Early SEC S-K Human Capital Disclosures Reflect a Practice in its Infancy

A review of the first human capital S-K reports published in accordance with the new Securities & Exchange Commission disclosure requirements range from detailed to flimsy, with very little comparable information from company to company. When investors and others begin to analyze and compare the reports against the disclosure recommendations of leading attorneys, accounting firms, and the recent World Economic Forum Stakeholder Capitalism Metrics report, CEOs may find themselves facing an entirely new set of questions at meetings with investors. In most cases, these reports raise more questions than they provide answers related to actual practices and metrics.

By Bruce Bolger

Aecom	Emerson Electric	Energizer Holdings Inc.
Hologic Inc.	Jack in The Box	Johnson Control
Mueller Water Products	Oshkosh Corporation	Rockwell Automation
Starbucks	TE Connectivity	Tyson Foods

In accordance with new Securities & Exchange human capital reporting requirements effective Nov. 9, 2020, about 90 companies have already filed disclosures. Based on a review of 12 of those disclosures, selected at random and published below verbatim, some make an attempt to substantiate their commitment to people, but few provide a clear vision or details on the practices and metrics that drive them. None of those reviewed follow the recommendations of the accounting firm EY, the World Economic Forum’s Stakeholder Capitalism Metrics, or the law firm Winston Strawn, published shortly after the SEC regulations were published on Aug. 26, 2020.

As reported in late August 2020 in ESM, the new human capital disclosure regulations require public companies to provide “a description of the registrant’s human capital resources to the extent such disclosures would be material to an understanding of the registrant’s business.” The rule requires “a description of the registrant’s human capital resources, including the number of persons employed by the registrant, and any human capital measures or objectives that the registrant focuses on in managing the business (such as, depending on the nature of the registrant’s business and workforce, measures or objectives that address the development, attraction and retention of personnel).”

In a statement published at the time, SEC Chair Jay Clayton says, “I am particularly supportive of the increased focus on human capital disclosures, which, for various industries and companies, can be an important driver of long-term value…Today’s rules require that, in crafting their human capital disclosure, companies incorporate the key human capital metrics, if any, that they focus on in managing the business, again to the extent material to an understanding of the company’s business as a whole.”

Most of the reports published below read more like public relations documents than a serious review of human capital strategies, practices, and measures and contain much less information than provided in Corporate Responsibility Reports published by companies such as Merck and Best Buy. Few of the reports demonstrate a clear vision of the organization’s human capital management and measurement strategy: i.e., a clearly articulated organizational purpose and a systematic review of actual recruitment, compensation, retention, development, training, engagement, innovation, incentives and recognition, diversity and inclusiveness, safety and wellness, and related practices and the metrics used to measure their effectiveness. There is little to no attempt to connect human capital practices to earnings or other performance measures or little sign that the respondents understand the intent of the disclosures to provide year-to-year comparable metrics.

The reports generally reflect the state of human capital management today: reactive, ad hoc, with no consistent metrics, even within individual company reports. Advocates for more specific disclosures will surely say “they told us so.” Those who favor the principles-based approach advocated by SEC Chair Jay Clayton, will probably agree that, so far at least, the results are mixed at best. As investors begin to study these documents against prevalent recommendations from the World Economic Forum, EY, Winston Strawn and many others, as well as compare the reports, CEOs may become under greater pressure to articulate a more strategic and tactical people management vision, plan, and metrics. The companies with particularly flimsy reports already stand out when compared with others. This will immediately raise a red flag with people-centric investors, or customers, employees, or communities who discover this new window into the soul of a corporation.

The reports show that the world of human capital management, measurement, and reporting is in its infancy. On the other hand, putting this in perspective, organizations are not being asked to disclose anything about their sales, marketing, or advertising practices.

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Below is a sample of reports from multiple companies selected at random. To conduct your own searches for public company reports as they are issued:

1. Go to: https://www.sec.gov/edgar/search/

2. Click on: +More search options

3. Fill in: 10-K and the date 11-9 (effective date of the new rules) through today

4. Click on Search

Here is a sample of 12 verbatim human capital disclosure reports.

