Kimberly-Clark Corporation

Transcription

1 Kimberly-Clark Corporation Unleash Your Power: Strengthening the Business With Women Leaders 2014 Catalyst Award Winner The consumer products industry has been steadily growing in emerging markets, intensifying the race for both global and local talent. To meet this challenge, Kimberly-Clark Corporation, whose mission is providing the world with essentials for a better life, created Unleash Your Power: Strengthening the Business With Women Leaders, a global, enterprise-wide talent initiative highlighting the important role women play in the workplace and marketplace. The initiative s primary goal was to transform the culture and engage talent so that the company looks, thinks, and behaves like the people 80% of whom are women who buy and use Kimberly-Clark products. In setting this goal, Kimberly-Clark also recalibrated its employee value proposition so that it would become an employer of choice for talented women and men around the world. In 2009, senior leaders reviewed Kimberly-Clark s five-year strategic business plan known to employees as the Global Business Plan (GBP) 2010 and found that it had delivered mixed results. There were areas of strength, but some goals had only been partially accomplished and others still required work. In an effort to drive meaningful change and acknowledge the value of its talented employees, the company implemented a new People strategy to transform the culture, capabilities, and talent, as well as deliver stronger 2015 results. Specifically, Kimberly-Clark recognized that its leadership should represent the company s consumers from around the world. To build a pipeline of potential leaders, Kimberly-Clark dramatically changed its approach to diversity and inclusion (D&I), and D&I became a key element of the new People strategy. In particular, the company committed to increasing the number of women in Director+ positions globally. This focus has helped the company enhance innovation, bolster continuous improvement, and increase its ability to attract, develop, and retain the talent it needs to deliver and exceed results. The initiative was successfully implemented and integrated across Kimberly- Clark s 37 global locations and its operating businesses. In order to achieve this, Kimberly-Clark developed an overarching framework at the global level and provided local leaders with tools to customize the initiative to meet regional and cultural needs. For example, operations in China and Malaysia include a strong focus on retention because attrition is a major concern there; in the United States, where Employees Resource Groups (ERGs) are most active, ERGs serve as an efficient talent management resource, helping with professional development, recruiting, and retention. Catalyst

2 Organization s Strategy Unleash Your Power: Strengthening the Business With Women Leaders focuses on three core areas: innovation, talent, and continuous improvement. Kimberly- Clark s six value- and action-based One K-C Behaviors and a Culture of Accountability, which were rolled out with the People strategy, are at its heart. Goals of the initiative include: Recognizing women s perspectives and ensuring women s representation in all talent pools. Increasing hiring and promotion of women into Director+ roles globally and strengthening the existing pipeline. Implementing action plans to drive recruitment, development, and retention of women in different regions. Empowering women and girls through community outreach and corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities. As part of the initial analysis to investigate areas of opportunity, Kimberly-Clark leadership also conducted an assessment of talent velocity and how talent moved through the organization. The analysis revealed that many employees were not able to access the critical roles and jobs necessary for advancement and development. To address this challenge and start moving talent into these roles, the company began matching long-tenured employees with positions that would provide new experiences according to their interests, thereby opening new critical roles for high-potential talent and increasing talent velocity. The Global Strategic Leadership Team (GSLT) Chairman and CEO Thomas J. Falk and his 10 direct reports worked with Human Resources and the Global Diversity Team (part of HR) to integrate the initiative s goals throughout the global organization and provide structure and framework for the execution and accountability of the initiative. The Global Diversity Team tracks metrics (e.g., hiring, promotion, and turnover) and reports regularly to Kimberly-Clark s Board of Directors and the GSLT. Organizational Culture and Engagement The six One K-C Behaviors Build Trust; Make Decisions; Win Consistently; Think Customer; Continuously Improve; Build Talent are the operational foundation of Kimberly-Clark s initiative because they help drive diversity in dayto-day work and support talent management processes. They are also integrated with Kimberly-Clark s Culture of Accountability (COA), which makes diversity and inclusion an employee, leader, and business imperative across the organization. These components, along with localized implementation, talent development, flexibility, and CSR efforts, have helped the company successfully meet its goal of increasing women's representation, promotional opportunities, development, and retention. Culture of Accountability (COA): Kimberly-Clark s COA supports the One K-C Behaviors by giving all employees expected actions centered on three program hallmarks: Focused Storytelling, Focus on Goals, and Critical Feedback. Kimberly-Clark started to integrate COA into its business and people strategies in late 2009, when the CEO and his top executives took the COA training. Each leader then rolled it down through their businesses, supported by the Global Catalyst

