Pfizer Inc: Greater Disclosure of Material Corporate Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Data
BE IT RESOLVED: Shareholders request that Pfizer Inc. (“Pfizer”) report to shareholders on the effectiveness of the Company's diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. The reporting should be done at reasonable expense, exclude proprietary information, and address outcomes, using quantitative metrics for recruitment, retention, and promotion of employees, including data by gender, race, and ethnicity.
SUPPORTING STATEMENT: Quantitative data is sought so that investors can assess, understand, and compare the effectiveness of companies’ diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and apply this analysis to investors’ portfolio management and securities’ selection process.
WHEREAS: Numerous studies have pointed to the corporate benefits of a diverse workforce. Their findings include:
Companies with the strongest racial and ethnic diversity are 35 percent more likely to have financial returns above their industry medians.
The 20 most diverse companies had an average annual five year stock return that was 5.8 percent higher than the 20 least-diverse companies.
Companies should look to hire the best talent. However, Black and Latino applicants face recruitment challenges. Results of a meta-analysis study of 24 field experiments, dating back to 1990, found that, with identical resumes, White applicants receive, an average of 36 percent more callbacks than Black applicants and 24 percent more callbacks than Latino applicants.”
Promotion rates show how well diverse talent is nurtured at a company. Unfortunately, women and non-White employees experience “a broken rung” in their careers. For every 100 men who are promoted, only 86 women are promoted. Non-White women are particularly impacted, comprising 17 percent of the entry-level workforce and only 4 percent of executives. Employees with the potential for advancement have a higher retention rate.
Morgan Stanley has found that: “Employee retention that is above industry peer averages can indicate the presence of competitive advantage. This advantage may lead to higher levels of future profitability than past financial performance would indicate.” Companies with high employee satisfaction have also been linked to annualized outperformance of over two percent.
Pfizer has not shared recruitment, retention, and promotion data by gender, race or ethnicity and its reporting is insufficient for investors to determine the effectiveness of its human capital management programs.
Between September 2020 and September 2021, the number of S&P 100 companies releasing recruitment rate data by gender, race and ethnicity increased by 234 percent, companies releasing retention rate data increased by 79 percent, and companies releasing promotion rate data increased by 379 percent.
Agilent Technologies, Biogen, CVS Health, Illumina and UnitedHealth Group among others, all release more data on the effectiveness of their human capital management programs than Pfizer does. Pfizer is increasingly a laggard in its decision to continue to withhold these data sets.
Resolution Details
Company:
Pfizer Inc
Lead Filer:
As You Sow
Year: 2022
Filing Date:
November 2021
Initiative(s): Diversity Data Disclosure
Status: Resolution Withdrawn, Agreement Reached