Aecom
Emerson Electric
Energizer Holdings Inc.
Hologic Inc.
Jack in The Box
Johnson Control
Mueller Water Products
Oshkosh Corporation
Rockwell Automation
Starbucks
TE Connectivity
Tyson Foods

Aecom

The foundation of our continuing success as a premier professional services enterprise is the ability to attract and retain the industry’s best, diverse talent by providing a culture of equity, diversity, inclusion, development, opportunity, and empowerment. This understanding informs our approach to managing our human capital resources

Our principal asset is our employees, and large percentages of our employees have technical and professional backgrounds and undergraduate and/or advanced degrees. At the end of our fiscal 2020, we employed approximately 54,000 persons, of whom approximately 22,000 were employed in the United States. Over 4,000 of our domestic employees are covered by collective bargaining agreements or by specific labor agreements, which expire upon completion of the relevant project. We believe that the quality and level of service that our professionals deliver are among the highest in our industry.

We are committed to enhancing our position as a leading employer in our industry. Our culture and reputation as a leader in the engineering and construction sector enables us to recruit and retain some of the best available talent in the countries we operate in. We believe in a culture of equity, diversity and inclusion, and we are committed to advancing safe and respectful work environments where our employees are invited to bring their talents, backgrounds and expertise to bear on some of the world’s most complex problems and where every person has the opportunity to thrive personally and professionally.

We are committed to engaging our employees globally to understand regional inclusion and diversity opportunities, building leadership accountability, and expanding recruitment efforts to foster a workforce reflective of our communities. To continue attracting and retaining some of the most talented employees in our industry, we ensure employees have the tools and resources they need to hone their skills, develop strong leadership behaviors, and advance their careers. Our human capital objectives and initiatives are overseen by our board as per our corporate governance guidelines.

Health and safety. Core to our corporate values is safeguarding our people and fostering a culture of caring that promotes the wellbeing of our employees, contractors, and business partners. We safeguard our people, projects, and reputation by striving for zero employee injuries and illnesses, while operating and delivering our work responsibly and sustainably. We maintain our industry’s best-in-class lost workday case and recordable incident rates, and our safety performance is consistently recognized by key clients across the regions where we work as well as by recognized safety organizations.

Equity, diversity, and inclusion (ED&I). While ED&I has always been a part of our culture, we continue to advance efforts globally to integrate our principles into all aspects of our work and measure results. We are focused on four key areas: 1) Building diverse talent through our recruitment efforts, as well as offering internships (including virtual internships during the Covid-19 pandemic) and partnering with nonprofit organizations and universities. 2) Enriching communities through pro-bono work, volunteerism, philanthropy and strategic partnerships. 3) Expanding understanding and empathy among employees through community-building, training and family-friendly benefit policies, and 4) Prioritizing the social impact and benefits of ED&I into every project we pursue and the innovative solutions we deliver.

Employee experience. We continue to enhance our employee programs, workplace culture and digital technologies to support employees and managers in more effective and efficient ways to execute their work and meaningfully engage with clients. These efforts include employee wellness and wellbeing programs to better support employees while working remotely during the Covid-19 pandemic and beyond, expanding access and technical training programs through our online education portal, AECOM University, delivering new digital tools to boost connectivity among employees, and advancing frontline leadership programs.

Workplace of the future. Drawing upon the experiences of our professionals, who have remained highly productive while working remotely during the Covid-19 pandemic, we have invited their input and ideas to begin to shape the future ways of working at AECOM. In particular, through a global competition, we challenged our professionals to consider how new workspaces can support health, collaboration and camaraderie, how technology and tools can be leveraged to ensure continuing productivity and client engagement, and what they need to be well and engaged. Many of the resulting ideas are being implemented regionally and globally.

Community responsibility. Through strategic nonprofit partnerships, pro-bono work, skills-based volunteering and philanthropy, Blueprint for a Better World, our corporate responsibility platform, is focused on delivering access to safe and secure infrastructure to those who need it most, creating opportunity for the leaders of tomorrow and protecting our planet so that our company can fulfill its purpose to deliver a better world. As part of the Blueprint pro-bono program, our technical experts partnered with nonprofit organizations in their local communities to provide critical design, engineering, and infrastructure solutions. In fiscal 2020, we continued to further our employees’ passion through the Blueprint Travel Grant program, which included building dormitories to further Peruvian girls’ education, purifying drinking water on the Zinga Islands of Uganda, strengthening engineering ecosystems in Sub-Saharan Africa, and designing and fundraising for a women and children’s center in Kosovo. In addition, we sustained our commitment to our enterprise strategic nonprofit partners – Engineers Without Borders and Water for People.

