Senior Advisor, Sycamore Partners
Healthy and Inclusive Workplace
Creating a DEI-centered culture and positive workplace environment that supports the health and well-being of our team members
An undeniable correlation exists between employee wellness and a business' overall health. Health, safety and well-being are core to Walgreens Boots Alliance’s purpose and heritage to inspire more joyful lives through better health. We recognize that each of our team members has their own needs, challenges, hopes and dreams. We have created a workplace where team members feel supported, respected and celebrated for being their authentic selves.
7 years
Scoring 100 percent on Disability Equality Index and named Disability:IN’s Employer of the Year for 2023
$8M+
Awarded in scholarships for pharmacy students at 132 schools
119
Young people supported by Boots and The Prince's Trust, developing their skills, confidence and self-esteem, regardless of background
0%
Median gender pay gap at Boots UK, well ahead of median national average
14460
Walgreens employees viewed online guided meditation in a 24-hour period for Mental Health Month, earning Guinness World Record recognition
1st
Health and beauty businesses to achieve a Menopause-Friendly Employer Accreditation (Boots UK and No7 Beauty Company)
29
Average hours of training completed per Walgreens full-time equivalent team member
“In a world where we face unprecedented challenges, one thing could not be more certain. Our people are our greatest asset. Therefore, it goes without saying that their health and safety is at the very top of our list of priorities. While our pharmacists and other team members in stores, laboratories, across our supply chain and in our support offices serve patients’ and consumers’ needs globally around the clock, we are totally committed to providing them with a healthy and safe workplace."
Sal Venegas
SVP, Global Talent Management, Compensation and Team Member Experience
The safety of our employees is of the utmost importance to WBA. As such, we routinely look for ways to prioritize safety and education trainings. In fiscal 2023, Boots UK continued evolving our digital incident reporting management system. We consolidated two third-party management systems that managed different parts of the business into one, all-encompassing system. This has helped to streamline the data collection process and makes action against incident reports more effective. Maintaining a safe stockroom environment helps protect our Walgreens team members, which is the reason for implementing our Safety Focused Stockroom program. This program prioritizes maintaining a clean, neat, and organized stockroom and lowering product stored in the stockroom. Stores can effectively reduce the risk of an incident occurring and achieve a safety focused stockroom environment.
WBA prioritizes benefit offerings that allow team members to succeed both at work and at home. In many cases, that means making space for family. Both Walgreens and Boots offer competitive parental leave benefits regardless of gender and inclusive of adoption and surrogacy.
In fiscal 2023, Walgreens made updates to their family forming benefits. For fertility treatments, coverage was doubled from $25,000 to $50,000, and the requirement of a ‘medically necessary’ diagnosis was removed. A new offering this year includes surrogacy and adoption support. Employees can receive $10,000 to cover costs of surrogacy or adoption.
Following a successful launch of the WBA Parenting/Caregiver business resource group (BRG) in 2022, the group grew in fiscal 2023 to provide communication and support for parents and caretakers across the network.
At WBA, we know that living a full, productive life depends on more than our physical health – caring for our mental health is essential. We strive to foster a workplace where every team member is supported and celebrated for being their authentic self, is treated with dignity and respect and has access to tools, resources and support for their well-being. We are focused on building a culture defined by empathy, compassion and authenticity.
Walgreens, Boots UK and Boots Ireland continued to put emphasis on building specialized expertise around mental health through expansion of Mental Health First Aid training. The Walgreens program, in partnership with the National Council for Mental Wellbeing and American Pharmacists Association (APhA), is a four-hour continuing education accredited course, which approximately 1,675 Walgreens pharmacy team members have completed to date. Boots UK’s Mental Health First Aid training program continued in fiscal 2023 following its expansion to critical roles last year, which included pharmacy support and supply chain management. In fiscal 2023, the program was also rolled out fully in Boots Ireland with 60 trained Mental Health First Aiders.
