FY23 Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Progress Report

Building a global culture of inclusion

The only way our people can bring their best to work every day is if we create an environment where they feel comfortable, valued, and supported. To pursue that, we embrace open dialogue and foster a culture that gives everyone a voice, so we can continuously learn from each other and evolve as our global team grows.
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A dark-skinned person with short hair holding a tablet device leans on a desk while having a conversation with a light-skinned person sitting across from them.

Our global inclusion learning journey

In our fiscal year 2023 (FY23), we launched Activating Inclusion, a training experience that was a global call to action for all of our team members to advance inclusion through their behaviors and advocacy. It featured five interactive scenarios that highlighted the importance of empathy and respect in the workplace through realistic conflict resolution exercises. Available in 12 languages, this enterprise-wide training empowered our leaders and individual contributors to co-create our global culture of inclusion.
Nearly 100% of our workforce completed the training and provided extremely high reviews — an average of 4.8 out of 5 stars. In post-training surveys, participants commended the usefulness and relevance of the training. They responded positively to how the content directly aligned to our inclusion metric, the Global Inclusion Index, so they could clearly understand how the lessons they learned can be put into action to foster measurable inclusion at Cencora.
Photograph of Silvana Battaglia. Silvana, a light-skinned person with brown hair and brown eyes, is wearing earrings and smiling at the camera. She wears a light blue collared shirt with a silver necklace. She is in front of a blurred blue background with no surroundings.
Photograph of Silvana Battaglia. Silvana, a light-skinned person with brown hair and brown eyes, is wearing earrings and smiling at the camera. She wears a light blue collared shirt with a silver necklace. She is in front of a blurred blue background with no surroundings.
“As our world becomes increasingly more connected and Cencora becomes increasingly more global, we have reinvested in our commitment to create a truly inclusive and equitable culture. From listening sessions to enhanced team members trainings to enhanced accessibility requirements, Cencora continues to invest in building a culture where all team members feel welcome, valued, and supported.”

Silvana Battaglia
Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer
Photograph of Silvana Battaglia. Silvana, a light-skinned person with brown hair and brown eyes, is wearing earrings and smiling at the camera. She wears a light blue collared shirt with a silver necklace. She is in front of a blurred blue background with no surroundings.

Global inclusion listening sessions

To complement our digital learning journey around global inclusion, our DEI team helped organize in-person listening sessions to engage our non-desktop team members in 12 countries. Chief DEI Officer Ann Anaya also traveled to the UK and Spain to meet with team members there and participate in their sessions personally.

These interactive sessions were based on the Activating Inclusion training and structured to create dialogue, where team members could actively share their perspectives and feedback on how to foster a stronger culture of inclusion globally. More than 1,200 people participated in these listening sessions, and the DEI team gained valuable insight that will guide the development of several future initiatives, such as:

  • Building our Inclusion 2.0 learning journey
  • Launching global ERG chapters
  • Driving greater visibility, transparency, and engagement among our senior leaders
  • Expanding transgender and nonbinary inclusion
  • Fostering intersectional connectivity through cross-cultural projects

Engaging our team members in distribution centers

In FY23, our DEI team partnered with our Human Resources and U.S. Supply Chain leadership to identify four key DEI areas of focus to be more inclusive of our frontline team members:

  • Optimize inclusive hiring and onboarding processes
  • Tailor our global inclusion activation strategy
  • Ensure talent reviews of underrepresented team members receive equitable visibility
  • Continue expanding inclusive benefits and processes

We developed several initiatives to target these areas of focus and made significant progress over the past year on extending our culture of inclusion to our team members in distribution centers:

  • Sponsored operations directors to participate in a 15-week leadership fellowship program
  • Provided Spanish translations for 100% of our human and animal health trainings, work instructions, secure supply chain policies, and interview guides
  • Engaged all team members in huddle- and classroom-style inclusion training and dialogue.
  • Executed a customized benefits rollout for our frontline teams
  • Continued discussions on how we can keep enhancing our benefits for all team members and better communicate them to employees in different workplaces
Three workers in safety vests looking at a tablet.

Expanding our DEI Global Council

As we continued to evolve our DEI Global Council in FY23, we elevated its impact and influence by both membership and priority projects. We increased international and business leader membership to maximize our ability to drive positive change. We also identified and launched two propriety initiatives that are helping Cencora make a difference in people’s lives by addressing needs related to underrepresentation and ability inclusion.

