Businesses committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) are more innovative and creative, have more productive employees, can better anticipate and meet customer needs, and have higher revenues than businesses that do not prioritize DEI.

That’s why at The Cigna Group, we are committed to embedding DEI in everything we do. We are proud to share that we have been named #14 on DiversityInc’s Top 50 Companies for Diversity, up ten spots from last year. We are very proud of this progress but recognize there is always more work to be done to make our business and the world more inclusive and equitable.

The Cigna Group was also named in 13 of DiversityInc’s specialty lists, up from six last year: 

• Top Companies for Executive Women (#12),
• Top Companies for Asian American Executives (#19),
• Top Companies for Black Executives (#7),
• Top Companies for Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) (#9),
• Top Companies for Executive Diversity Councils (#25),
• Top Companies for Latino Executives (#13),
• Top Companies for LGBTQ Employees (#8),
• Top Companies for Native American/Pacific Islander (NAPI) Executives (#12),
• Top Companies for People with Disabilities (#21),
• Top Companies for Philanthropy (#10),
• Top Companies for Sponsorship (#22),
• Top Companies for Talent Acquisition for Women of Color (#23), and
• Top Companies for Veterans (#16).

In 2023, The Cigna Group is also proud to be featured on the 2023 NDC Index Best U.S. Companies for Diversity, and receive the I&D Impact Award for innovation in creating scalable solutions and systemic change in DEI.

Below, we take a look at some of The Cigna Group's key areas of focus to foster a more diverse, inclusive, and equitable business culture and building healthier communities for those we serve.

Talent programs and other workplace practices

In 2020, The Cigna Group launched the Building Equity and Equality Program, a five-year initiative to expand and accelerate our efforts to support diversity, inclusion, equality, and equity for historically underrepresented communities. As a core part of this initiative, we are working to build a pipeline of diverse employees who feel empowered to grow and thrive within our organization. To achieve this, we partner and build relationships with a number of external organizations that help us support and achieve our inclusion and advancement objectives.

The Cigna Group’s talent acquisition team is on the ground at community events, colleges and universities, professional conferences, and job fairs, and is embedded within community organizations to find the best and brightest talent – regardless of their age, race, ethnicity, veteran status, sexuality, or gender identity.

The Cigna Group encourages inclusive conversations among all of our leaders and employees. Bias training is required for all employees and we are expanding on areas of enterprise learning focused on a culture of belonging and fundamental principles of diversity, equity, and equality. Inclusive mentorship and professional development is another key area of focus. Our internal EMERGE mentoring program currently has nearly 500 participants enrolled across all employee levels. The Cigna Group also offers employees the Transformational Leadership Program, a virtual program that provides coaching, course-specific learning, case studies, and peer-to-peer interaction and networking.

Another example is The Cigna Group’s partnership with McKinsey’s Connected Leaders Academy and Tenshey's Sponsorship program which both aim to advance equity by investing in future leaders. The Cigna Group works with McKinsey and Tenshey on a range of programming for growth, including the development of core management and leadership capabilities to help historically underrepresented employees advance their careers.

The Cigna Group's 11 Enterprise Resource Groups (ERGs) are also key enablers of our enterprise DEI strategy. Our ERGs help foster an inclusive environment for a wide range of employee groups, create a safe space for employees to bring their whole selves to work, and help educate the business on the unique skills that our diverse communities have to offer.

Supplier diversity

At The Cigna Group, partnering with and supporting diverse suppliers is a key part of our strategy to deliver on our mission to improve the health and vitality of those we serve.  

In 2022, we were recognized by the National Minority Supplier Development Council as one of the Top 50 Corporations for Minority Businesses. As an enterprise, we have committed to spending $1 billion with diverse suppliers by 2025. We are well on our journey and on track to reach this commitment, with a target of $800 million in diverse spending in 2022 – in part through programs like The Cigna Group’s Supplier Mentor Protégé Program. The program pairs minority suppliers with our executives for 18 months to help develop and grow their businesses, positioning the suppliers to compete strongly for contracting opportunities with The Cigna Group.

Leadership accountability

The Cigna Group is committed to advancing an inclusive culture that is powerfully diverse, strives for equity, and values the unique differences and talents we each bring in service to our mission. To further our commitment, and as communicated in the Building Equity and Equality Program, The Cigna Group launched an Enterprise Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Council in 2021. The Council is driving organizational change by integrating DEI into our business strategies and objectives.

The Council serves as a corporate governance advisory board in support of our DEI goals and initiatives. It is chaired by David Cordani, chairman and CEO of The Cigna Group, with three vice chairs – Noelle Eder, executive vice president and global chief information officer; Cindy Ryan, executive vice president of human resources and services; and Mike Triplett, president of The Cigna Group's U.S. Commercial business. The Council is made up of two core committees, leadership accountability and health equity, both of which meet regularly with an agenda set by the chair and vice chairs in collaboration with The Cigna Group's DEI team.

The leadership accountability committee is tasked with driving strategic accountability for results and ensuring shared leadership accountability for behaviors and actions that facilitate belonging, innovation, and equity for all colleagues at The Cigna Group.

Human capital diversity metrics

The Cigna Group is committed to fair, competitive, and transparent pay practices. To support that commitment, we continue to evolve our programs, practices, and processes to drive fair pay and opportunity for all employees, regardless of gender, race, or ethnicity. We conduct ongoing internal pay reviews aimed at ensuring that employees are paid fairly. We are proud of the progress we’ve made to create more opportunities, but we know there is more work to do. We aspire to reach gender parity in our leadership pipeline by increasing the representation of women at our director and senior director levels to 50% by 2024, thereby increasing the number of women positioned to succeed to executive positions within the company.

We know that impactful change requires behavioral and structural inclusion. To hold ourselves accountable to our aspirational representation goals, our company joined the United Nations Women’s Empowerment Principles, and we continue to partner with organizations such as the Women Business Collaborative and Paradigm for Parity (P4P).

The Cigna Group has a number of programs and strategic initiatives in place that focus on career development and advancement, as well as mentoring and coaching. These programs include our Transformational Leadership program, which is available to select emerging leaders at The Cigna Group. We are also proud to partner with a number of organizations to recruit, grow, and develop women within our workforce, including the Anita Borg Foundation and the Forté Foundation.

DEI is at the foundation of everything we do, and we look forward to expanding and evolving our strategy to continue to build upon the progress we’ve made. We look forward to building a strong culture of belonging and accountability for both our employees and partners as a key part our mission to improve the health and vitality of those we serve.