Accessibility Statement

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion



Management Approach

At Lilly, we believe in the power of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) to fulfill our purpose of creating medicines that make life better for all people. By leveraging the diverse backgrounds of our more than 42,000 employees and driving actionable and measurable strategies to improve DEI, including diversity within our clinical trials, we can better deliver scientific breakthroughs. 

Our long-standing values of integrity, excellence and respect for people foster an environment where team members are encouraged to speak up, share ideas and be fully engaged in our work. We are cultivating an inclusive culture that encourages all to feel safe being their true selves. To fulfill our purpose, we believe we must look at challenges from multiple viewpoints and understand the diverse experiences of the people who depend on our medicines. 

When Lilly employees come to work each day, we bring different experiences, perspectives and traditions, and we are committed to welcoming, respecting and valuing those differences. Because people are our priority – and they power our purpose – we treat DEI like any other priority business objective. We set strategy to drive progress on attracting, developing, engaging and retaining a highly skilled and diverse workforce. We continually look at metrics to inform our approach to these efforts. 

We conduct in-depth employee research that continues to yield important insights into employee-reported experiences. The research has uncovered factors that employees say may influence their ability to contribute to their fullest potential. This Employee Journeys research (explained further below) has led to a multifaceted People Strategy to improve our culture for all. Through our People Strategy, we have developed a comprehensive approach to DEI that strives to make working at Lilly better for everyone and helps deliver on our employee value proposition, “Be part of a team that cares about you and our shared purpose to make life better.”

Our commitment to DEI extends beyond our employees and into our broader business, including patient safety, clinical trials, access to and development of our medicines, and engagement with small and/or diverse suppliers and partners.


Leadership Commitment

The DEI commitment at Lilly includes purposeful corporate culture and ongoing data analyses to inform our approach. Our CEO and Executive Committee consistently set expectations for inclusive leadership and diversity in the workplace.  

Our executive leadership integrates DEI within our human resources talent management organization. Lilly’s executive vice president for human resources and diversity, a member of our Executive Committee, reports directly to our chair and CEO and is ultimately accountable for DEI at Lilly. Our chief DEI officer is a senior vice president reporting to the executive vice president for human resources and diversity and is also responsible for leading our talent management functions. This allows us to fully embed DEI into recruiting, developing, and retaining talent. 

We began setting internal aspirational representation goals in 2017 as part of our efforts to address underrepresentation of women in management globally and minority group members in U.S. management roles and have since expanded this to our research career path and the upper levels of our professional career path.* We monitor our progress over time against aspirational representation goals, which identify opportunities to grow the diversity of our candidate pools based on the external available talent market. 

Senior leaders have long coached, mentored and sponsored employees. In 2023, our CEO sponsored leadership development programs for key talent, including employees from historically underrepresented groups. Members of our Executive Committee – our CEO and the executive vice presidents who directly report to our CEO – sponsored similar programs. Sponsorship efforts across various levels of the organization grew last year to just under 580 formal pairs. Mentoring relationships grew to more than 12,800 pairings because of a number of factors, including onboarding efforts, peer to peer, informal and formal mentoring programming. 

* A “minority group member” (MGM) is an individual who identifies with one or more of the following races or ethnicities: Black or African American, Hispanic or Latinx, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, American Indian or Alaskan Native, or Asian (each as defined by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)).


DEI Progress

Building a more inclusive culture requires sustained focus to drive action and the holistic integration of equitable strategies into our entire business. Leaders at Lilly are expected to lead more inclusively by valuing differences, recognizing and overcoming bias, and fostering a speak-up culture where all colleagues feel their ideas and contributions are welcome and valued. We gauge employee feedback through surveys and other mechanisms. 

Our commitment to DEI is a core component of how we do business. Here are some examples of how this work has made a difference:  

  • Lilly has participated in key external surveys and trackers that evaluate our DEI efforts compared to other participating companies. 

  • Additionally, we tracked our progress, including: 

    • Management-level progress: Between 2019 and 2023 the number of women in management roles globally increased from 45% to over 49%. Representation of minority group members in U.S. management positions also increased from 22% at the end of 2019 to 24% at the end of 2023. 

    • As of end of 2023, four members, or approximately 31%, of Lilly’s 13-member Executive Committee were women, and three members were minority group members. Our 12-member board of directors range in age from 51 to 69 and include five women and five members who identify as minority group members. 


DEI Programs and Activities

Employee Journeys

Over the past eight years, our employee journeys research has yielded important insights about the experiences of women, Black American, Latinx, Asian and LGBTQ+ employees. In 2023, we conducted our sixth journey, this time for employees with disabilities and caregivers at Lilly. This journey uncovered priority solutions to enhance the employee experience. We have used the collective insights from our journey work to create education and awareness programs to help build cultural literacy and understanding about expectations for employees to feel psychologically safe and to help drive equity and inclusion.  

Our employee journeys research has contributed to growing energy around DEI across Lilly, including a companywide network of DEI champions, functional DEI initiatives and DEI teams across business areas. The research continues to inform several internal initiatives, including Make It Safe to Thrive training and our psychological safety efforts, which are discussed below. 

While there is always room to continue to improve, these initiatives are making an impact. In our 2023 employee Pulse surveys, we saw continued progress on key questions related to inclusion such as “I speak up during meetings without worrying about how it will impact my relationships or career” and "I feel comfortable sharing my personal passions, interests and activities with the people I work with.” 