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Emerson Electric

Supporting our people is a foundational value for Emerson. We believe the company’s success depends on its ability to attract, develop, and retain key personnel. The skills, experience and industry knowledge of key employees significantly benefit our operations and performance. The company's Board of Directors and management oversee various employee initiatives.

The company supports and develops its employees through global training and development programs that build and strengthen employees’ leadership and professional skills. Leadership development programs include intensive learning programs for new leaders as well as more established leaders. The company also partners with educational institutions and nonprofit organizations to help prepare current and future workers with the knowledge and skills they need to succeed. To assess and improve employee retention and engagement, the company surveys employees with the assistance of third-party consultants, and takes actions to address areas of employee concern. Approximately 60,000 employees were surveyed during the three years ended Sept. 30, 2020.

Employee health and safety in the workplace is one of the company’s core values. Safety efforts are led by the Corporate Safety Council and supported by health and safety committees that operate at the local site level. Hazards in the workplace are actively identified and management tracks incidents so remedial actions can be taken to improve workplace safety. The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored for us the importance of keeping our employees safe and healthy. In response to the pandemic, the Company has taken actions aligned with the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to protect its workforce so they can more safely and effectively perform their work.

We have identified other human capital priorities, including, among other things, providing competitive wages and benefits and promoting an inclusive work environment. The company is committed to efforts to increase diversity and foster an inclusive work environment that supports our large global workforce and helps us innovate for our customers. We also have taken actions to enhance diversity, including recruiting at venues representing women, minorities, and US military veterans. Our efforts are guided by our Chief Executive Officer and Diversity Council, which is comprised of 14 senior-level executives.

Employee levels are managed to align with the pace of business and management believes it has sufficient human capital to operate its business successfully. The company and its subsidiaries had approximately 83,500 employees at Sept. 30, 2020. Management believes that the company's employee relations are favorable.

A small portion of the company’s US employees are unionized, while outside the US, we have employees in certain countries, particularly in Europe, that are represented by an employee representative organization, such as a union, works council or employee association.

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Energizer Holdings Inc.

As of Sept. 30, 2020, we have approximately 5,900 employees, including approximately 2,400 employees based in the US. Approximately 480 employees are unionized, primarily at our Fennimore, and Portage, Wis. and Marietta, Ohio facilities. Overall, we consider our employee relations to be good.

Inclusion & Diversity

As a global company, we embrace diversity and collaboration in our workforce, our ways of thinking, and our business experiences. We encourage colleagues to consider other points of view to help deliver better results. At Energizer, inclusion and diversity (I&D) is a business imperative, not strictly a Human Resources initiative. We are building I&D into our culture with a focus on caring, results, learning and continuous improvement and have identified several key objectives that guide our effort and by which we will demonstrate our commitment to fostering inclusion and diversity, including:

•Promoting a work environment that enables colleagues to feel safe to express their ideas and perspectives and feel they belong to our Energizer team.

•Educating colleagues and people managers to build awareness and understanding in I&D; and

•Recruiting, developing, and retaining diverse top talent.

We made significant progress in our I&D focus in fiscal 2020. We created and launched our Global Inclusion & Diversity Council, which is sponsored by our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Human Capital Officer. This Council of 13 members represents locations, functions, and business segments across the globe. Its top priorities for the next two years include:

•Implementing a comprehensive I&D learning and development plan to build awareness and drive inclusive behaviors; and

•Developing our diversity pipeline through hiring, mentoring and coaching.

Results-Driven, Collaborative Culture

In addition to our focus on I&D, we focus our company-wide efforts on creating an environment where our colleagues feel respected, valued, and can contribute to their fullest potential. To this end, Energizer colleagues are passionate about working together to win. As one team we learn together, care about each other and do the right thing to deliver results. We are working to develop and promote a culture that will drive our business and build a bright future for our brands, our products, our customers, and our consumers. From transparent communication channels, change pulse-checks to engagement surveys --which we conduct at least annually through a third-party partner – and leadership forums, we seek out colleague feedback to improve our culture. Our culture champion network, with members in all of our major global markets, leads local and global efforts to create inclusive and diverse work environments and bring our values to life. To bring our colleagues together across multiple time zones and geographies and create a global sense of community, we leverage technology from Yammer communities to LinkedIn posts to a “cameras on” standard for video meetings. This promotes online collaborative workspaces.

