Just like any healthy relationship, communication is key.
Employees share their opinions and ideas via global surveys on
issues that range from the company's business strategy and team
leadership to teamwork and training/development. More than 95
percent of Kimberly-Clark employees around the world shared
their thoughts in the latest survey. The results were communicated
and action plans developed to address opportunity areas.
Sustainability
We involve and educate our employees in sustainability-related
matters. For example:
- Courses offered at Neenah, Wisconsin, facility to develop
environmentally preferred products and packaging and eliminating
waste.
- Our Roswell, Georgia, site hosts sessions featuring internal
and external sustainability experts, who provide diverse
perspectives on sustainability issues.
- In Taiwan, team-building workshops between mill management and
union leaders resulted in new, objective performance criteria.
- Survey results led to a change in working hours that helps
workers avoid rush-hour trafic in Turkey and spurred new leadership
and employee development programs.
- Community of Practice holds informal lunch seminars at sites in
Neenah and Roswell on how employees can reduce their environmental
impact. Topics include:
- How families can reduce energy at home
- How to create a wildlife-friendly habitat in your backyard
- Energy saving tips in winter
- Our Small Steps program helps interested employees take "one
small step" to improve the environment from a list of 10 options.
To date, more than 11,000 employees worldwide have made this
commitment.
Volunteerism
For many of our employees, supporting local organizations and
providing their children with quality college education are top
priorities. We offer programs in the U.S. to reward their
efforts and generosity and help them answer family commitments.
Our Matching Gifts Program matches U.S. employees' and
directors' charitable donations on a dollar-for-dollar basis, up to
$10,000 per person each year. In 2011, Kimberly-Clark matched
nearly $1.25 million in donations to nonprofit organizations
selected by our employees and directors.
Our Community Partners program provides $500 grants to
non-profit organizations where employees and their spouses or
domestic partners volunteer more than 30 hours per year. We donated
more than $850,000 to this program and our employees volunteered
more than 84,000 hours of their time to a variety of non-profit
organizations in 2011.
In the U.S., each Kimberly-Clark facility conducts
campaigns so employees can support their local community United Way
organization. The United Way is a worldwide network of nearly 1,800
local organizations, including 1,300 United Ways in the U.S. The
United Way movement improves lives by mobilizing the caring power
of communities to advance the common good in the areas of
education, financial stability and health. For
decades, Kimberly-Clark and our employees have donated time
and money to United Way organizations across the
U.S. Kimberly-Clark is one of about 120 companies that make up
the United Way's National Corporate Leadership program-companies
that lead the country in their generosity and commitment to
engaging their employees and communities to support United Way.
Kimberly-Clark matches employee gifts to United Way dollar
for dollar. Kimberly-Clark facilities also conducted fundraising
events such as bike races, bake sales and auctions. Over the past
decade, Kimberly-Clark and its employees have contributed more
than $60 million to United Ways across the U.S.