3 Diversity Team and a train the trainer program for all salaried employees in concert with Partners in Leadership. The COA is integrated into day-to-day activities through storytelling. For example, every team meeting starts with a story of a One K-C behavior in action (e.g., recognizing leadership behaviors in different contexts). In addition, the COA is driven down throughout the organization, including to mills and plants, where employees have the authority and accountability to shut down a machine if they see unsafe conditions. Work-Life Effectiveness and Flexibility: The COA provides a framework for FlexWork, an active, fully integrated flexible work program. The FlexWork program and policies have been communicated globally across the organization to business leaders through a comprehensive toolkit for employees and team leaders outlining the business case, principles that guide the proper use of the flexible work arrangements, and tools that help employees assess their readiness for an arrangement, as well as best practices. This program is readily available to all employees on the internal Talent Resource Center website. Work-life effectiveness is an essential aspect of the company s global business that permeates the ways in which employees work. Work-life options include flextime (flexible work hours), flex place (telecommuting), job-sharing, compressed workweek, and part-time/voluntary reduced hours. The procedure for requesting flexible work options is transparent with clearly delineated expectations and steps for both employees and managers. Flexibility is also used to attract, retain, and engage talent at Kimberly-Clark. The organization leads with a yes when it comes to flexibility, resulting in a competitive edge when it comes to recruiting. In some parts of the world, for example Turkey, knowing that Kimberly-Clark encourages working flexibly to accommodate family demands can be the deciding factor when job candidates choose where to work. The organization s commitment to flexible offerings which reflect the Build Talent and Continuously Improve One K-C Behaviors has created a diverse workforce and employee loyalty. Additionally, Kimberly- Clark s Human Resources leaders encourage team leaders and employees to be creative when thinking about how to use flexibility to meet business objectives. Localizing a Global Initiative Kimberly-Clark applies the various components of its initiative at the local level through a freedom within a framework approach that keeps regional implementation consistent with the overarching strategy. While each local strategy is committed to the overall goal of increasing the representation of women, individual programs vary depending on the diversity and inclusion needs of the region or country. A few examples of how the company has addressed region-specific challenges include: Recruiting in Rural Areas of the United States: It can be a challenge to hire diverse employees in rural regions where the population may not be diverse. In the United States, Kimberly-Clark uses its ERGs to help new hires in rural locations learn about the community and settling in. For example, applicants may meet with a representative of an ERG to discuss the work environment. When hired, new employees then already have a contact in the ERG who they can reach out to for help with settling down and getting to know the community. Catalyst

4 High Attrition and Turnover in Malaysia: Kimberly-Clark s operations in Malaysia have historically had very high levels of attrition of women. To change this, local leaders used Flex Work so that teams could cover multiple regions and time zones with less negative impact on employees personal lives. They also extended maternity leave and created lactation rooms to ease the transition back to work for breastfeeding mothers. As a result, the attrition rate dropped from 26% in April 2011 to 9% in June Retention in China: Kimberly-Clark has used two programs to improve retention of Generation Y employees in China. A global job assignment program (SWAP, detailed below) allowed participants to gain global experience through short developmental assignments that broadened their experience. Also, a reverse mentoring program matched younger employees with senior leaders and proved highly beneficial to both parties. This led to an increase in both female and male employee engagement by 19%, and a reduction of turnover from 15.2% to 13.2%, against a market average of 17% from 2010 to Inclusion of Women in EMEA/Middle East: Organizations face significant hurdles when it comes to fully involving women in business in the Middle East given the cultural and religious restrictions in certain regions. In Saudi Arabia, where women aren't allowed to travel without a male escort, Kimberly-Clark provides a male driver for travel to off-site meetings, and it encourages telecommuting when travel is not necessary from a business perspective (e.g., if there are no planned in-person meetings). The company also accommodates cultural norms by holding meetings in public spaces (e.g., hotel conference rooms) in rooms with partitions down the center that divide women and men, thereby honoring local customs. Talent Development Diversity and inclusion efforts are woven throughout Kimberly-Clark s talent strategy and integrated into core talent processes. The organization is increasing the number of women leaders by focusing on recruitment and selection, engagement, retention, and career development. Specifically, Kimberly-Clark employs a Buy and Build talent strategy through external hiring of women globally into Director+ levels ( Buy ) and talent management and strengthening the pipeline ( Build ). Recruitment and Selection: Kimberly-Clark uses recruitment programs, such as partnering with associations for women and minorities, to increase the hiring of women around the world and minorities in the United States into Director+ roles. It requires diverse interview slates and HR tracks diverse candidates. The company also uses selection programs to strengthen the pipeline by making it more diverse. o For example, in Vietnam, most of Kimberly-Clark s sales are done informally in hundreds of small markets and stalls. Sales teams are out on motorbikes all day, and culturally, this work is considered a male job. To address this challenge, Kimberly-Clark asked its saleswomen to join recruiting teams at universities to speak to women students about their jobs. The organization also paired field saleswomen with both a male buddy in the field and a female buddy from the main office for additional support. Catalyst

