At ESI, the success of our business is fundamentally connected to the wellbeing of our highly-skilled employees. We recognize our responsibility to create a healthy and safe work environment. We believe that an inclusive and diverse team drives innovation, allowing us to compete more effectively. We also believe that building connections among our employees, their families and our communities creates a more meaningful, fulfilling, and enjoyable workplace. We strive to support the communities in which we operate, which in turn support our most important assets, our people.
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
We believe a diverse workforce leads to better outcomes, innovation and growth. Creativity and problem-solving skills thrive when a broader group of people with varying backgrounds and perspectives come together to achieve a common goal. We value individual differences and aim to build a culture of empathy and diversity in a workplace where our colleagues can be their authentic selves. At the same time, a diverse workforce also helps us attract and retain a broader talent pool.
In 2022, we announced a Sustainability Goal in support of our DE&I approach: See Vision & Strategy. In 2023, we built upon this prior goal and announced a new goal to further support our DE&I objectives. See Promoting DE&I below for more information.
Inclusivity in Action at our Singapore Site
Experience the power of inclusivity through this video created by our colleagues from ESI’s High Potential (HiPo) program. We believe in varying backgrounds and perspectives coming together to achieve a common goal.
Promoting DE&I
Together with executives from across the company, our CEO and our Head of HR lead the effort to promote diversity and inclusiveness within our organization. We have Board-approved policies designed to ensure fair hiring practices and have actions in place to prevent discrimination and harassment. In particular, our Business Conduct and Ethics Policy, Fair Employment Policy and Rules of Conduct define discrimination and inappropriate behavior, accountable roles and responsibilities, grievance mechanisms and reporting procedures, and are shared with all employees. As we continue on our path toward creating a diverse, equitable and inclusive workplace, we have adopted the following new and significant employee-focused DE&I goal: to increase management-level gender diversity to over 25% globally by 2027 as we strive toward ever-improving equitable representation in management.** We believe this goal will support our global DE&I strategy by meaningfully advancing sustainable DE&I within our organization.
As part of our commitment to full and equal employment, we are continuing to grow female and minority representation in our business. Our primary mechanism for improving diversity is through thoughtful and intentional diversity recruiting. We strive to hire candidates from different backgrounds and ethnicities.
* Other includes American Indian, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander and unknown ethnicities
Colleagues in Cambe supporting International Women’s Day
Labor Rights
As an innovation and service-based company, our workforce is our most vital asset. We are mindful of the fact that true customer satisfaction, business growth and longevity can only be achieved through healthy relationships between the company and its people— including labor unions. As such, ESI supports freedom of association and values effective communication and productive collaboration with our labor unions across the globe. Approximately 13% of our employees belong to unions, most of which are in the Americas and Europe. In the last three years, ESI has entered into ~31 collective bargaining agreements with labor unions. In the US, the existing agreement covers various negotiation topics, including annual salary increases, benefits, working conditions, employee health and safety, career management and training, DE&I, discrimination, and harassment. In Europe, topics vary as required by law. We believe our relationships with our employees and collective bargaining unions are satisfactory.
**“Management-level” refers to positions with an internal job classification of grade 16 and above, which generally encompasses positions that supervise other employees.