Employee Experience

Management Approach

At Lilly, we make life better for people around the world – and it starts with our employees. Through our diverse, comprehensive pay and benefits programs – many at the forefront of the marketplace – as well as enrichment through learning and development opportunities, we empower our colleagues to live their best lives. We also strive to create a companywide culture where best-in-class safety practices support the well-being of our workforce and the communities where we operate. In caring for employees, we power our purpose.

Employee Well-Being

We take a broad view of well-being anchored in providing support for mental and physical health, financial knowledge and security, as well as a culture of rich connections and purpose to inspire all employees to be their best. While the local environment shapes program offerings in each of our affiliate locations around the world, our well-being framework is global. A global steering team, sponsored by Lilly leadership, actively guides our well-being strategy.

Pay & Benefits

Our pay and benefits programs are designed to attract and retain a diverse, highly motivated workforce while reinforcing our care for employees and shared purpose to make life better. Lilly’s pay programs reward employee contributions and overall business success, and our benefit programs provide the flexibility to meet employees where they are in life and support overall well-being. We strive to deliver pay and benefits with a global mindset, differentiating programs where local business needs or markets necessitate.  

Health

Our ability to deliver for patients begins with the good health of our employees and those they go home to each day. Through our robust suite of benefits, we support employees whether they are seeking to stay well, get well or manage a serious illness. In the U.S., we offer comprehensive medical, prescription drug, dental and vision benefits as well as annual financial contributions to health accounts to assist with medical expenses. Our employees have coverage and concierge services for orthopedic, cardiovascular, fertility and family-building care through best-in-class partnerships. We’re proud to also offer health care education and care navigation for our LGBTQ+ community. We make getting care a bit easier through our telehealth benefits and onsite health clinics at various Lilly sites that offer care and treatment of work-related illness and injuries, immunizations, acute personal health care needs, emergency and preventive care. Some clinic locations also host phlebotomy, vison care, dental care, health coaching and mobile mammography.  

U.S. employees are encouraged to stay active with fitness centers at certain locations, on-demand fitness classes for getting in a work-out at home as well as membership to 10,000 fitness centers nationwide. Employees in the U.S. and United Kingdom have access to myBest Life, a holistic well-being program to support personal goal setting and engagement for a healthier life. Finally, as part of our commitment toward a global standard of care, we have removed certain barriers to coverage in many global markets including health and welfare coverage for same sex partners, newborns, mental health and sexually transmitted diseases.  

Health, above all, includes mental health. When life gets challenging for our employees, we are committed to help. Over 70% of our global workforce has access to employee assistance benefits and employees and family members in the U.S. can seek care with Lyra Health, a leading national provider of mental health services, with up to ten therapy sessions per year at no additional cost. Our global EnAble employee resource group, sponsored by our Chief Information Officer and driven by a leadership committee, seeks to create an inclusive environment by removing barriers for those living with mental and physical disabilities. This group has led efforts to establish broad family support networks to create a safe space for employees including Caregiver Connect for those caring for loved ones with physical or mental disabilities, The Village for those who are caring for children or adolescents with mental health needs, and FALO which provides peer support for those who have loved ones struggling with addiction and substance misuse. Our Mental Health Advocacy training program teaches employees and supervisors the signs of stress, emotional distress, and suicide risk and how to care for one another in these scenarios.  

Money 

We understand the importance of taking care of one’s finances, whether an employee is just starting their career or on their way to retirement. Our pay, equity and retirement programs are designed to support our employees in reaching their financial goals.  

Our competitive pay programs are designed to support our employees with everyday financial needs and enjoying life outside the workplace. We are committed to pay equity for all employees. For more than 20 years, we have regularly conducted pay equity studies of our workforce in the U.S. and have more recently started conducting studies of our workforce outside of the U.S. While infrequent, we have made pay adjustments as warranted based on these analyses. We believe that pay equity is critical to our success in supporting a global, diverse and inclusive workforce.  

In addition to annual incentive programs, Lilly Shares 2023 was a special global equity grant to unite employees as owners and to recognize the important role each employee plays in making life better for people around the world. In many countries we also invest in benefits – pensions, savings and/or health care – to support our employees in their retirement years as well as life and disability benefits for peace of mind and financial protection. Employees in the U.S. also have access to $10,000 in annual education and tuition assistance. 

We also provide support to help employees feel educated and confident in their financial choices. For example, Lilly employees in Ireland and the UK have access to a financial education platform that provides financial awareness along with a check-up and guidance for next steps. In the U.S., employees can meet with a financial advisor – at no out-of-pocket cost – on topics such as budgeting, debt management and retirement planning. 

Life 

Life is filled with moments that matter and we offer support to employees to help balance the personal and professional aspects of life. While our employee benefits programs vary around the world, these may include flexible work arrangements, onsite conveniences and time off to disconnect.  

