Award recognizes company’s long-term efforts to create equal opportunities for growth for women and multicultural talent
Boston Scientific was honored with a 2022 Catalyst Award, the premier recognition of organizational diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) initiatives that drive representation and inclusion for women. The award will be presented during an awards ceremony on March 17, 2022.
“A culture that values diverse perspectives drives us all to be better and think differently—and that’s how we can solve healthcare’s toughest problems,” said Mike Mahoney, chairman and chief executive officer, Boston Scientific.
Boston Scientific was recognized for its Creating Equal Opportunities for Growth initiative, a global effort to address the real and perceived barriers that women and diverse employees face in the workplace. The initiative emerged in response to the company’s 2017 global employee engagement survey that revealed 14% of women responded less favorably than men when asked if people with equal ability, education and experience have equal opportunities for promotion within the organization. Black women and men in the U.S. and Puerto Rico also responded with lower ratings related to career opportunities when compared to their peers that identify with other racial and ethnic groups. Boston Scientific responded to these findings by taking decisive action to drive equitable career development and promotion opportunities within the company.
“This initiative recognizes the efforts of every employee to enact change to bring diverse thinking to drive innovation,” said Lorraine Hariton, president and chief executive officer, Catalyst. “We applaud Boston Scientific for its commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion and to fostering career advancement for women and everyone.”
A sustainable, systemic approach
The Creating Equal Opportunities for Growth initiative has led to positive, lasting change. This multi-year, multi-faceted and global effort examined programs, practices and policies to identify and address gaps, igniting a cultural shift that continues to this day.
As part of the initiative, the company:
- Set and made progress toward its 3Up by 2023 goals to increase workplace gender and multicultural diversity.
- Expanded opportunities for sponsorship and mentoring, to accelerate the development of women and multicultural leaders.
- Improved diversity awareness and inclusion competency skills for managers and all employees.
- Grew the Women’s Network employee resource group (ERG) to 26 chapters and approximately 3,500 members.
- Developed DE&I analytics solutions to measure the progress of programs and practices over time.
- Increased transparency and communications about its DE&I efforts and progress.
- Engaged senior leaders to promote DE&I through their involvement on the Global Council for Inclusion and as executive sponsors of ERGs.
- Enlisted men to be champions and allies for women in the workplace.
- Achieved 99% or greater pay equity for employees across gender globally and for multicultural talent in the U.S. and Puerto Rico.
- Expanded benefits offerings based on employee input, including adding offerings to support working parents and parents-to-be.
All Boston Scientific employees are expected to contribute to the betterment of the workplace and the communities in which the company serves. “Meaningful progress takes time, and our work is far from over,” said Wendy Carruthers, senior vice president, Human Resources, Boston Scientific. “I’m incredibly proud of our team’s commitment to creating an environment where each individual feels valued, included and has opportunities for growth.”
Real results for real people
Becky Knutson, director of R&D, works on an engineering team at Boston Scientific, a professional area where women are known to be underrepresented in leadership and management. “I have been promoted eight times in my 18 years with Boston Scientific, and I have never felt held back from obtaining my goals,” said Becky. “In fact, I feel that my company’s focus on increasing women in leadership has created a culture that has accelerated my career opportunities.”
Between 2017 and 2020, women in executive leadership roles increased from 12.5% to 26.7% (14.2-point increase). Women at director and vice president levels increased from 27.6% to 33.4% (5.8-point increase). Women of color (U.S./Puerto Rico) in manager and supervisory roles increased from 7.5% to 9.3% (1.8-point increase). The Board of Directors has had three women (30% of the Board), two of whom are of color, since 2017.
Go here to learn more about ongoing Boston Scientific DE&I efforts and progress.