As a data-centric company, we value data as one of the key sources of forward movement and innovation. While we often make human-informed decisions, we must recognize that bias can manifest itself in various ways in the decision making process. At Biogen, we aim to be intentional about the movement of talent in our organization, especially knowing that women continue to be underrepresented across the industry and are oftentimes overlooked for promotions. We ask ourselves, “how do we want to shape the future of talent management?”

By Jeffrey Herrera, Diversity & Inclusion Programs Manager, Biogen

Talent management strategy for inclusion
In 2018, we launched a new Global Inclusion and Diversity strategy that called for Inclusive Talent Systems, which was presented to the organization alongside several unconscious bias trainings. With a workforce that was now more equipped to talk about bias and other barriers to inclusion, we decided it was time to further integrate our inclusion and diversity practices into all talent management processes. Overall, our goal was to provide resources on bias to leaders so that they could be accountable during key dialogues and decision-making moments around talent. We posited that this would lead to the equitable advancement of women and other underrepresented talent.

Sensitizing leaders to unconscious biases
Over the past year, we have raised awareness of the different types of biases that can arise in the workplace, including the “mini-me” and “in-group / out-group” biases, which we find to be particularly challenging in a highly-specialized biotechnology industry. This was a fundamental step we needed to take, as it laid the terminological foundation needed to create common ground. Additionally, there was an intentional effort during these trainings to focus on the personal journey before addressing organizational efforts to counteract bias. This gave individuals the opportunity to reflect on why inclusion and diversity is important to them, and how difference has impacted their personal and professional lives.

What we believe we have done differently, and where we have observed the most success, is integrating unconscious bias trainings/reminders into various leadership discussions in order to interrupt the introduction of bias in the moments where decisions are made. As other companies have noted, a single standalone training on unconscious bias has yet to yield the long-term impact that one would hope. As with any behaviour change, the impact comes with simple, repeated reminders in forums where shared accountability exists.

Committing to a lens of inclusive leadership
Once this was achieved, we included several topics on inclusion in our talent review materials, such as the role of care and candor in organizational culture, common biases that negatively affect the decision making process and pre- and post-calibration checks to ensure biases were effectively managed. It was important to commit to a lens of inclusive leadership so that we could have honest discussions of our talent, their potential and capabilities.

In addition to optimizing the talent review process, we have implemented several other initiatives that have shown positive results in our efforts to support gender inclusion and advancement in the organization. These include a world-class Women’s Leadership Program, our Women’s Innovation Network (WIN), which aims to create an environment of inclusion and engagement for women and their male allies, and a global Talent Acquisition Strategy that calls for diverse interview panels, inclusive interview guides and conversations with hiring managers on bias and underrepresented talent before the hiring process begins. Biogen also created the Raising the Bar program, designed to close the gender gap at the Board of Directors level (now an industry-wide program re-titled ‘Boardroom Ready’, owned by Women in Bio).

Effecting measurable change
Overall, our actions have seen an increase in the representation of women at the Director level and above from 40% in 2015 to 46% in 2019 (data as of 31.12.2015 and 30.06.2019). We have ensured the sustainability of these programs over time by embedding inclusion and diversity into our talent systems and creating a culture of accountability and ownership across the organization.

To assure gender equality in the promotion process, we believe that companies must invest in efforts to develop female talent, and also create an environment where all are empowered to call out bias during key decision making conversations. Without the latter, women and other underrepresented groups will continue to face challenges as they climb the corporate ladder. To fully realize the potential of this future workforce, we must acknowledge the power of difference and inclusion. We hope you’ll join us in this endeavor.