Pfizer - Diversity in the Workforce

Diversity in the Workforce

Edith Y Gonzalez

Colorado Mesa University

Diversity in the Workforce

        Pfizer, an American biopharmaceutical company that does business around the world, wants to have a more diverse workforce. It has already begun the process by including in its leadership council senior executives with varied backgrounds. The company also has resource groups for employees with different sexual preferences, with disabilities, and minorities. In a company like Pfizer, innovation and creativity is important because it leads to the creation of new products. Diversity plays a crucial role. If Pfizer’s employees were the same, with similar age, backgrounds, race, and gender, they would have similar ways of thinking (Biggins, 2018). New ideas spark from a workforce full of different ways of thinking. Pfizer’s employees should be as diverse as their customers. On Pfizer’s website they recognize that, “diverse backgrounds and abilities who can contribute unique viewpoints and perspectives to all aspects of the business, from drug development to marketing. Diverse teams are more collaborative, more accepting of difference, and more apt to discover”. This diversity will aid them in serving their customers better because the employees will be able to understand different point of views. All of this could give Pfizer an opportunity to further grow and thus giving it an advantage over its competitors (Earley, 2017).

        A diverse workforce invites an atmosphere of creativity and innovation, but it also helps Pfizer to become compliant with equal employment opportunity practices (Mendez, 2016). If people applying, being hired, and employees within Pfizer feel respected and even welcomed based on their qualifications and not characteristics that are not related to their job, Pfizer will not suffer from complaints to agencies like Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Such complaints are not only bad publicity for business, but they are also costly. If an applicant or employee feels the company has biases that are illegal and files a legitimate claim, it could result in a lawsuit and Pfizer would have to pay out compensation or punitive damages (Gully & Phillips, 2015, p. 65). Not only is it a good idea for Pfizer and any other company to be compliant, it is an obligation. Pfizer’s Affirmative Action Policy is part of their proactive focus on diversity and inclusion (Pfizer.com, 2015). The company reaps the innovative benefits of diversity as well as stay compliant. As a federal contractor, they are also legally obligated to take affirmative action which is enforced by the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs. They review Pfizer’s employments practices to make sure they are in compliance with the government’s discrimination laws.