Leveling the playing field on employee engagement

A Dow volunteer collects supplies at a community event

Receiving direct feedback from our employees is important to make sure we’re creating a company culture that provides an environment for them to do their best work.

This month, we launched Dow’s first-ever global Volunteer and ERG Participation policy, which allows all of our employees paid time-off to volunteer and engage in Employee Resource Group (ERG) activities.

This global policy builds on our strong culture of engagement and will help us achieve our Engaging for Impact 2025 Sustainability Goal. It will support our employees to give back to the communities where they live and work by volunteering with non-profits, schools and other charitable organizations and helps to advance our Global Citizenship priorities and investments. It will also support engagement in our 10 employee resource groups, who do vital work to enable our Company’s ambition to be the most inclusive materials science company in the world. The policy provides each employee 12 hours per year of paid time off to participate in these initiatives during scheduled working hours.

Why is a policy important for our employees and our ambition?

 

This is a value-added benefit for all our employees but especially our manufacturing colleagues who make up 60% of our global workforce and support 24-hour operations for our plants and other facilities. It will level the playing field for all our employees, when it comes to these efforts, and I’m inspired about how this will make a difference.

To better understand the impact of this change on our team, I would like to share some feedback from three Dow colleagues:

Garnet Carmichael, operator at our Alberta Operations in Canada

Guowei Li, senior operations leader at Dow Zhangjiagang (ZJG) Operations in China

Katarzyna Kaczorowska, senior customer manager in Warsaw, Poland

The case for improved employee engagement is there. In our 2020 global employee VOICE survey, more than half of our employees indicated they volunteered and participated in an ERG. The survey showed a link between engaged employees who volunteered and/or participated in ERGs and those that reported a positive employee experience and strong engagement level. Receiving direct feedback from our employees is important to make sure we’re creating a company culture that provides an environment for them to do their best work. It’s also imperative to consider engagement and how important it is to attracting talent. According to the 2021 Edelman Trust Barometer, 71% of potential employees expect opportunities for social impact from their employer and this expectation can have a strong correlation on where employees choose to work.

I’m proud of the fact that our Company is providing these opportunities to our employees and I’m just as proud to see our employees have an impact in the communities in which we work and live.

Interested to check out Dow’s ESG report and learn more about our commitment to engaging for impact? Click here.

 

John Sampson, Senior Vice President, Operations, Manufacturing and Engineering

 

Disclaimer: This enhanced PTO policy is being applied as a global minimum standard. The intent is to implement globally, and we will adhere to local law requirements and applicable labor agreements. This policy may be subject to mandatory bargaining requirements.