
Impact
Together we are focused on advancing societal change through our commitment to health equity, clinical trial diversity and supplier diversity.
Our employee resource groups
AstraZeneca Employee Resource Groups (AZ ERGs) are part of the fabric of our company and are fundamental to our progress. They are voluntary, employee-led groups formed based on shared experiences that raise diversity awareness and promote business and societal impact.
AZ ERGs help to create a sense of community and belonging through connecting and supporting people who share the same dimensions of diversity. They also empower employees to speak their mind and share their voice and perspective, because they feel psychologically safe to do so.
We believe that when individuals have the support and backing of a community of collective and allied voices, they are more likely to contribute and fulfil their potential, which gives us our competitive advantage as an organisation.
We have a total of 19 AZ ERGs; some with a global presence and others with a specific country presence and focussing on locally relevant topics. Our AZ ERGs reflect various shared affinities, identities and experiences, such as:
- Cancer at Work
- Disabilities
- Early Talent
- Healthcare professionals and scientists
- LGBTQIA+
- Mental Health
- Military Support
- Neurodiversity
- Racial, cultural and ethnic diversity
- Women
- Working parents and caregivers
Discover some of our I&D stories
Accessibility in the workplace
Why it’s important to be an accessibility ally
How our early talent programmes support young people
Supporting early talent to build a more inclusive and diverse future workforce
Pride 2022: Reflections from our Inclusion and Diversity Council
Pride is an important milestone in the Inclusion & Diversity (I&D) calendar and, as an ally, I’m passionate about being there to support my colleagues, not only during Pride, but all year round.
Why we should all celebrate neurodiversity
Neurodiversity refers to the cognitive differences in how we think, learn, communicate and process information as normal variations of the human brain.
Breaking the bias of women in STEM
Creating space for women to thrive in their career paths in the STEM industry and beyond is critical to unlocking ground-breaking innovation and delivering the advances society needs.
Girls Belong Here 2023: Celebrating the power and potential of girls and young women
International Day of the Girl was first recognised over 10 years ago to celebrate the power of girls and shine a light on the obstacles they face.
Join us at AstraZeneca and become part of an inclusive and diverse team that celebrates difference
It’s important to us that our workforce represents the rich diversity of the patients and communities in which we operate so that we can be at our most innovative and deliver life-changing medicines.
The diversity of our employees makes us the innovation-driven company that we are today, standing firmly among the world’s leaders in biopharmaceuticals.
Veeva ID: Z4-53050
Date of preparation: April 2023