5 Global Career Development and Talent Development Programs: As part of the initiative, Kimberly-Clark developed a global talent management philosophy that combined the top 100 leaders from the four business units and functional areas the Enterprise Top Talent (ETT) into one talent pool. This allows the organization s senior leaders to more effectively strategize about how to best leverage high-potential talent (women and men just under the GSLT level) across business lines and it encourages talent moves. In addition, employees in the Top Talent pool know they are identified as high-potentials. Other talent development programs and formal mentoring and sponsorship programs include: o Accelerated Development Program (ADP): To facilitate talent development and succession planning, in 2012 Kimberly-Clark began categorizing high-potential employees into talent segments by region, business, and function, so that the most senior talent could be moved into critical roles first. Follow-up analyses indicate that the program has successfully increased talent velocity, particularly for women. o Global Assignment Program (GAP): This three-year program gives employees the critical international experience they need to examine and understand the global consumer and/or customer base and opportunities within a local context. All ETT employees are strongly encouraged to accept a GAP assignment so they are prepared for advancing into the next critical role in their career at K-C. o SWAP: In this program, high-potential employees swap assignments with employees from another country for three to six months. They gain cultural and functional awareness as well as valuable insights on how things work across the world and across regions. For example, a Leader of Customer Service in Brazil exchanged roles with a Marketing Manager in China, which proved highly beneficial for both employees in advancing their careers. o Leaders Teaching Leaders: This nine-month program engages ETT in multiple strategic projects that give them visibility with senior leaders. During their projects which include three off-job phases (off their day job) and at least one that is international participants present to their cohorts and the GSLT. Employee Resource Groups, Mentoring, Sponsorship. Employee resource groups, as well as mentoring and sponsorship programs, help drive the initiative across the organization and reach employees at different levels. Kimberly-Clark has a broad range of ERGs, including the Women s Interactive Network (WIN), PRIDE (LGBT), Salute (Military), Parents Interactive Network (PIN), AAEN (African American Employee Network), LAND (Latin American Network for Diversity), Focus Asia, New Employee Opportunity Network (NEON), and Family Caregivers Network (FCN). Newer external groups include the Network for Executive Women (NEW), which helps executive women connect with women outside the organization. ERG events are recorded and broadcasted to other offices and locations. ERG events also provide opportunities for employees to access senior leaders. In addition, many ERGs offer developmental leadership opportunities and are used in recruiting efforts. Catalyst

6 Mentoring and sponsoring are driven through the ERGs as well as informally throughout the organization. For example, WIN identifies and addresses the needs of professional women through activities such as: o WIN Matters: Pipeline women are paired with a senior-level coach to undergo a year-long professional development training curriculum. o Develop, Inspire, and Grow (DIG): This WIN Scholarship program prepares women for senior leadership by providing professional coaching, a stretch assignment, and targeted leadership training opportunities. o Mentor Up Reverse Mentoring: The WIN leadership team nominates women who are typically active members of WIN and considered high potential in their departments to serve as reverse mentors to senior leaders. o Peer-to-Peer Mentoring: Six to eight women meet in monthly group sessions with facilitated discussion guides, to talk about professional, personal, and leadership development topics. Participants have diverse backgrounds, and differ in experience, business, and function. o Advancement Through Leadership and Sponsorship (ATLAS): This formal sponsorship program accelerates the development of women to leadership roles through cross-function, cross-sector partnerships between high-potential women and senior leaders. CSR and Community Outreach Charitable giving is aligned with Kimberly-Clark s focus on leading the world in essentials for a better life, and it supports the overarching principles of the initiative. The Kimberly-Clark Foundation provides resources to numerous community activities, which also engage employees. The company does this through global outreach based on regional needs. For example, Nurture Moms and Babies includes activities such as educational programs for proper nutrition, a diaper donation program, and a program that helps low-income mothers pay for daycare. In China, the Huggies Diapers team is educating millions of new mothers in person how to change diapers, bathe their newborns, and care for their babies. Catalyst Award Criteria: Change Drivers Kimberly-Clark s efforts exceed the following criteria, by which Catalyst evaluates efforts to develop and advance women in business. 1. Integrate the Initiative With the Business Strategy. The business rationale for diversity is integrated with Kimberly-Clark s business strategy, and the initiative is an integral part of the People strategy. The company understands that in order to win in the marketplace, it needs women and a diverse talent pool that reflects the consumer base, which is 80% women. 2. Demonstrate the Commitment of Senior-Level Leadership. Chairman of the Board and CEO Thomas J. Falk is the driving force behind the diversity and inclusion strategy, and he is responsible for developing and communicating Kimberly-Clark s overarching business strategy. He sponsors and champions the initiative, holding the organization accountable for fulfilling the global diversity and inclusion objectives and goals. In addition, he Catalyst

