The summer of 2020 highlighted the need for organizations to focus on racial diversity and inclusion by developing a comprehensive and systemic approach. Throughout the year, the pandemic has highlighted the disproportionate impact of Covid-19 on communities of color and the inequities in our health care system. Shortly after the media began reporting on the disparities exposed by Covid-19, the protests following the death of George Floyd became an additional catalyst for companies to step back and examine the impact on their own employees, partners and customers. Many organizations have identified gaps internally and focused on the steps needed to become truly diverse, inclusive and equitable.
Takeda, a global biopharmaceutical company committed to providing people around the world with better health and a brighter future, strongly believes that it can provide its patients with the highest access to medicines through an employee population that reflects the diverse patient population and communities it supports. In 2018, Takeda’s US business unit (USBU) partnered with IBM Global Business Services to transform its talent acquisition function and provide seamless RPO support. IBM has partnered with Takeda to leverage a consistent approach to diversity, equity and inclusion through training and implementing consistent practices and processes. While building its robust values-based culture and Business-Trust-Reputation-Patient priorities, USBU has also responded to the changing needs of its employees and established a cross-functional Diversity, Equity and Inclusion council to identify opportunities to further improve its DE&I operations across the organization.
“We have been on a journey towards greater diversity, equity and inclusion, but recent events have accelerated and accelerated the way USBU looks at this issue and its impact both inside and outside our organization,” says Dominique Brewer, diversity leader , Equity and Inclusion USA, USBU and GPLS and former Talent Acquisition Leader at Takeda. “As a result, we recognized the need to carefully and consistently look at how we attract and retain talent to ensure we are building a workforce that reflects the diversity of the patients we serve.” She added: “More importantly, we want to ensure that diversity and inclusion is embedded in the ways we work through our values-based culture, so that it is part of how we operate across all areas of our talent organization.”
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Brewer says that in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, Takeda leveraged its robust cultural and employee resource groups, called Takeda Resource Groups (TRG), to support its employees and underrepresented talent. In partnership with TRG’s Black Leadership Council, Takeda conducted listening sessions and conversations on systemic racism, using employee feedback to inform and guide its DE&I efforts. This enabled Takeda to begin working on healing and taking action to make changes. Since then, one of several ways Takeda has taken steps to make progress is by partnering with community organizations to better understand issues affecting patients in the communities they serve.
Diversity built into the company structure
In January 2019, Takeda’s acquisition of Shire created a leading biopharmaceutical company with approximately 50,000 employees worldwide. With the takeover of Shire, it was necessary to integrate not only the employees, but also their existing company culture, experiences and skills. Company leaders have sought to maintain a fragile balance between leading inclusion efforts and embracing diversity to ensure employees feel included while leveraging Takeda’s core values and honoring its Japanese heritage. For Takeda, Brewer says this means incorporating the values of Takedaism – honesty, integrity, honesty and perseverance – into operational processes and business decisions. And ensuring that all decisions are made in line with their priorities: Patient-Trust-Reputation-Business, always in that order.
During the acquisition, Takeda made a deliberate effort to combine both companies and cultures into “One Takeda” – united by a shared culture and value system. At each stage of the integration process, leaders asked themselves whether the decisions they made would connect people with the organization or make them feel excluded.
Building on the foundations of a diverse, equitable and inclusive organization
At the beginning of the integration, Takeda worked with two talent acquisition teams that were responsible for delivering skills and hiring for over 1,600 positions. Brewer worked with both senior Takeda and Shire teams to structure the recruiting processes and unify the teams to operate as one Takeda talent acquisition team.
“When evaluating our recruiting processes, we wanted to make sure that DE&I didn’t simply fall on the desk of the diversity or recruiting team,” Brewer says. “Achieving true diversity, equity and inclusion is a coordinated, collaborative effort across all functions and areas of the business. Takeda continues to move toward greater diversity, equity and inclusion, which will continue to evolve as the world changes. We will never truly be finished. Instead, we must actively continue working toward our goal and adapt to the evolution of the world around us.”
Takeda has partnered with IBM Services to address the current state of its talent acquisition organization and the demands of candidate market stressors in society to meet its increased expectations for an inclusive and diverse talent organization. IBM worked with Takeda to develop a plan to modify talent acquisition behaviors, practices and procedures. After completing extensive collaborative process mapping, IBM focused on in-depth training in the built-in talent acquisition operating model for outsourcing recruiting processes so that the talent organization operated as a single entity.
“IBM provided us with an unparalleled level of service, ensuring the right fit and embedding within the Takeda team structure,” says Brewer. “IBM became part of our team and, more importantly, believed in our mission for better health and a brighter future. The level of partnership we felt with the IBM team was a true example of how to be inclusive.”
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