Our company has been a leader in creating public and private partnerships that enable us to recruit talented and diverse colleagues from the communities where our facilities are located. Our approach includes leveraging relationships to cultivate diverse talent, encouraging students to pursue a pharmacy career and attracting and retaining mature workers (aged 50 and older).
Workforce Initiatives
Through our workforce initiatives, we partner with government agencies, nonprofits and educational institutions that support our hiring needs and provide underserved populations with job opportunities. These initiatives include:
- CVS Regional Learning Centers
- Welfare-to-Work
- Pathways to Pharmacy
- Job Corps Pharmacy Technician Training Programs
- Workforce Development Partnership Programs
CVS Regional Learning Centers
One-Stop Career Centers, established by the federal government in 1998, provide assistance for job seekers. In 2000, CVS/pharmacy joined forces with One-Stop Career Center in Washington, D.C. by adding a CVS Regional Learning Center inside the center – creating the first government/corporate One-Stop partnership in the nation. Since then we have opened five more Regional Learning Centers in major cities, including a new Boston location in 2008, and installed mock CVS/pharmacy stores in each one, where training is delivered to both new and current colleagues.
Welfare-to-Work
We began our Welfare-to-Work training program in 1996, and have since hired more than 65,000 people who had been on public assistance. In 2008, 7,500 people were hired through this program. More than 60 percent of colleagues hired since the program’s inception are still actively employed, and a majority of them have been promoted more than once.
Pathways to Pharmacy
Through our Pathways to Pharmacy program, our nationwide Internship Program designed to help disadvantaged youth take a first step toward a pharmacy career, we are looking to introduce one million inner-city and rural youth to pharmacy careers. We anticipate these job opportunities will generate up to $4 million in wages by 2010.
Pathways to Pharmacy is aligned with America’s Promise Alliance, community groups and schools. Program participants receive training, mentoring and support, including financial assistance for pharmacy school. Ultimately, the program creates opportunities for future employment with CVS Caremark. Training and funding opportunities are also offered to our colleagues to help them become Pharmacy Technicians and Pharmacists. Since the program’s creation in 2000, it has served more than 10,000 high school students in more than 40 cities. In 2008, CVS Caremark provided scholarship opportunities and expanded Pathways to Pharmacy to serve new students in Nashville, Phoenix and Kansas City.
Job Corps Pharmacy Technician Training Programs
Since 1999, CVS/pharmacy has teamed up with Job Corps to establish Pharmacy Technician training programs in a number of locations. Job Corps is a free education and vocational training program, administered by the U.S. Department of Labor, that helps economically challenged young people get a better job and take charge of their lives.
Through these programs, CVS/pharmacy has trained more than 1,250 young people to become Pharmacy Technicians, and of those, 90 percent have passed the national certification test to become certified Pharmacy Technicians. Many of the participants are now working in CVS/pharmacy locations. In 2008, more than 500 young people participated in this program.
Other Initiatives
In addition, CVS Caremark has a number of other programs aimed at meeting our pharmacy staffing needs, as well as supporting individuals’ professional and personal goals. These initiatives include:
- Pharmacy Interns
- CVS Career Prescriptions for Success (CAPS)
- Mature Workers
- Snowbird Programs
- Prescriptions for Homeownership
Pharmacy Interns
Almost four years ago, CVS/pharmacy took a basic Intern Program and upgraded it to meet the changing demands facing Pharmacists. The program provides pharmacy students with a support network and matches them with the right mentors and preceptors. Among our Pharmacy Interns, an average of 75 percent become CVS Pharmacists after they graduate.
CVS Career Prescriptions for Success (CAPS)
CVS Career Prescriptions for Success is a program designed to build interest in pharmacy jobs among Detroit residents, especially in areas where unemployment is high. Participants have the opportunity to apprentice as pharmacy Associates or Technicians. The program also provides assistance and training to current workers to help them advance their careers.
Mature Workers
At CVS Caremark, mature workers are an important asset to our workforce and our business. They contribute to our customers’ in-store experience, help to set an example for our younger workforce and serve as mentors to their less-experienced colleagues.
Through our mature worker partnerships and programs, we have increased the number of colleagues who are 50 or older. Today, roughly one in five CVS Caremark employees is aged 50 or older. Some of our mature workers have been with the company for years, while others have joined the company as a second career – sometimes choosing to work just part-time.
CVS Caremark’s Mature Worker programs were profiled in many national, regional and trade news outlets on the mature workforce trend, and the company’s workplace best practices, including The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, MSNBC.com and Business Week.
Snowbird Program
We offer a flexible snowbird program, which allows our colleagues to temporarily transfer to a different CVS/pharmacy location on a seasonal basis. In 2008, more than 1,000 colleagues, most of them mature workers, were “snowbird employees.”
Prescriptions for Homeownership
CVS Caremark helps to strengthen local communities in Los Angeles, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit and Washington, D.C. through our Prescriptions for Homeownership program, which is designed to aid our long-standing employees in the purchase of their first home. We provide eligible employees (those who have been with the company for two years or more) with $500 to use for the purchase of a home, and partner with American First Credit Union and local faith- based organizations to offer employees special loan products with flexible features and down payment and closing cost assistance. To prepare employees for the challenges of homeownership, we also conduct financial literacy and homebuyer education workshops at local CVS Caremark training centers. Since the program’s founding in 2005, we have helped more than 75 employees close on their homes.
Moving Ahead
Expansion of current recruiting and retention programs will be our focus in the future. In 2009, we plan to:
- Continue expansion of Pathways to Pharmacy into new locations.
- Formalize and expand official mentoring opportunities for our mature colleagues in new markets.
- Increase use of Prescriptions for Homeownership program among our employees.
2008 CVS Caremark Corporate Social Responsibility Report
Download the 2008 CSR Report