Talent Development

We recognize how important it is for our colleagues to develop and progress in their careers. That’s why we provide a variety of resources to help our colleagues grow in their current roles and build new skills — including online development resources from a competency model development library to hundreds of online courses in our Learning Management system. We emphasize individual development planning as part of our annual goal setting process, and offer mentoring programs, along with change management and project management upskilling opportunities. We have leadership development resources for all leaders across the organization and continue to build tools for leaders to develop their teams on the job and in roles to create new opportunities to learn and grow.

Pay

Our primary compensation strategy is “Pay for Performance” over the long term as well as on an annual basis, which drives a mindset of accountability, and productivity. Our compensation guiding principles are to structure compensation that is simple, aligned, and balanced. We believe our compensation guiding principles are strongly aligned with our corporate strategic priorities and our vision for shareholder value creation.

We are committed to fair pay and strive to be externally competitive while ensuring internal equity across our organization. We are conducting global pay equity assessments and compensation reviews, and we are actively working to reduce unconscious bias in our hiring practices, performance reviews and promotion opportunities that may contribute to pay inequities.

Workplace Safety

We care about our colleagues and anyone who enters our workplace. We have a strong environmental, health and safety program that focuses on implementing policies and training programs, as well as performing self-audits to ensure our colleagues leave their workplace safely, every day. Several of our US manufacturing sites have been recognized by the Occupational Safety & Health Administration’s Voluntary Protection Program (VPP) for their low injury rates, employee engagement, and other programs. To put that in context, out of about 8 million workplaces in the entire US, only approximately 2,100 have earned VPP recognition. We have globally adopted the same safety programs used by these recognized Energizer sites to maintain a high standard for performance across our operations. Importantly during 2020, our experience and continuing focus on workplace safety have enabled us to preserve business continuity without sacrificing our commitment to keeping our colleagues and workplace visitors safe during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Health and Wellness

Creating a culture where all colleagues feel supported and valued is paramount to our corporate mission. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has led to unique challenges, and we are striving to ensure the health, safety, and general well-being of our colleagues. We continue to evolve our programs to meet our colleagues’ health and wellness needs, which we believe is essential to attract and retain employees of the highest caliber, and we offer a competitive benefits package focused on fostering work/life integration.

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Hologic Inc.

As of Sept. 26, 2020, we had 5,814 full-time employees, including 1,655 in manufacturing operations, 706 in research and development, 2,827 in marketing, sales and support services, and 626 in general administration. As of that date, the 54 employees (53 non-management and one management) of our Hitec-Imaging subsidiary located in Germany are represented by a union and are subject to collective bargaining agreements. In addition, Hitec-Imaging’s German employees are represented by a works council, a Betriebsrat, with respect to various shop agreements for social matters and working conditions. We believe that our relationship with our employees is good. Except as described herein, none of our other employees are represented by a union.

Jack in The Box

Jack in the Box recognizes and takes care of its employees by offering a wide range of competitive pay, recognition, and benefit programs. We are proud to provide our employees, many who begin their career at Jack in the Box with their first entry-level job, the opportunity to grow and advance as we invest in their education and career development.

As of Sept. 27, 2020, we had approximately 5,200 employees, of whom 4,840 were restaurant employees, 330 were corporate management and staff, and 40 were field management. Most of our employees are paid on an hourly basis, except certain restaurant and operations management and corporate positions. We employ both full-time and part-time restaurant employees in order to provide the flexibility necessary during peak periods of restaurant operations and to meet the individual needs of our employees. As of the end of fiscal 2020, approximately 60% of our restaurant employees were part-time. We have not experienced any significant work stoppages.

We are committed to providing market-competitive pay and benefits. All corporate management and staff and restaurant management positions, including hourly assistant managers and team leaders, are eligible for performance-based cash incentive programs. Each incentive plan reinforces and rewards individuals for achievement of specific company and/or restaurant business goals.