To encourage engagement with team member resources and continue reducing stigma around mental health, both Walgreens and Boots deployed awareness and prevention campaigns throughout the year. In 2023, Walgreens expanded access to JourneyLive, an organization that provides resources and tools to support individuals on their mental health journeys. In May 2023, Walgreens hosted a program for Mental Health Month in partnership with Journey Live. As a part of the campaign, Walgreens facilitated an online meditation event that broke the Guinness World Record for the “most views for an online guided meditation video in 24 hours on a bespoke platform.”
WBA’s business, which includes more than 331,000 employees in nine countries, consists of team members with a wide array of backgrounds, cultures, experiences, insights and perspectives. It is our goal to ensure our people feel safe and secure while being able to live their most authentic lives as WBA employees. Our mission is to attract, develop and engage employees and partners who reflect the diverse customers and communities we serve. We believe diversity should be at the forefront of our work and it is a core driver of success for our businesses.
Walgreens continues to work with community organizations and vocational, state and local agencies to support two signature programs helping increase career opportunities for people with disabilities: Retail Employees with Disabilities Initiative (REDI) and the Transitional Work Group (TWG). Through REDI, Walgreens provides people with disabilities a three- to six-week in-store training program. As part of the training, participants learn valuable retail and customer service skills, qualifying hundreds of potential employees for roles at our stores. In fiscal 2023, Walgreens rolled out this program to more stores, bringing the number to 682, which has led to 2,400 total participants since the project’s inception. As part of the TWG program, Walgreens also provides a 13-week training program by matching participants with job coaches using a combination of classroom work and on-the-job training to prepare participants to become temporary hires. Following the training program some participants are eligible to become permanent team members at up to 13 Walgreens distribution centers or regional warehouses across the U.S.
In fiscal 2023, Walgreens partnered with Neurodiversity in the Workplace (NITW), an organization which designs plans and programs for companies to recruit, attract, hire and retain neurodiverse talent. In fiscal 2023, Walgreens hired its first cohort of program participants and is eager to see this program continue to feed into the talent pipeline.
In fiscal 2023, our business resource groups (BRGs) saw significant growth. More than 6,200 team members have joined at least one of our 24 BRGs. We recently introduced Belong at Boots Ireland and expanded Parent and Caregiving BRG in UK. Our BRGs are active throughout the year, raising awareness for the causes that mean the most to them. They are active internally as well as externally, participating in their own communities outside of WBA.
As a global business with roles in pharmacy, retail, distribution, fulfillment and corporate operations, WBA can impact prosperity in communities worldwide by acting as an employer of choice. We view this responsibility as caring for the whole team member through six fundamental needs.
We extend training opportunities across our organization and in stores, support offices and distribution centers. WBA collaborates with internal and external experts to offer learning through functional academies including the IT Academy and in the UK we offer the Myway Marketing Academy. The academies provide best-in- class learning tools to hone priority skills in highly competitive areas.
In fiscal 2022, Walgreens launched the Diverse Advocate Program pilot. This program was designed to strengthen diverse representation in the management-level talent pipeline through both mentoring and sponsorship. Following the success of last year’s pilot program, in fiscal 2023, we fully launched the Diverse Advocate’s program at scale. A total of 45 leaders and 45 individuals across the business participated in the program.
Walgreens University continued to offer training, leadership development and career advancement opportunities to team members at all levels. During fiscal 2023, more than 14,500 team members participated in both in-person and live virtual sessions. Walgreens University also partners with academic institutions to offer tuition discounts. Since launching in 2013, Walgreens University has provided team members with more than $11 million in tuition discounts.
Boots UK grew participation in its apprenticeship programs to more than 800 team members across 16 programs, from entry level up to degree level, across supply chain, support office and stores. In fiscal 2023, the programs grew to include the new optical assistant level three, data science and AI programs. New programs are continually developed in order to meet certain needs of the business and to help with specialized staff retention.
