Abbott 2004 Global Citizenship Report - Abbott Laboratories

We Value Our DiversityWe value our diversity – that of our products, technologies, markets and people –and believe that diverse perspectives combined with shared goals inspire newideas and better ways of addressing changing health needs.Diversity is a key component of Abbott’s business strategy.The diversity of our people from around the world enrichesAbbott with new perspectives and insights, allows us tobetter innovate, and enables us to understand and connectwith the people we serve.Achieving Diversity and Inclusion GoalsIn 2004, women employees at Abbott in the United Statesrepresented 39 percent of management, and minorityemployees represented 17 percent of our U.S. managers.Those percentages have been increasing, and we have arange of programs in place to continue to increase therepresentation of women and minorities in management.Diversity goals for recruitment, hiring and retention areembedded in our corporate goals, as well as in theperformance goals and compensation of key managers. Inthe United States, we seek to hire employees fromcandidate pools that include at least 50 percent womenand 25 percent minorities.These initiatives are supported at the highest level of ourorganization by the Abbott Executive Inclusion Council, ledby our chairman and CEO. This group is responsible forpromoting diversity among women and minorities inmanagement, as well as helping to create initiativesthat encourage a supportive work environment for allemployees. Divisional inclusion councils further supportthis team by developing specific diversity programs withintheir operating areas.To help attract the best talent to Abbott and support ourdiversity and inclusion goals, we conduct outreach thatincludes the following:• Support for a number of minority and women’sorganizations, including the Association of LatinoProfessionals in Finance and Accounting, the NationalSociety of Hispanic MBAs, the Society of WomenEngineers and the National Black MBA Association.• Collaboration with the premier publications that targetminority and international students.• Increasing use of Internet boards, including more than 70sites focused on women and minorities.• Use of minority-owned contingency firms (20 of the 62 weuse are minority-owned).Internal Career FairAbbott is committed to helping our employees develop multiple skills along a varied career track. In 2004, ourheadquarters operation piloted an internal career fair program that offered employees access to leaders from anumber of functional areas, including manufacturing, quality, purchasing and engineering. Nearly 700 of ourheadquarters employees participated in the program, and 85 percent requested we expand it to include morefunctional areas. We will be hosting two additional fairs in 2005.18