We strive to ensure pay equity between our female employees and male employees performing equal or substantially similar work. Each year, we review the median pay of our male and female employees, share the results with the Board of Directors, and take remedial action as appropriate. We offer comprehensive benefit programs to our employees that provide flexibility of choice through our Total Rewards framework of pay and recognition, health and wellness, financial well-being, work/life happiness, culture and community, and learning and development. We recognize and support the growth and development of our employees and offer opportunities to participate in internal as well as external learning programs. An increased focus area has been on educational benefits for our restaurant teams, including enhancing tuition reimbursement and adding new scholarship, high school diploma, and English as a Second Language (“ESL”) programs. In addition, we hold regular restaurant-level talent and development planning reviews to assist us with growing our internal restaurant teams, resulting in a majority of current restaurant managers being promoted from within.

COVID-19 Response

We took early action regarding employee well-being in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, implementing comprehensive protocols to protect the health and safety of our employees and guests. Remote work for corporate management and staff was adopted ahead of state and county requirements. We limited reductions in scheduled hours for employees in our company-operated restaurants. For employees of our company-operated restaurants, we also enhanced our benefits programs to offer expanded supplemental paid sick leave ahead of state and county mandates and in counties where sick leave is not mandated, waived employee cost-sharing for COVID-19 testing, waived employee cost-sharing for all virtual visits, provided COVID-19 401(k) enhancements, and made free meals available for restaurant employees during their work shifts. We believe that employee sentiment regarding our response to the pandemic is very favorable.

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Johnson Control

As of Sept. 30, 2020, the company employed approximately 97,000 people worldwide, of which approximately 36,000 were employed in the United States and approximately 61,000 were outside the United States. Approximately 21,000 employees are covered by collective bargaining agreements or work councils and the company believes that its relations with the labor unions are generally good.

The company believes that success of its mission is realized by the engagement and empowerment of its employees to serve and win with clients, everywhere, every day. The Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) is responsible for developing and executing the company’s human capital strategy. This includes the attraction, acquisition, development, and engagement of talent to deliver on the company’s strategy and the design of employee compensation and benefits programs. The CHRO and the Chief Diversity Officer are responsible for developing and integrating the company’s diversity and inclusion roadmap. In addition, the Chief Executive Officer ("CEO") and CHRO regularly update the Company’s board of directors and its committees on the operation and status of these human capital trends and activities. Key areas of focus for the Company include:

Health and Safety: The company’s health and safety programs are designed around global standards with appropriate variations addressing the multiple jurisdictions and regulations, specific hazards and unique working environments of the company’s manufacturing, service and install, and headquarter operations. The company requires each of its locations to perform regular safety audits to ensure proper safety policies, program procedures, analyses and training are in place. In addition, the company engages an independent third-party conformity assessment and certification vendor to audit selected operations for adherence to its global health and safety standards. The Company utilizes a mixture of leading and lagging indicators to assess the health and safety performance of its operations. Lagging indicators include the OSHA Total Recordable Incident Rate ("TRIR") and the Lost Time (or Lost Workday) Incident Rate ("LTIR") based upon the number of incidents per 100 employees (or per 200,000 work hours). Leading indicators include reporting and closure of all near miss events and Environmental, Health and Safety ("EHS") coaching and engagement conversations. Reported total workforce numbers include employees and supervised contractors. In fiscal year 2020, the company had a TRIR of 0.40, a LTIR of 0.12 and 0 work-related fatalities.

Diversity and Inclusion: The company believes that its rich culture of inclusion and diversity enables it to create, develop and fully leverage the strengths of its workforce to exceed customer expectations and meet its growth objectives. Current key initiatives include employee experience, Business Resource Groups ("BRG"), learning and development, talent acquisition, external relationships, and metrics and measurements. The company places a high value on inclusion, engaging employees in our BRG programs staffed by employees with diverse backgrounds, experiences or characteristics who share a common interest in professional development, improving corporate culture and delivering sustained business results. The Company maintains its BRG chapters worldwide across nine categories: African American, Asia Pacific, LGBTQ+, Emerging Leaders, Hispanic, Disabilities, Veterans, Women and Sustainability. The company uses these groups to serve as a source of inclusion and to support the acquisition of diverse talent internally and externally. Each BRG is sponsored and supported by senior leaders across the enterprise.

