Pfizer is pioneering biopharmaceutical innovations to do more than just treat difficult diseases—they’re curing and preventing them.
The organisation’s purpose is to open medical possibilities to support breakthroughs that change patients’ lives.
We have more than 2,200 employees and a tradition of working within the UK since our first facility was opened back in 1952.
Challenges
We have roughly the same number of men and women in the workforce. However, we recognised we had fewer men in junior positions and more men in senior positions.
Colleague engagement was around 31%, which is a challenge when trying to engage all Pfizer UK colleagues to care about closing the gender pay gap. Communications needed to address misconceptions or preconceived ideas, as colleagues:
- Often misunderstood the causes of the gender pay gap;
- Thought that this was a problem for women and not a problem for business; and
- Were afraid of quotas, positive discrimination, and being at a disadvantage.
Innovative actions
Pfizer built a five-point strategy to close the gender pay gap and build diversity. This included:
- Ensuring recruitment diversity.
- Creating a trusting, flexible workplace culture.
- Building a Career Support Programme.
- Providing long-term absence support for returners.
- Establishing family friendly practices for every stage of the family life cycle.
We have supported each aspect of the strategy with a comprehensive communication plan and engaged colleagues across the business to provide functional and technical expertise. We have also designed and delivered activities and championed change.
We have developed and implemented a metrics framework to measure progress and help encourage colleagues across the business to champion change.
We have taken effective measures to reduce the pay gap and have included the provision of support for women to progress into leadership roles.
Evidence of impact
We have narrowed the gender pay gap for three consecutive years; within just two years we have reduced the gap by more than 5%–going from 15.9% in 2019 down to 10.2% in 2020.
We have also seen a 10% rise in women applying for management roles and an increase in the number of women hired for senior roles.
The information contained within this resource was accurate at the time of its publication and subsequent revision. This article was created in 2021 and revised in April 2022.