7 communicates about the initiative s results with the Board as well as publicly within the organization in quarterly D&I updates with the senior leaders. Kimberly-Clark executive leaders are also heavily invested in developing and carrying out the initiative, which they do by customizing aspects of the programs and policies to meet their business line and regional talent needs. Senior leaders attend ERG events, participate in reverse mentoring, mentor and sponsor diverse talent informally, and participate in talent development programs. 3. Effectively Communicate the Strategy. Kimberly-Clark s culture of inclusion values open, two-way communication and transparency regarding both information and access to programs and opportunities. The company uses traditional forms of communication such as s, newsletters, SharePoint websites, and conference calls, and it has established a number of innovative communication vehicles that have been well received by employees. For example, the One K-C Jam helps employees across the globe connect virtually with senior leadership in a collaborative experience. The company regularly communicates the initiative through videos about particular components, blog postings from the CEO, and activities and updates that are posted on the intranet. The intranet features profiles of employees who have participated in programs such as SWAP to share their experiences and stories more broadly with others. Storytelling is used extensively throughout the organization as an important business communication tool, and it is modeled by leaders to create an inclusive environment. All meetings begin with a story, which reinforces the company s values around diversity and inclusion. Storytelling also allows employees to see what leadership behaviors look like in action, and how they are lived at the organization. 4. Create Accountability Systems. Accountability for the initiative starts from the top and is integrated across the organization through the Culture of Accountability. Because the initiative is an essential part of the company s business strategy, it is integrated in annual performance goals. Employees set their own goals for the year and are measured along with their team leaders. In annual performance reviews, no team leader, including the CEO, can be rated exceptional without demonstrating exceptional performance in Building Talent. In addition, part of annual variable compensation is tied to corporate diversity goals. Furthermore, the Global Diversity team coordinates with ERG leaders on global objectives, strategies, initiatives, and metrics for the year. Day-to-day accountability calls for all employees to own and solve any problem or issue that they may see. Biannual leader accountability training drives home the importance of responsibility among employees. In addition, all Kimberly- Clark employees are responsible for asking for feedback that is both constructive and positive. Catalyst

8 5. Create Tools to Measure Progress. Kimberly-Clark measures progress through a number of tools. Objectives, Goals, Strategies, Initiatives, and Measures (OGSIM) are developed annually for GSLT leader organizations, and they are aligned with the objectives of the People strategy. These goals focus on key elements of the diversity and inclusion strategy, including the number of women in Director+ levels. Senior leaders receive quarterly update reports to ensure they are keeping pace with objectives for the year, and regular pulse checks for their workforce numbers. One K-C Jam and Kimberly-Clark s global employee engagement survey serve as barometers of the success of the initiative in creating a more inclusive culture The Impact of the Initiative Thanks to these efforts, Kimberly-Clark has seen solid results for attracting, developing, and retaining women. Between 2009 and 2013, women s representation among Director+ roles has increased globally from 19.0% to 26.0%; internal promotions of women to Director+ jobs has increased significantly, from 19.0% to 44.0%. Additionally, women s representation on the Board of Directors has increased from 16.7% to 25.0%. Kimberly-Clark (NYSE: KMB) and its well-known global brands are an indispensable part of life for people in more than 175 countries. Every day, nearly a quarter of the world's population trust K-C brands and the solutions they provide to enhance their health, hygiene and well-being. With brands such as Kleenex, Scott, Huggies, Pull-Ups, Kotex and Depend, Kimberly-Clark holds the No.1 or No. 2 share position in more than 80 countries. To keep up with the latest K-C news and to learn more about the company's 142-year history of innovation, visit or follow us on Facebook and Twitter. Catalyst