The company has implemented several measures that focus on ensuring accountabilities exist for making progress in diversity. The CEO and other senior leaders have diversity and inclusion objectives embedded in their annual performance goals. The company also commits to having a diverse talent pipeline by partnering with its business units in their workforce planning forecasts to develop initiatives and goals to recruit diverse talent across all leadership and skill areas. The company trains its recruiting workforce in diversity sourcing strategies and partners with external organizations that develop and supply diverse talent. As of Sept. 30, 2020, approximately 24% of the company's global workforce was female and 19% of the company's employees in managerial roles were female. As of Sept. 30, 2020, minorities represented approximately 27% of the company's US workforce, of which 18% of our US employees in managerial roles were minorities.

Training and Talent Development: The company is committed to the continued development of its people. Strategic talent reviews and succession planning occur on a planned cadence annually – globally and across all business areas. The CEO and CHRO convene meetings with senior company leadership and the Board of Directors to review top enterprise talent. The company continues to provide opportunities for the company's internal employees to grow their careers, with over half of open management positions filled internally during fiscal year 2020.

The company provides technical and leadership training to employees, customers and suppliers who work for or with the Company’s products and services. Training is provided in a number of formats to accommodate the learner’s style and pace, location, and technological knowledge and access. In fiscal year 2020, the company offered more than 3,000 courses to all audiences. In addition, the company’s focus on employee development has been structured over the last several years through programs designed to imbed essential skills that are aligned to the Company’s culture. All managers are accountable to introduce and teach a new skill or toolset each month to their teams. In fiscal year 2020, approximately 1.37 million learning activities were completed by approximately 83,000 currently active employees.

Refer to "Impact of COVID-19 pandemic" included in Item 7, "Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" for information on Human Capital Management actions taken by the company in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Mueller Water Products

We believe our employees are our greatest asset. To ensure their health and well-being, we provide access to benefits and offer programs that support work-life balance and overall well-being including financial, physical and mental health resources. We also provide maternity and paternity benefits for biological and adoptive parents.

Our core values of respect, integrity, trust, safety, and inclusion shape our culture and define who we are. They are guiding principles that we live by every day and are evident in everything we do. We strive to attract, develop, and retain high-performing talent and we support and reward employee performance.

We are committed to upholding fundamental human rights and believe that all human beings should be treated with dignity, fairness, and respect. We strive to promote inclusion in the workplace, engage with communities to build upon our understanding of potential human rights issues, and encourage our suppliers to treat their employees — and to interact with their communities — in a manner that respects human rights. We condemn human rights abuses and do not condone the use of slave or forced labor, human trafficking, child labor, the degrading treatment of individuals, physical punishment, or unsafe working conditions. All employees are required to understand and obey local laws, to report any suspected violations, and to act in accordance with our Core Values and Code of Conduct.

As of Sept. 30, 2020, we employed approximately 3,100 people, of whom 84% work in the United States. As of Sept. 30, 2020, 65% of our hourly workforce was represented by collective bargaining agreements.

Our locations with employees covered by such agreements are presented below.

We believe relations with our employees, including those represented by collective bargaining agreements, are good.

Oshkosh Corporation

The company maintains a People First culture that includes investing in employees’ safety, wellbeing, and personal and professional development, as well as diversity and inclusion. The company believes its People First culture is a strength, and the company intends to continue building upon that culture to drive sustainable performance across the business.

The company tracks its performance by measuring numerous relevant elements relating to its employees and the company’s human capital management efforts, including but not limited to safety and diversity and inclusion. Relative to safety, the company generally aspires to reduce its lost time and recordable injuries each year. In fiscal 2020, the Company achieved a lost time rate of .06 and a recordable injury rate of 2.58. The company also measures diverse hires for full time US non-production positions and has a goal that 40% of such hires should be diverse in any given year. Diverse hires include ethnicity, gender, veteran, and disability status. In fiscal 2020, 42.2% of the company’s hires for full-time US non-production positions were diverse. Further, the company is committed to supporting its diverse team members and in doing so recently established three additional employee business resource groups consisting of intergenerational, multicultural and LGBTQ+ employee business resource groups during fiscal 2020.

