Diversity at Covance

Bright ideas come from diversity. At Covance, we respect, value, and understand the differences of each of our employees. We work to create an environment that develops our employees' diverse capabilities. Simply speaking, our vision is to build competitive advantage by growing and embracing the diverse skills, cultures, ideas, and experiences of every employee around the globe.

We believe that diversity is not about legal requirements, affirmative actions, quotas, or minority representation. Rather, its focus is on awareness, inclusion, respect, understanding, and developing a supportive work environment for all employees regardless of age, gender, ethnic background, or sexual orientation.

Diversity within Covance is alive and universal. To bring your bright ideas and unique perspectives to Covance, check out our career opportunities.

Importance of Diversity to Senior Leadership

At Covance we respect, value, and understand the differences of each of our employees and encourage a work environment that develops and leverages their diverse capabilities while building strong connections and long-lasting relationships with our customers.

Joe Herring, Covance Chairman and CEO: "At Covance, we believe diversity goes far beyond nationality, skin color, or gender. What it really means is leveraging the unique talents, opinions, and expertise of each and every one of our employees across the globe. Our vision is to be recognized by clients as the undisputed leader in providing drug development services, and we believe the only way we can be successful in doing so is to shape a culture where different backgrounds are respected, cultivated, and acknowledged as a competitive strength. Overall, by making diversity a competitive advantage, we can make Covance a better place to work, better understand and meet the expectations of our diverse clients, deliver more value to our stockholders, and enhance our ability to help bring the miracles of medicine to market sooner.

Wendel Barr, Covance COO: "We recognize that we must have a work force that is rich in diversity in order to work more effectively and creatively and to make the best business decisions. Covance depends on the different thoughts, experiences, and skills of our diverse pool of employees around the world to promote the exchange of ideas, inspire innovation, and provide superior customer service to our clients. To this end, we'll always be working to build a more diverse organization by continuing to bring talented people into the company with diverse backgrounds and unique perspectives."

The Global Diversity Council (GDC)

Covance's Global Diversity Council (GDC) works to establish and cultivate a more Global workforce. An ongoing responsibility of the GDC is for members to work closely with their business units to help them achieve their diversity goals. A new responsibility is for members to help their business units achieve a level of excellence worthy of recognition as the Global Diversity Award winner.

Our Workforce

When you hear the word "diversity", what does it mean to you? Webster defines it as: 1.a. The fact or quality of being diverse (distinct in kind; unlike); difference. b. A point or respect in which things differ. 2. Variety or multiformity.

In many respects, these definitions describe the reasons that diversity plays such an important role at Covance. It stems from our commitment as an organization to be distinct in everything we do. Our vision for Covance is to build competitive advantage by embracing and growing the diverse skills, cultures, ideas, and experiences of all our global employees. We believe that diversity allows us to differentiate our company in the marketplace and helps us achieve our business goals. Take a closer look at how Covance's commitment to diversity supports this vision by reading what our employees have to say about diversity.

"The fact that minorities and women are strongly represented on the Global Diversity Council is a good start to building visible, minority leadership for Covance. As we become more diverse, we need to celebrate our differences in the artwork in our workplace, the recruiting literature we use at job fairs, and the types of events we participate in as a company.

"Diversity, inclusion, and multiculturalism are key elements of Covance's "Compelling Offer" to potential employees. These elements are fundamental initiatives within the People component of our People, Process, and Clients platform to achieve operational and service excellence on a global scale.

The reason for this is clear. In order for a multinational company like Covance to successfully compete in the global marketplace, provide value to our strategic partners around the world, and grow our business, we must recruit the best and brightest employees that the global market offers.

By definition, these candidates will include people of different races and from different countries around the world. Their experiences, perspectives, and creativity will help shape Covance's future. To that end, we must ensure that our hiring practices and compelling offer reflect our commitment to build a diverse workforce, and that we celebrate the differences that help Covance remain a vibrant, growing company."

Archie, Global Diversity Council Member

"Diversity is an asset to any global organization and has an important part to play in the success of a company's culture. In business, diversity should be approached as a strategy that can improve employee retention and increase consumer confidence.

In the global and diverse marketplace, a company whose makeup mirrors the makeup of the marketplace it serves is better equipped to thrive than a company whose makeup is homogenous.

As a diverse company, Covance is much better positioned to meet and predict the needs of clients and potential clients around the world. Understanding our own strengths and weaknesses and their impact on others shows that we value the people we work with.

Because Covance has employees from a variety of cultures, ethnic groups, and socio-economic backgrounds, we have a unique talent pool that can develop and implement innovative solutions to enhance both internal processes and client projects."

Deb, Women's Leadership Network