A Commitment to Our People and Communities
Gilead is committed to supporting a diverse, inclusive and equitable workforce and creating an environment where employees feel free to be themselves. Outside of our walls, we continue to take action to eliminate race-based health disparities, promote health and wellbeing in the communities where we work and live, and ensure we are providing equitable opportunities for all.
Building on Our Commitment
Support for Employee Wellbeing
During 2020, we continued to prioritize our focus on employee health and wellbeing. Gilead introduced a range of programs to support employees, including:
A global reimbursement to support employee wellbeing expenses
Evacuation services, paid leave and financial support for employees affected by the California Wildfires
Temporary work-from-home support, including reimbursement of up to $1,000 to create home workspaces and monthly childcare expense reimbursement for parents, specific to the COVID-19 pandemic
Our Employee Resource Groups also play an important role in the way we promote an inclusive environment, serving as advisors to the company on policies and programs that promote equity, and offering a place to bring diverse communities together.
Listen First
We built on existing programs and introduced new ones, with the goal of deepening our commitment to racial equity and social justice inside the company. Led by our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Daniel O’Day, in the summer of 2020, our most senior leaders worked with our GLOBE employee resource group to hold a series of listening sessions and town halls to understand the concerns of our Black employees and how we could use our platform to promote racial equity. Our listening sessions and town halls led to the creation of our Advancing Black Leadership strategy to provide opportunities for existing employees, as well as additional programs to recruit more diverse job candidates.
Blueprint for Change
Gilead launched Blueprint for Change to create processes and partnerships to increase recruitment of diverse candidates. Blueprint for Change is intended to help increase our Black and Latinx workforce by building relationships with, and hiring diverse talent from, universities and other organizations that support our current and future talent needs.
Championing an Inclusive Future
Gilead’s culture is constantly evolving. Hear more about how we are working to retain and develop our workforce in this video featuring Valerie Brown, Senior Vice President of Quality Assurance and Executive Sponsor of the GLOBE employee resource group.
View Transcript
When I talk about diversity and inclusion, I think about diversity being invited to the dance, and I think about inclusion being actually asked to dance.
My name is Valerie Brown. I’m the Senior Vice President of Quality at Gilead Sciences.
At Gilead, I would say it’s a culture that’s ever evolving.
We are a very diverse organization. There are people here from all walks of life, all types of experiences. So, there are a lot of programs that the company has put in place to help in these efforts. We have what we call Employee Resource Groups.
There’s certainly a goal to increase the number of Black leaders in the organization.
How much money are we providing to esteemed programs that help under-represented groups? But to make sure that we’re looking at the improvement and where we are in the organization to certainly develop and retain the people who are here.
There are goals to source for individuals who are exiting their undergrad programs or graduate programs. There’s also a goal to look at more seasoned professionals that are looking for a change and can certainly make a positive impact here at Gilead.
The leadership here has been very supportive. It’s a culture where, you know, big ideas are welcome, people are invited to share their experiences.
It’s not about being perfect, but it’s striving for excellence. We’re not just so insular within the confines of the walls here, but we are aware there is a great big world out there because something that may have got you where you are ten years ago may not be what’s going to take you ten years into the future.
Some of the events that happened in late spring, early summer; Gilead did embark on listening sessions where the leadership team put together a forum where most of the Black employees would attend. And it was a place where we got a chance to sort of talk about what was happening out in the world. But also, people had an opportunity to give some perspective about some of the things that may have happened to them.
Being able to talk about that at work with colleagues was definitely very… it was very emotional.
I don’t think it is very hard to find diverse talent; we can make the change that we need if we are all aligned in terms of what the goals are.
Recognizing what the problem truly is, what problem are we trying to solve, and then what’s our plan to solve it?
I think the only barrier to progress is the ones we would put up ourselves, so for that, you know, I can be optimistic in that fashion.
Just as we are here within the walls of Gilead.
Supporting Healthcare Equity Across Communities
Gilead works with public health officials, community advocates, researchers, doctors and patients to carry out programs that provide access to our medicines in low- and middle-income countries. We support programs that increase access to medicines around the world.
HepConnect
Over the past 20 years, the U.S. opioid crisis has caused a sharp jump in HCV diagnoses in the Appalachian region of the United States. Gilead’s HepConnect works through local organizations in Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia to expand screenings and linkage to care, support harm reduction and community education, and build knowledge, resources and capacity in communities where the need is greatest. With Gilead support, HepConnect grantee organizations experiencing COVID-19- related financial challenges were able to access $200,000 in rapid-response funding through the National Harm Reduction Coalition.
Tackling Inequities
We launched our Racial Equity Community Impact Fund to support high-impact organizations working to tackle racial inequities affecting Black communities across the United States. The fund will initially provide $10 million in grants to 20 organizations over a three-year period.
TRANScend® Community Impact Fund
The Gilead TRANScend Community Impact Fund supports trans-led organizations working to improve the safety, health and wellness of the transgender community. In 2020, TRANScend approved two-year grants totaling $4.5 million, supporting 14 organizations in the areas of strategic program development, capacity-building and direct service initiatives leveraging community engagement to build and sustain progress in reducing HIV impacts in transgender communities.
Partnering to Study COVID-19 Health Inequities
Gilead provided an initial $1 million in grant funding to the Satcher Health Leadership Institute at the Morehouse School of Medicine to support the development of a comprehensive health equity data platform to help address the impact of COVID-19 and other diseases on the Black community and other communities of color. Gilead’s grant also funded the creation of the new Black Health Equity Alliance, composed of national thought leaders, community representatives, scholars, researchers and policymakers who will help coordinate COVID-19 education, training, information exchange and dissemination and policy analysis.
Giving Together in 2020
To support our employees’ community-based charitable work, our Giving Together program matches employee donations to eligible nonprofit organizations. Giving Together also matches employee volunteer hours with reward points that can be sent as donations to qualifying nonprofits of the employee’s choosing. Rewards can be earned as part of Gilead volunteer campaigns or through independent volunteer work.