Representation Think Tank

Our DEI Global Council collaborated with our HR team to develop a strategy to increase representation among marginalized groups, especially at the Senior Director level and above. Some of their plans include:

  • Formalizing stay interviews and an effective checkback process
  • Aligning development program participants to representation benchmarks
  • Offering leadership programs and management accelerators
  • Providing a quarterly cascade of disaggregated workforce demographics analysis

Ability Inclusion Program

Our DEI Global Council and DEI team worked with stakeholders across the organization to implement best practices in accessibility and prepare us for our next chapter of advancing ability inclusion globally. Some of their accomplishments include:

  • Signing the CEO Letter on Disability Inclusion to build inclusive, accessible, and equitable workplaces
  • Creating a one-page guide outlining clear roles and responsibilities for the accommodations process
  • Adding clear commitment statements to our 2025 Strategic Objectives and the DEI Global Council mission
  • Instituting a digital accessibility organizational mission statement and used it in the development of our new website

Our commitment to digital accessibility

As a purpose-driven company centered on improving the health of people and animals around the world, we recognize the vital role that web accessibility plays in connecting with our team members, partners, and patients. We are determined to provide a digital experience that is accessible to a diverse audience with a range of abilities.

Through our digital accessibility organizational mission statement, we made a formal commitment in FY23 to conform to WCAG 2.1, Level AA and will update our practices as Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) criteria evolves over time. This statement also articulates our commitment to accessibility as a social responsibility that is an extension of our ongoing DEI efforts.

The strategy we have developed to support this work is focused on increasing adoption and operationalizing digital accessibility practices across our organization. In FY24, we will be focusing our efforts on monitoring progress through website metric analysis and raising awareness among our team members through accessibility office hours, specialized trainings, and a global communications campaign.
A light-skinned office worker wearing headphones around their neck explaining something with hand gestures from behind a desktop computer monitor.

Measuring our global culture of inclusion

We introduced our Global Inclusion Index in 2022 as a way to define a standardized measure of inclusion across our enterprise. This metric is generated by eight questions embedded into our Global Employee Experience Survey, which is offered enterprise-wide in 22 languages. In addition to helping us gauge how comfortable and engaged our team members feel at work, the insights gained from these questions also help us strengthen senior leader transparency, build trust, and improve our DEI practices.

Last year, 70% of our team members agreed that we have a highly inclusive culture. In FY23, our Global Inclusion Index score remained consistent, while survey participation increased significantly.
70%
of team members agree we 
have an inclusive culture
78%
of team members participated 
in the survey
10%
year-over-year increase in 
global survey participation
The Global Inclusion Index measures a broad range of employee experience topics and uses a 5-point, Likert-type agreement scale. It is based on the average percent favorable response score across all eight survey items.
Photograph of Gina K. Clark. Gina, a light-skinned person with blonde hair and green eyes, is wearing earrings and smiling at the camera. She wears a dark grey suit overtop a white shirt and necklace. She is in front of a blurred background with no surroundings.
Photograph of Gina K. Clark. Gina, a light-skinned person with blonde hair and green eyes, is wearing earrings and smiling at the camera. She wears a dark grey suit overtop a white shirt and necklace. She is in front of a blurred background with no surroundings.
“While we continue to grow and evolve as an organization, we all have a responsibility to promote and foster an inclusive, diverse, and equitable workplace for all team members. We will continue to do that by advancing our DEI initiatives, committing to worldwide gender equality, and participating in celebrations, where we celebrate our personal uniqueness, and honor our fellow team members.”

Gina Clark
Executive Vice President and Chief Communications and Administration Officer
Photograph of Gina K. Clark. Gina, a light-skinned person with blonde hair and green eyes, is wearing earrings and smiling at the camera. She wears a dark grey suit overtop a white shirt and necklace. She is in front of a blurred background with no surroundings.

Uniting around global celebrations

We recognize three special moments each year when we come together and actively focus on what we can all do to foster a more inclusive culture as a global organization. These live events are broadcast in several different languages, and we encourage everyone to organize watch parties at their location so our teams can truly celebrate together.
Three people engaging in a discussion. A medium-skinned person with dark hair and glasses looks toward the camera while gesturing with their hands.

