Neurodiversity in the Workforce: Walgreens Boots Alliance’s Holly May On Why It’s Important To Include Neurodiverse Employees & How To Make Your Workplace More Neuro-Inclusive

An Interview With Eric Pines

Ensure each individual team member is set up for success. Provide the tools needed to allow neurodivergent team members to better do their jobs. Most accommodations are free to implement and require simple process change to help each individual succeed.

Research suggests that up to 15–20% of the U.S. population is neurodivergent. There has been a slow but vitally important rise in companies embracing neurodiversity. How can companies support neurodiversity in the workplace? What are some benefits of including neurodiverse employees? To address these questions, we are talking to successful business leaders who can share stories and insights from their experience about “Neurodiversity in the Workforce: Companies Including Neurodiverse Employees”. As a part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Holly May.

As EVP & Global Chief Human Resources Officer, Holly May is responsible for the strategy and direction of innovative global HR programs, policies and practices that support Walgreens Boots Alliance’s (WBA) business goals and initiatives and for ensuring fair and equitable treatment for all team members. She also leads Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) for WBA and serves on the board of VillageMD, in which WBA is a majority investor. May graduated from Wellesley College and the A.B. Freeman School of Business at Tulane University.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you ended up where you are?

As a Chief Human Resources Officer, it may be surprising when I say that HR chose me, versus the other way around. In college, I was a Classics major and an Art History minor. I had no idea what I wanted to do in terms of a career. I went to business school and after graduating applied to a financial services company, ING, hoping for a career in asset management. Someone from HR got a hold of my resume and offered me a job in executive compensation, which I initially declined, but they were persistent. I’ve been in HR ever since and never looked back!

You are a successful leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?

Adaptability: I’ve relocated seven times for work: East Coast, West Coast, Midwest and three years in Europe. I’ve also worked in several different industries. The ability to adjust to different corporate cultures and ways of working was essential to achieving success in very different workplaces.

Courage: Doing the right thing can sometimes be the more challenging and frightening road to take. You must trust yourself and have confidence in your abilities in order to stand up for what you believe in.

Perseverance: I have a necklace you’ll often see me wearing that is inscribed with “I think I can, I think I can . . .” from the Little Engine that Could. It reminds me of my motto to never give up no matter how difficult the challenge is. Each of us will face failure and disappointment. It’s how we pick ourselves up, learn and move forward from these experiences that define us. I often think back to the most challenging moments in my career when I stumbled and received very direct, “tough love” feedback. In retrospect, these were the points of my greatest development acceleration and growth. Perhaps this phrase is overused, but feedback is truly a gift!

What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now?

I’m really excited about the work we’re doing to support team member mental health and wellbeing. Our vision is to care for our team members as whole people, which means personally and professionally. When we think about their health, it is physical, mental and spiritual.

Last year, we launched our Be Well Connected platform, which supports not only our team members, but also their family members and broader networks on their mental wellbeing journeys. Be Well Connected has a three-pronged approach: Life365 employee assistance program, Journey LIVE and IndieFlix. Response and adoption from our team members has been tremendous. To date, nearly 60% of our team members have engaged with the Journey LIVE health and wellness app, and more than 80% of those are active users on the platform today.

Fantastic. Let’s now shift to our discussion about neurodiversity in the workforce. Can you tell our readers a bit about your experience working with initiatives to include neurodiverse employees? Can you share a story with us?

I have a deep passion for this work and it’s one of the key reasons I chose to join WBA.

Over the last two decades, Walgreens’ programs for employees with disabilities have been groundbreaking. We offer the Walgreens ‘Inclusion University’ where we open our doors for other companies to go through our curriculum and tour our buildings so they can learn hands-on from the opportunities Walgreens offers individuals with disabilities.

Personally, five years ago, my son was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Supporting my son in his journey fuels my passion for continuing to grow and expand the programs Walgreens has pioneered. They have paved the way for not only hiring but strong inclusion practices, which are essential.

I’m proud to continue the work Walgreens pioneered and identify new firsts for us, including the redesign of our annual bonus plan, becoming the first company in the S&P 500 to include disability representation as a separate, standalone metric within a disclosed incentive plan.

This may be obvious to you, but it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you articulate to our readers a few reasons why it is so important for a business or organization to have an inclusive work culture?

At Walgreens, we strive to foster a workplace where every team member is supported and celebrated for being their authentic self, is treated with dignity and respect, and has access to tools, resources and support for their wellbeing.

We know having a diverse workforce that reflects the communities we serve helps us better understand and respond to our customer’s unique challenges and opportunities.

We’ve also found tremendous value through our industry-leading disability and neurodiverse–inclusive hiring practices. When we attract, develop and retain the best talent from a broader pool, it helps us build deeper, more trusting relationships with all of our stakeholders. We strongly believe embracing the creativity and problem-solving capabilities neurodiverse individuals bring to the workplace will be a differentiator for businesses in the future and are proud to be part of an organization that was one of the first to understand and embrace this.

Can you share a few examples of ideas that were implemented at your workplace to help include neurodiverse employees? Can you share with us how the work culture was affected as a result?

Walgreens has been a leader in disability-inclusive hiring and has two flagship programs: The Retail Employees with Disabilities Initiative (REDI) and the Transitional Work Group (TWG). For both, we partner with agencies to support and train team members with disabilities to work in our stores or our distribution centers.