Our Approach to Talent Acquisition

We believe cultivating diverse talent starts with the talent acquisition process and continues through the training and development of people with wide-ranging backgrounds and experiences. Lilly has a history of fostering diverse representation in our recruiting practices with a focus on opportunities to expand our pool of candidates to reach more candidates across a variety of dimensions, including but not limited to race, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran status, disability status, education and experience.  

As part of our efforts to build a diverse recruitment pipeline, we have: 

  • Established new recruiting relationships and partnerships with institutions (including Historically Black Colleges and Universities) such as Morehouse School of Medicine, Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science and Purdue University. 

  • Implemented a number of programs through Lilly Research Labs, including our Accelerated R&D leadership program (bringing in MD/MBA and Ph.D/MBA talent from highly regarded business schools); postdoctoral scientist program; and Medicines Innovation Hub Talent Development Academy, focused on early career scientists, potential leaders and experienced scientists for rotations within our organization. 

  • Partnered with community organizations to identify first- and second-year college students for participation in our Summer Experience Program, and provided high school students with opportunities to explore their interests in information technology through our Information and Digital Solutions High School Program. 

  • Worked with the Department of Defense SkillBridge program, which provides service members with opportunities to gain valuable civilian work experience during the last 180 days of service.   

  • Launched multiple apprenticeship programs, including under a broader initiative called Skills First, which aims to hire and upskill individuals without four-year degrees, leveraging relationships with Ivy Tech Community College, Martin University, Be Nimble and the Indianapolis Urban League.


Clinical Trial Diversity

Every time someone takes a medicine – even if it’s over the counter – they are benefitting from the results of a clinical trial, a scientific study where researchers apply rigorous testing to ensure the safety and effectiveness of a medicine. 

Many factors impact how someone will respond to a treatment, including their genetic background, race and/or ethnicity, gender, lifestyle and physical environment. To ensure that medicines are safe and effective for the patients who bear the burden of disease, it is critical that the patient population in clinical trials reflect the prevalence of the disease in the community. At Lilly, inclusive research goes beyond meeting regulatory requirements: it is a strategic business imperative that allows us to have greater impact in improving equitable health outcomes. Unfortunately, clinical trials have traditionally lacked inclusion of historically underrepresented populations. According to the FDA's 2020 Drug Trials Snapshot report, the 53 approved novel drugs that year included 32,000 clinical trial participants. Seventy-five percent of those participants were White, but just 8% Black/African American, 6% Asian and 11% Hispanic/Latino. By comparison in 2020, the U.S. population was 62% White, 13% Black, 7% Asian, and 19% Hispanic/Latino. 

To increase trial accessibility to more patients, Lilly established clear, measurable goals to increase diversity in our trials, which helps us better understand more fully the comprehensive safety and efficacy of the medicines we develop for the patients who will be taking them. 

These goals include: 

  • Strategically designing trials to enroll participants who match the prevalence of the disease in the community.  

  • Intentionally selecting a diverse range of clinical investigators in underrepresented patient geographies. 

  • Ensuring tailored reach through elevating the patient’s voice, education activities and collaboration efforts.

  • Increasing diverse representation through education, partnerships and collaboration.


Racial Justice Commitment

In 2020, Lilly and the Lilly Foundation launched the Racial Justice Commitment to support effective solutions to racial inequality and social injustice. Together, our work and investments focus on improving the education, health, and professional and social mobility outcomes for Black Americans and historically marginalized groups. We’ve committed to building an ecosystem of equity for the benefit of our people and patients. The Racial Justice Commitment aims to drive change across five areas: people development, health equity, social impact, diverse suppliers and family-sustaining jobs. 


DEI Data

See our 2023 EEO-1 data.

2023 Data

Board Diversity

As of May 15, 2023, the company’s board composition includes five women and five minority group members on our 12-person board of directors.

U.S Workforce Ethnic Diversity

2020
2021
2022
2023
Minority Group Member Employees1,2
2020:
27%
2021:
28%
2022:
30%
2023:
32%
Asians
2020:
10%
2021:
11%
2022:
11%
2023:
12%
Black
2020:
10%
2021:
9%
2022:
10%
2023:
11%
Latinx
2020:
5%
2021:
5%
2022:
6%
2023:
6%
Other
2020:
2%
2021:
3%
2022:
3%
2023:
3%
  1. Historical numbers may not add due to rounding.  

  2. In 2023, approximately 2% of the population declined to disclose.  

Minority Group Members in Management (U.S.)

2020
2021
2022
2023
Minority Group Members in Management Positions (U.S.)
2020:
22%
2021:
24%
2022:
25%
2023:
24%

Gender Diversity at Lilly

2020
2021
2022
2023
Women on Board
2020:
31%
2021:
31%
2022:
38%
2023:
42%
Women on Executive Committee
2020:
43%
2021:
33%
2022:
33%
2023:
31%
Women in Management (all M levels)
2020:
46%
2021:
48%
2022:
49%
2023:
49%
Women in Global Workforce
2020:
50%
2021:
51%
2022:
51%
2023:
50%
Women in U.S. Workforce
2020:
50%
2021:
50%
2022:
50%
2023:
50%

See important information about our Sustainability report.