U.S. employees have three to six weeks of paid vacation and the option to trade or purchase additional days plus up to eighteen paid holidays and company shutdown days. In times of injury and illness, employees have paid time off and leave options as well as 64 hours of caregiver time off. New mothers, fathers, domestic partners, adoptive and foster parents may take 10 weeks of paid time off and up to 10 weeks of unpaid time off in addition to eight weeks of paid maternity for birth mothers. We appreciate the additional responsibilities of our working parents by offering a 10-week summer camp, 10 days of subsidized back-up care services and two convenient child development centers at our Indianapolis headquarters.  

Our global recognition program, Inspire, allows teammates to recognize one another regardless of their work location through supervisor-to-employee, peer-to-peer and service-based recognition. Employees may congratulate coworkers’ successes through the companywide recognition feed, providing a consistent and meaningful recognition experience for all employees.

Learning & Development Programs & Tools

Career Development and On-Demand Learning 

Explore Your Career is Lilly’s global framework and suite of resources designed to help employees grow and lead every day – and to help engage and retain talent. Explore Your Career provides the opportunity for employees to “raise their hand” to receive a talent assessment, which provides development suggestions for deepening skills and taking on new or expanded leadership roles. Explore Your Career contains tools and guidance for employees and their managers to assess career interests, map career plans and develop capabilities. More than 14,000 employees have engaged in the program since its launch, signaling a healthy interest in career development. The program also shows encouraging results at the enterprise level, including improved engagement scores, improved retention rates for those who participate and positive perceptions of career development and investment. 

Lilly U, which features the online LinkedIn Learning platform, is another opportunity extended to all employees. Lilly employees are curious innovators and love to learn. LinkedIn Learning courses are taught by real-world practitioners around the globe who inspire and engage learners. Courses are available in ten languages, and they are widely accessible to Lilly’s global team of employees in an on-demand, learn-anywhere and -anytime format. The platform provides relevant, contemporary learning opportunities across business, creative and technology topics, including AI, which is a development topic of increasing interest for many employees. Additional live classes and programming are available for employees around the globe to develop a variety of skills, including self-leadership, insights to personal effectiveness and effective communication. New in 2023, Lilly U provided a global, all-employee simulcast event featuring a well-known external researcher and author to help employees learn how to increase their impact and continue building their skills.  

Data Analytics and Technology 

Lilly has prioritized strengthening our data skills and capabilities. The Lilly Data and Analytics Institute was launched to upskill employees and leaders across the company. Through foundational courses, custom scenario-based simulations and hands-on tool-based programs, Lilly is deepening its culture of data-driven decision making and equipping employees and leaders alike to tap more deeply into the power of analytics. 

Lilly also advances employee development, inclusion and engagement through a global virtual platform, ELEVATE, designed to help all employees learn how to leverage technology to build connections and performance across the Lilly enterprise. Specifically, ELEVATE programming demonstrates how to use available tools and rapidly evolving technology resources to improve productivity, collaboration, inclusivity and well-being for employees who work on site or remotely. 

Leadership Development 

Effective leadership is a critically important part of a thriving organization. In recent years, we’ve expanded our investment in leadership development programs, tools and resources for leaders at all levels of the company and across the globe. The aim is to help supervisors develop skills and strategies to lead increasingly inclusive, collaborative and high-performing teams. 

In addition to the online LinkedIn Learning platform available in multiple languages, we have further expanded our instructor-led offerings. Our REACH Leadership Development programs continued to expand in 2023 to impact more leaders globally, with both company strategy and skill-building content. Additional initiatives have included training on inclusive leadership in a hybrid environment, effective communication in a dynamic, information-rich world, and psychological safety. We also maintain a “Take the Lead” live webinar series delivered by Lilly executives to all leaders globally, and quarterly learning labs available for leadership skill-building on topics such as inspiring teams, coaching and retaining and developing talent. 

In late 2023 we launched a new, comprehensive curriculum for new Lilly leaders called DISCOVER Leading@Lilly. This curriculum completely transformed our prior transition-to-leadership curriculum and set a new standard for all leaders at Lilly as they build essential leadership skills through a variety of courses and experiences during the new 18-month pathway. The program will be implemented globally in languages beyond English in 2024. 

Results of this comprehensive leadership development agenda continue to be positive, with employees rating managers with increasingly favorable scores on multiple leadership dimensions in Lilly’s annual leadership survey across the five-year span from 2019-2023. 

Inclusive Training Approaches 

In addition to providing numerous learning programs across an array of topics, we continue to evolve design standards for training courses to improve accessibility for people living and working with disabilities and other access needs. Examples include ensuring courses are compatible with assistive technologies such as screen readers for employees with visual impairments and providing transcripts for individuals with hearing impairments. Across Lilly, we intentionally design learning experiences and other communications technologies to be more inclusive. 

