We caught up with Rebecca Jackson, UK lead for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at certified Top Employer Pfizer, who shares the organisation’s innovative HR strategies, inclusive recruitment practices, flexible working policies, and what exactly makes them a Top Employer.

Introduce yourself and tell us about your organisation

I’m Rebecca Jackson, the UK lead for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at Pfizer, one of the world’s premier innovative bio-pharmaceutical companies. We have a portfolio of over 150 different medicines and vaccines which are helping to improve the lives of millions of people in the UK and around the world. Pfizer employs approximately 2000 people in the UK, and like most large organisations there is a gender pay gap, reflecting the uneven distribution of men and women through the organisation. My role is to deliver strategies which will eliminate the gender pay gap, and I’m happy to say we are making good progress.

What makes Pfizer a Top Employer?

Equity is one of the company’s core values. At Pfizer, we understand that diverse teams are more collaborative, more accepting of different perspectives and more representative of the world we share. As a business, our aim is to be as diverse as the patients and communities we serve. This supports us to understand the needs and challenges facing different groups and to find better ways to serve them. So, we work hard to create a feeling of belonging. We encourage everyone to bring their whole self to work and strive to create a workplace that attracts and retains the best talent, allowing every colleague to flourish. Our Top Employer accreditation represents our ongoing commitment to making Pfizer a workplace in which all our colleagues can flourish. We’re very proud of the recognition.

What is the biggest people challenge your business currently faces? And what are you doing to meet this challenge?

Like many companies, we are supporting our colleagues through the return to site-based working. We have a suite of policies that support flexible working patterns, but not everyone understands the full range of options available to them. We know people are committed to their work, so we’ve targeted communications directly to colleagues rather than enforcing a ‘top down’ approach. At the same time, resources are being offered to managers so that they can put the colleague back at the centre of a flexible working conversation, rather than the policies.

Tell us about a recent HR initiative you have instigated within your organisation that you are most proud of?

Pfizer is an equal opportunities employer, which means that we appoint the best person for the job. Our Talent Acquisition team works hard to ensure that recruitment efforts reach the widest talent pool, tackling social mobility, enabling equitable career progression & addressing our pay gaps. I’m proud that the ethnic diversity of Pfizer mirrors that of the UK, and that we have a gender-balanced workforce. There is more work to move women and non-white colleagues into more senior roles, but I’m confident that we are building a strong internal pipeline of diverse talent for the future.

Our Benefits Choice scheme allows colleagues to increase or decrease the amount of holiday they can take each year. Full time colleagues are able to ‘buy’ up to 10 days’ holiday (or the pro-rated equivalent), meaning that a colleague can decide the amount of holiday that’s available to them. Approximately a third of our employees participate in the scheme.  Another popular scheme is the Salary Plan Electric Vehicle lease option, which is making a real impact in making new EVs (which can be expensive) more widely accessible to colleagues. This particular scheme is good for the colleague and has a positive impact on the business carbon footprint, and helping Pfizer achieve its published goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and become carbon neutral by 2030.

What’s next? Tell us about a new initiative/project for 2025 that you’re most excited about?

I’m excited to see how the Labour Government extends the scope of pay gap reporting to mandate disability and ethnicity pay gap reporting by companies with more than 250 employees. I understand that pay gap data can only provide a snapshot of the diversity of our organisation, but it’s a hugely valuable insight and measurement of our progress towards a truly equitable organisation.

Get in touch to discover more about the Top Employers Certification Programme and how it can help your organisation grow as an employer of choice.

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