Through our partnership with the Turning Pointe Autism Foundation, as part of our training, we provide a mock store complete with Walgreens products, store management, and checkout processes and technology for neurodivergence candidates to practice skills necessary to live and work independently. Graduates of the program can be interviewed and hired for roles at any Walgreens store. To date, we’ve hired more than 1,300 individuals with disabilities and trained nearly 2,000 individuals with disabilities as retail workers in more than 400 stores across 38 states.

We are very proud to expand on this groundbreaking work with our Support Center program for neurodivergent talent and expand our disability inclusion programs to our micro-fulfillment centers.

We believe that our organization should reflect all the communities we serve and know that our employees with disabilities help us foster collaboration and better connect with customers. They enhance overall employee engagement, and their unique perspectives help us to increase innovation.

What are some of the challenges or obstacles to including neurodivergent employees? What needs to be done to address those obstacles?

One of the biggest obstacles is the many myths that exist around hiring neurodiverse talent. Oftentimes you’ll hear things such as ‘employees with disabilities will miss too much work and underperform,’ or ‘it is too complex to provide accommodations’ and even ‘people with disabilities are not qualified applicants’ and all of those statements are simply not true. People who believe this have an incomplete picture of disability. Looking at the prevalence of disability, one in four people will have a disability at any given point in their lives. Companies that have initiatives encouraging disability employment in fact have 28% higher revenue. It’s important organizations truly educate themselves about the value neurodiverse talent can bring to their company.

How do you and your organization educate yourselves and your teams on the concept of neurodiversity and the needs of neurodivergent employees? Are there any resources, training, or workshops that you have found particularly helpful?

Neurodiversity in the Workplace (NITW) has been a great resource in helping us to provide education and greater awareness around neurodiversity. We’ve partnered together to provide training directly to Walgreens hiring managers that highlight what neurodiversity means, how to be an ally, and how to provide supportive accommodations in the workplace. We’re also launching a series of ‘lunch and learns’ to reach hiring managers more broadly across the organization with the goal of building awareness of our neurodiverse programs and educating those with open roles on how they can get involved. Through our partnership with Disability:IN we also offer access to disability training and workshops, which are available to all team members.

Additionally, when we introduce a Transitional Work Group (TWG) program into a distribution center, all managers at that location receive disability awareness training, and all new hires in the distribution center participate in a disability 101 (awareness) training during their new hire orientation.

On an ongoing basis, disability inclusion is represented in our Unconscious Bias training and our Disability Alliance Business Resource Group (BRG) which hosts educational programming and learning experiences throughout the year.

Can you please share five best practices that can make a business place feel more welcoming and inclusive of people who are neurodivergent?

1 . Lead with an inclusive workplace model from the start. As noted, when any new hire enters one of our distribution centers which has an active Transitional Work Group program in place, they participate in disability 101 (awareness) training during their orientation. Inclusivity should be a pillar of your organization and all employees should feel that starting day one.

2 . Ensure each individual team member is set up for success. Provide the tools needed to allow neurodivergent team members to better do their jobs. Most accommodations are free to implement and require simple process change to help each individual succeed.

3 . Offer same job, same performance opportunities. Walgreens believes in providing the same standards, same work, same pay and same performance measures to individuals with disabilities.

4 . Ensure inclusion practices are recognized throughout the organization as a priority. Use a cross-functional task force including people from HR, legal, customer service and other key areas of the business. Continued partnership across the organization will help educate and promote an environment welcoming and inclusive of employees with disabilities.

5 . Invest in the right partners to assist you. Walgreens has done groundbreaking work in this space and our partners, such as Neurodiversity in the Workplace, have only helped us to continue to offer best-in-class opportunities.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share a story about how that was relevant in your own life?

As a native New Orleanian, one of my favorite sayings is “Laissez le bon temps rouler!” (Let the good times roll!) As a recovering perfectionist, this saying is a constant reminder to keep perspective and not take myself too seriously.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

Find me on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/mayholly and also follow our Walgreens journey at www.linkedin.com/company/walgreens or News.walgreens.com.

This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for the time you spent with this. We wish you continued success and good health!

About the Interviewer: Eric L. Pines is a nationally recognized federal employment lawyer, mediator, and attorney business coach. He represents federal employees and acts as in-house counsel for over fifty thousand federal employees through his work as a federal employee labor union representative. A formal federal employee himself, Mr. Pines began his federal employment law career as in-house counsel for AFGE Local 1923 which is in Social Security Administration’s headquarters and is the largest federal union local in the world. He presently serves as AFGE 1923’s Chief Counsel as well as in-house counsel for all FEMA bargaining unit employees and numerous Department of Defense and Veteran Affairs unions.

While he and his firm specialize in representing federal employees from all federal agencies and in reference to virtually all federal employee matters, his firm has placed special attention on representing Veteran Affairs doctors and nurses hired under the authority of Title. He and his firm have a particular passion in representing disabled federal employees with their requests for medical and religious reasonable accommodations when those accommodations are warranted under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (ADA). He also represents them with their requests for Federal Employee Disability Retirement (OPM) when an accommodation would not be possible.

Mr. Pines has also served as a mediator for numerous federal agencies including serving a year as the Library of Congress’ in-house EEO Mediator. He has also served as an expert witness in federal court for federal employee matters. He has also worked as an EEO technical writer drafting hundreds of Final Agency Decisions for the federal sector.

Mr. Pines’ firm is headquartered in Houston, Texas and has offices in Baltimore, Maryland and Atlanta, Georgia. His first passion is his wife and five children. He plays classical and rock guitar and enjoys playing ice hockey, running, and biking. Please visit his websites at www.pinesfederal.com and www.toughinjurylawyers.com. He can also be reached at eric@pinesfederal.com.