Global Inclusion Day

At the beginning of FY23, we held our inaugural Global Inclusion Day celebration, which featured executive leaders and team members sharing what inclusion means to them personally, as well as how they feel it impacts our globally united culture. 2,300 team members in 26 countries gathered to listen to our diverse collection of speakers and celebrate our global inclusion journey.
Two people engaging in discussion while sitting on a blue couch while holding pens and notebooks. They are both dressed in business casual attire and one has medium skin and the other has light skin.

International Women’s Day

In March 2023, 1,700 team members in 37 countries tuned in to our International Women’s Day celebration, which was organized by our DEI team and Women’s Impact Network ERG. The event featured several female leaders from Cencora and keynote speaker Michelle Milford Morse, VP, Girls and Women Strategy, United Nations Foundation, who spoke about the disparities that women face and the progress being made.
A diverse crowd of people hold rainbow pride flags at an outdoor LGBTQ+ pride event.

Pride Month

In June 2023, we celebrated the LGBTQ+ community with an event organized by our DEI team and LGBTAllies ERG. The celebration attracted 2,100 team members in 16 countries, with people gathering to watch author, educator, and advocate Blair Imani share her perspective on pride and intersectionality. Afterwards, Pride flags were raised and additional festivities took place at our offices around the world, including Thailand, Australia, England, Italy, Lithuania, Puerto Rico, Texas, and Pennsylvania.
Photograph of Carrie Mattson. Carrie, a light-skinned person with long, gray hair and blue eyes, is smiling at the camera. They wear a blue necklace and blue shirt and sit in a room with green and white walls.
Photograph of Carrie Mattson. Carrie, a light-skinned person with long, gray hair and blue eyes, is smiling at the camera. They wear a blue necklace and blue shirt and sit in a room with green and white walls.
“The event today moved me to tears. It was a very powerful message, and I am so glad that I decided to listen in. Blair Imani did a fabulous job and made me wonder what more I could do as an ally to change my perspective and to help others to understand. Looking forward to the other events to come this month. We are stronger together!”

Carrie Mattson
Buyer, Replenishment Operations
Photograph of Carrie Mattson. Carrie, a light-skinned person with long, gray hair and blue eyes, is smiling at the camera. They wear a blue necklace and blue shirt and sit in a room with green and white walls.

Spreading awareness and acceptance during national observances

We work closely with our ERGs throughout the year to recognize the many cultural observances that take place on the national level to ensure everyone feels seen and celebrated.
A person in a wheelchair writing on a whiteboard in a bright meeting room. They have light skin, shoulder-length gray hair, and wear business casual clothing with glasses and a blue scarf.

Disability Employment Awareness Month

In October 2022, our Ability ERG hosted a lunch and learn with leaders from the ERG and other Cencora team members sharing their stories and perspectives about visible and invisible disabilities. The group discussed how they have navigated through their professional careers and concluded the event with trivia to test everyone’s knowledge around disability employment awareness.
A diverse group of twenty people in an office posing for a photo during a Black History Month event. They stand in front of a dark blue Cencora banner with balloons on both sides. They are dressed in business attire and many wear name tags.

Black History Month

Our BOND ERG hosted four events in February 2023 to create networking opportunities and shine a spotlight on diverse voices — one of which featured renowned sportscaster James “JB” Brown as a keynote speaker. 2,000 team members listened live as JB shared his personal story, advice, and the important role of diversity, equity, and inclusion in our culture.
A group of thirty-two Cencora employees, many wearing lanyards, posing in an office during an Asian American Pacific Island Heritage Month event. Most people are standing and some are kneeling.

Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month

In May 2023, our ASPIRE ERG organized a variety of programming, including a moveable exhibit consisting of statements from team members around the world offering positive notes of encouragement. The ERG hosted three live sessions throughout the month, with their featured event exploring the bamboo ceiling with keynote speaker Susan Jin Davis, Social Impact Officer, Al Roker Entertainment, Inc.
Four workers having a meal and sharing a laugh around a table as they celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month.

Hispanic Heritage Month

Our Unidos ERG kicked off their month-long celebration in September 2023 by partnering with our Innovation Community of Practice to host an event aimed at generating ideas for enhancing diversity on our product teams. This creative session was followed by three more events in the weeks that followed, which all focused on celebrating and honoring the Hispanic Latino community in different ways.

Continue exploring our DEI Report

Delve into our FY23 Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Report