Cardinal Health expands DE&I efforts with new talent strategy

Human Resources: Cardinal Health announced a comprehensive talent strategy to increase representation of diverse employees at the manager level and above by 2030.

This commitment is specifically aimed at increasing the company’s global leadership representation of women and ethnically diverse groups in leadership roles.

“Diversity, equity and inclusion are business imperatives,” said Mike Kaufmann, CEO of Cardinal Health. “When the voices at our table are diverse and reflect the communities we serve, the choices we pursue and the decisions and policies we make are more inclusive, creative, and best position our company for long-term sustainable growth. We believe that an employee population with diversity of talent, experiences and ideas drives more innovation – innovation that enables us to meet our customers’ changing needs today and tomorrow.”

“Creating a workplace that is truly diverse, inclusive and equitable takes focused, thoughtful planning, and it doesn’t happen overnight,” said Ola Snow, Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) at Cardinal Health.

“We are proud to have devoted many years to building a strong foundation, and are excited to continue refining our recruiting, development, succession and retention practices to help ensure equitable access and opportunity.”

Establishing these representation goals is part of the Cardinal Health commitment to ensuring inclusion, representation, and equity across all levels of the company. To achieve these goals, the company will focus on attracting, developing, and retaining diverse talent, from entry-level to senior leadership positions.

“To build a diverse pipeline of tomorrow’s leaders, we must develop and advance women and ethnic minorities,” said Devray Kirkland, Chief Diversity Officer at Cardinal Health.

“We are expanding our existing differentiated development programs, and creating new offerings, to bring an equity lens to our development practices and help more effectively advance underrepresented talent.”

The company will also focus on developing diverse junior talent through its existing summer internship program and EMERGE, a three-year rotational development program for young professionals launching their careers.

Notably, the Human Resources & Compensation Committee of the Cardinal Health Board of Directors recently approved expanding diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) metrics in the company’s FY2022 annual incentive plan at the director level and above, and performance proration of our long-term equity plan at the SVP level and above, with a portion of payouts aligned to progress toward long-term representation goals over each program’s relevant performance periods. These incentives extend well beyond the executive team, reinforcing the cultural commitment within the company’s leadership team.

“Increasing representation, equity and access is foundational to who we are and everything we do,” Snow continued.

“We believe it will have a positive impact on our employees, our business, our customers and the communities where we work and live.”