Employee Engagement

Our quarterly employee engagement survey, the Pulse survey, has been administered in some form since 1995. Currently each quarter, 25% of global employees are randomly invited to participate in the Pulse survey. 

Our most recent survey in 2023 asked employees questions related to meaningful work, rewards and recognition, well-being, job satisfaction and retention. The Pulse survey evaluates employee perceptions of 13 different dimensions, including engagement, which is a composite dimension of several questions. A streamlined Pulse survey, focusing on the same content, will be deployed in 2024. 

Over the past five years, our response rate averaged between 60-70%, with more than 25,000 employees responding to the survey in 2023, which is available in multiple languages. In 2021, we also added a Micro-Pulse survey, which was administered to small, randomized groups of 500-5,000 employees and further tested just-in-time concepts, such as preferences of working on-site versus remote, facilities, benefits and communication strategies. This continues to be a key platform to listen to employees and ensure their voices are heard. 

Attrition Rate 

Lilly’s total attrition rate for 2023 was 6.86%. Total attrition decreased from the previous year, and we have consistently remained below industry averages. 

Employee Safety

Keeping our people safe and healthy, whether at home or at work, is a high priority and aligns directly with our values. We realize the journey toward excellence in safety never ends, and we are constantly evaluating approaches to improve our safety programs and integrate injury prevention into everyday work. 

We focus on creating a companywide culture where best-in-class safety practices are consistently followed. To do this, we assess and continuously strive to improve our safety performance to promote the well-being of employees and to help safeguard communities where we operate. 

All employees are required to complete routine training on health, safety and environmental programs. This includes general health, safety and environmental training, as well as training on industry-specific and job-specific programs and procedures. Employees are also trained on relevant emergency preparedness and response procedures. 

Our Lilly Technology Center in Indianapolis, Indiana has been a participant in the OSHA Voluntary Protection Program (VPP) since 2001 and has achieved the STAR certification. The VPP recognizes employers and workers who have implemented effective safety and health management systems and maintain injury and illness rates below national Bureau of Labor Statistics averages for their respective industries. To be recognized in the STAR program, employers and employees must demonstrate exemplary achievement in the development, implementation and continuous improvement of their safety and health management system. In 2023, the Lilly Technology Center successfully achieved recertification from the Indiana Occupational Safety Health Administration (IOSHA) for another five-year period. Lilly’s Technology Center is one of the largest VPP sites in the state.  

At Lilly, we measure both leading and lagging indicators when assessing our overall safety performance. We have found that tracking leading – or predictive – indicators, such as ergonomic risk, safety culture scores and precursors for life-altering and fatality risks, contributes greatly to our company safety performance. Using these indicators in conjunction with lagging indicators, such as our injury rates, we can paint a comprehensive picture of the areas that most affect employee safety across Lilly. This approach allows us to both influence change where needed and track our safety progress in concrete ways over time. 

Employee Safety Goals

Since we first began setting global safety goals in 2007, we have achieved significant improvements in our injury and illness rates. We continue to evaluate and set challenging employee safety goals to ensure we are making improvements in the most impactful areas. 

Lilly has established safety metrics connected to our safety priorities and improving safety culture. Our priorities include developing safety leadership capabilities, reducing our most significant risks that could have life-altering or fatal consequences and managing business continuity risks, including those associated with process safety management. Additionally, we established a safety goal – to achieve zero severe injuries – with a focus on continuous improvement. In 2023, our severe injury rate was 0.69 injuries per 500 employees, which represents an increase over the 2022 rate of 0.55. Review of these injuries indicated that the most common accident category was slip, trip and fall accidents, many of which involved a behavioral element. As a result, individual areas have taken follow-up actions to help reduce risks and enhance employee education on safe behaviors. In addition, we have taken a broad approach across our operations to further deploy safety programs with an emphasis on the behavioral elements of injury prevention. We strive to achieve continuous improvement in injury reduction as we work toward the vision of an injury-free workplace. 

With an eye on predictive indicators to improve our safety performance and culture, we track several leading metrics aligned with our priorities: 

• Life-Altering Injury and Fatality Near Miss Rate – Near miss events that involve the potential to result in a life-altering injury and fatality. 

• Safety Leadership Score – Safety culture score calculated from our global employee Pulse surveys. 

• Lab Inspections – Execution of lab inspections in Lilly Research Laboratories to help drive leadership engagement and identify and mitigate risks. 

• Affiliate Field Safety Discussions – A requirement for leaders to engage in driving and ergonomic safety discussions with our field-based employees. 

We continue to track and report injuries as required by local regulations (e.g., OSHA); however, for internally tracked injury metrics, we utilize the severe injury rate metric, which is based on the ASTM Standard for Reporting Injuries and Illnesses. This metric is applied globally and provides insights into our safety program performance. We also track the number of process safety deviations in our applicable manufacturing sites and the number of life-altering injuries and fatalities globally.

Lilly’s Safety Progress and Performance

See important information about our Sustainability report.