Our valued employees are one of our greatest assets and without them it would not be possible to pursue our purpose of helping people around the world lead healthier and happier lives. Taking care of their health and well-being remains a top priority for our Company.
We strive to treat our people with dignity and respect. We are working to:
Walgreens and Boots UK are both working to drive mental health awareness, particularly through employee health and well-being initiatives. In the U.S., Walgreens partnered with the National Council for Behavioral Health and the American Pharmacists Association to administer Mental Health First Aid training to 300 human resources managers and 2,000 pharmacists. Each learned to recognize the risk factors and warning signs, as well as the appropriate strategies to help. Afterwards, participants were empowered to teach this mental health literacy to their own teams. Similarly, Boots delivered mental health awareness training to more than 150 leaders across the business, focused on warning signs, initiating conversations, providing support and managing their own mental health.
Strengthening Care in our Communities is a program designed to provide unconscious bias training to the Walgreens pharmacy retail operations store management teams. As of the end of fiscal 2019, more than 57,000 Walgreens store employees had completed the training. Our policies strictly prohibit any form of discrimination or racial profiling and this program reinforces our commitment to providing extraordinary care to all our customers.
When employees face hardship, it’s easy for WBA to act. With the Walgreen Benefit Fund in the U.S. and the Boots Benevolent Fund in the UK, we put our resources behind employees and retirees dealing with a variety of issues, including financial difficulty, long-term illness or natural disasters. And since the programs are all funded by charitable donations, the recipients know they have the support of people in their very own community.
We believe that supporting and employing people with disabilities is not just good for business, but also the right thing to do. Walgreens continues its commitment to recruit and support employees with disabilities through the Transitional Work Group (TWG) and Retail Employees with Disabilities Initiative (REDI), training and job-readiness programs that bring a significant number of people with disabilities to work in Walgreens stores and distribution centers.
A hero deserves more. That’s why Walgreens launched its Helping Veterans with Educational and Retail Opportunities (HERO) initiative, which aims to provide career and educational opportunities for 5,000 U.S. veterans over a five-year period. The program offers a path to store management, helping veterans leverage the leadership skills they learned through military service and providing on-the-job mentorship with Walgreens leaders.
Participants also have an opportunity to work toward a bachelor’s degree with tuition assistance and discounts from an exclusive partnership with Southern New Hampshire University. That’s the kind of change our heroes deserve.
