Our team is the strength of our company. Just as we listen to our customers to help adapt our products to their needs, we listen to our employees to identify opportunities to improve our processes. Our human capital goal is to create a highly capable, values-based organization that is aligned and engaged to deliver outstanding performance.
Employee Engagement
We conduct a Global Employee Engagement Survey on a biannual basis. This third-party-managed survey measures employees’ level of engagement against external norms and provides us with actionable feedback that drives improvement priorities. Employee feedback from the survey provides opportunities to improve, and we take that seriously (as shown by our high participation levels and overall scores). According to our survey vendor, participation rate of 96% is rare and among the highest they had seen, indicating a willingness of our employees to share their perspectives and a commitment to continuous improvement.
Employees have consistently cited the company’s commitment towards ethics & compliance, customer focus, diversity & inclusion, innovation and workforce alignment as areas of strength on the survey. We believe our high performance in these areas directly aligns with our human capital goal.
This measure of engagement demonstrates a high level of employee loyalty, which, in turn, allows us to retain the critical talent we need to be successful. In the United States, our average workforce tenure is 11.3 years compared to the average of 4.1 years (according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics). Long-term tenure is also seen at the senior management levels, providing leadership continuity to help grow our business and keep our culture and values ingrained in how we do business. Our executive leadership has an average tenure of 22 years, while our senior management team averages 14 years of service with the company.
Developing Capabilities
The development of individual and organizational capabilities is a foundational building block for our success. In order to attract and retain the best talent, we believe in investing in our employees’ development and growth.
Our learning strategy is based on the research-based 70-20-10 model to optimize individual development:
70% Experiential: job-related experiences & challenging assignments
20% Social: interaction, coaching and mentoring from others
10% Formal: training events & activities
Some of the formal development programs that employees have access to include:
- Early-career leadership development programs
- Front-line leadership development programs
- Continuous Improvement skill-building programs
- Core process technology councils (e.g., foaming, glassing, plastic processing, welding)
- Tuition reimbursement for degree programs or trade schools
- Function-specific skills development activities
- Leadership training for high-potential employees
It is expected that managers work closely with their employees to ensure performance feedback and development discussions take place on a regular basis. Globally, 100% of office and professional employees have a formal performance review and a development plan logged in our global talent management system in 2020.
Diversity & Inclusion
Diversity has been empirically shown to promote creativity and innovation and is a priority within our company, driven by our Chief Executive Officer and with full support from our Leadership Team and Board of Directors.
Our Women’s Resource Network was organized in 2015 to improve company performance through activities that promote personal and professional development of employees in a community of support. Among other activities, the Network sponsors professional development and networking opportunities, community service events, and opportunities to provide leadership experiences with visibility to senior managers.
In the United States, a senior management scorecard has been developed to increase visibility and monitor progress specific to gender diversity. With this insight, several improvements have been made to the talent acquisition process to help increase the number of qualified female candidates in the pipeline for professional-level roles.
Notwithstanding this progress, we recognize that we have more work to do and will continue to collaborate with the Network, our senior managers and our Board to identify ways to improve gender and other areas of diversity. To that end, we are currently applying the learning from our gender diversity scorecard process to racial diversity in the U.S. Three of our 10 directors and three of our 13 executive officers are diverse by gender or race/ethnicity.
Rewards & Recognition
Our total compensation programs are designed to be market-competitive and internally equitable to attract, retain, motivate and reward a high-performance workforce. Regular internal and external analysis is performed to ensure this market alignment.
Recognizing our employees for their great work is central to who we are as a company. Our global Values Recognition program is designed to recognize individuals and teams who personify the company’s values in action. Each operating unit may submit one nomination in each of the seven Values Recognition categories:
- Administrative Process Improvement
- Community Involvement
- Customer Satisfaction
- Environmental Initiatives
- Operations Process Improvement
- Product Innovation
- Workplace Safety
Members of the leadership team, as well as fellow employees, can nominate peers who excel in any of these categories.
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