Equitable Opportunity and Advancement for Women at Humana

Women’s History Month celebrates the achievements and contributions of women throughout our nation’s history and acknowledges the historic barriers to women’s equity and the fight for equal rights. Legal and financial restrictions, as well as societal expectations, historically limited women’s access to education, employment, financial autonomy and political participation. While many of these restrictions have been lifted and societal norms are changing, the inequalities they created continue to persist. In 2022, women earned an average 84% compared to men, and surprisingly the discrepancy widens as level of education and degrees earned increase. 

Humana recognizes that work remains to be done and we are committed to ensuring equitable opportunity for the talented women who make up roughly 70 percent of our workforce. From front line and clinician roles to management and board seats, our outcomes for the members and patients we serve is directly connected to how well we include and engage the representative voices and experiences of women and women of color and their physical inclusion at the table. As Senior Vice President and Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer, I am responsible for building and maintaining a culture of belonging—one where every employee feels valued and has both opportunity and support to reach their full potential. Addressing systemic barriers that have historically limited women’s opportunities is an important part of this work.  

When I think about my career journey, I attribute my positive work experiences to having grown a great network of colleagues and mentors at all levels, across many industries. It was my female mentors and male allies who helped me to see my full potential - to feel confident in any room, even the uncomfortable ones, and to stay ready to take on the difficult work.  I believe in never walking these journeys alone and strive to provide that same support for the women around me. Humana has a range of mentorship opportunities, including formal, informal and group experiences to provide this type of support and connection for our employees. We also have formal sponsorship opportunities to support the career growth of high-potential talent and promote equitable advancement. In partnership with Blue Circle Leadership, Humana also offers the Transformational Leadership for Multicultural Women program. The high-touch interactive, virtual program is designed for highly aspirational multicultural women leaders to expand their leadership skills, build a strategic network, and navigate career growth through their unique perspective as a multicultural woman.  With a current membership of over 9,000 employees, our amazing Women’s Network Resource Group—one of ten employee-led affinity groups—focuses on intersectional perspectives and provides a wide range of mentoring, sponsorship and growth and development opportunities.

Through our diverse talent strategy, which focuses on accelerating the hiring, development and retention of diverse talent across the enterprise, we are improving the end-to-end talent pipeline and formalizing hiring and equitable promotion processes and policies. To ensure equitable opportunities and to strengthen the talent pipeline for Associate Director and Lead level roles in the future, we focus on supporting and retaining Manager and Senior Professional level Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) talent. Retention is a key metric to measure the success of an inclusive culture and fosters behaviors that help retain, develop and promote talent. At the end of 2023, female representation for Director level and above positions was at 50%, representing a 0.8% increase over 2022 year-end. Hiring and promotions for women in Associate Director and Lead level roles, was 60%, representing a 6.9% increase from the year before. Humana also participates in the Catalyst CEO Champions for Change, a partnership that includes more than 70 CEOs worldwide who pledge to advance women, across all racial and ethnic groups, into leadership roles in their companies. Results from the 2023 Aligning Actions to Values report revealed that women represent an average of 23% of executives across companies globally—we are proud that at Humana, 39% of our executive population are women. Similarly, 46% of our senior managers are women compared to 29% among peer companies. 

By ensuring our workforce reflects the diversity of the communities we serve and by maintaining a culture of belonging, we create better health outcomes for our employees, members, patients and the communities we serve. To learn more about Humana’s commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion, please read Humana’s Impact Report.