'Our culture is one where we want to harness the power of individual differences'
Over the past few months, there’s been a lot to learn around how you deal with an entirely new working environment. From a global pandemic to a major talent shortage, HR directors have been enduring unprecedented obstacles in the battle to retain and recruit staff.
In an interview with HRD’s Kylie Speer, Benjamin Basil, president and general manager of medical company Eli Lilly, which won the Employer of Choice Excellence Award at Australia’s HR Awards, speaks about how Eli Lilly’s purpose contributes to their high levels of staff engagement, retention and satisfaction, and how their commitment to D&I contributes to their overall culture.
“I'd say the first thing is that our HR team and our people and culture is something that isn't only about the HR team leading,” added Basil. “I think one of the proudest achievements of the team is that everyone across our entire employee base use it as their role to shape our culture every day.”
Eli Lilly has six active "diversity and inclusion" groups that cover organic topics that employees are passionate about and over a third of their employees are active across all six groups. Over the past 24 months, discussion within the gender, diversity and inclusion group saw Eli Lilly’s female representation on their leadership team grow from 20% to 60%.
“Our culture is one where we want to harness the power of individual differences,” added Basil. “It’s known that companies with executive teams that are balanced in terms of gender, perform better than those with lower levels of female representation. That’s a fact.”
Watch HRD’s whole interview here.