As of Sept. 30, 2020, the Company had approximately 14,400 employees, approximately 9,000 of whom are production employees. The United Auto Workers union (UAW) represented approximately 2,000 production employees at the company’s Oshkosh, Wis. facilities; the Boilermakers, Iron Shipbuilders, Blacksmiths and Forgers Union (Boilermakers) represented approximately 240 employees at the company’s Kewaunee, Wis. facility; and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Union (Teamsters) represented approximately 200 employees at the company’s Garner, IA facility. The company’s agreement with the UAW expires in September 2027. The company’s five-year agreement with the Boilermakers expires in May 2022. The Company’s three-year agreement with the Teamsters extends through Oct. 2023. In addition, the majority of the company’s approximately 900 employees located outside of the US are represented by separate works councils or unions. The company believes its relationship with its employee team members is satisfactory.

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Rockwell Automation

Attracting, Developing, and Retaining Highly Qualified Talent. Successful execution of our strategy is dependent on attracting, developing, and retaining key employees and members of our management team. The skills, experience and industry knowledge of our employees significantly benefit our operations and performance. We continuously evaluate, modify, and enhance our internal processes and technologies to increase employee engagement, productivity, and efficiency.

At Sept. 30, 2020, our U.S. employees had the following race and ethnicity demographics:

There are several ways in which we attract, develop, and retain highly qualified talent, including:

• The safety and health of our employees is a top priority. We strive for zero workplace injuries and illnesses and operate in a manner that recognizes safety as fundamental to Rockwell Automation being a great place to work. In 2020, we achieved 0.23 recordable cases per 100 employees.

• Fundamental to our core values are people and a culture of integrity. Employee training is used to reinforce these values across all employees globally. Annual participation in trainings related to ethics, environment, health and safety, and emergency responses are at or near 100%.

• One way we capture employee feedback is through our biannual Employee Engagement Survey which measures several engagement indicators and provides an overall Employee Engagement Index (EEI). The latest survey, conducted in February 2020, showed an EEI of 76% compared to a global norm of 72% for this index.

Continuous Improvement. Productivity and continuous improvement are important components of our culture. We have programs in place that drive ongoing process improvement, functional streamlining, material cost savings and manufacturing productivity. These are intended to improve profitability that can be used to fund investments in growth and to offset inflation. Our ongoing productivity initiatives target both cost reduction and improved asset utilization. Charges for workforce reductions and facility rationalization may be required in order to effectively execute our productivity programs.

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Starbucks

As a company, Starbucks mission is not only to deliver outstanding financial results by offering exceptional and unique products and services, but to also create a strong connection with the communities where we operate. We believe the strength of our workforce is one of the significant contributors to our success as a global brand that leads with purpose. This is largely attributed to our partners (employees) who strive every day to create a welcoming and inclusive environment for our customers. Therefore, one of our core strategies is to invest in and support our partners to differentiate our brand, products, and services in the competitive specialty coffee market, including the following areas of focus.

Oversight and Management

We recognize the diversity of customers, partners, and communities, and believe in creating an inclusive and equitable environment that represents a broad spectrum of backgrounds and cultures. Working under these principles, our Partner Resources Organization is tasked with managing employment-related matters, including recruiting and hiring, onboarding and training, compensation planning, performance management, and professional development. Our Board of Directors and Board committees provide oversight on certain human capital matters, including our Inclusion and Diversity programs and initiatives. As noted in its charter, our Compensation and Management Development Committee is responsible for periodically reviewing Starbucks partner resource programs and initiatives, including healthcare and other benefits, as well as our management development and succession planning practices and strategies. Our Audit and Compliance Committee works closely with the Risk Management Committee, led by Starbucks CFO and general counsel, to monitor current and emerging labor and human capital management risks and to mitigate exposure to those risks.

Furthermore, our Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee annually evaluates the effectiveness of our social responsibility policies, goals, and programs, which also include partner-related issues. These reports and recommendations to the Board and its committees are part of the broader framework that guides how Starbucks should attract, retain, and develop a workforce that aligns with our values and strategies.

We regularly conduct anonymous surveys to seek feedback from our retail and non-retail partners on a variety of topics, including but not limited to, confidence in company leadership, competitiveness of our compensation and benefits package, career growth opportunities and improvements on how we could make our company an employer of choice. The results are shared with our partners and reviewed by senior leadership, who analyze areas of progress or deterioration and prioritize actions and activities in response to this feedback to drive meaningful improvements in partner engagement. Our management and cross-functional teams also work closely to evaluate human capital management issues such as partner retention, workplace safety, harassment and bullying, as well as to implement measures to mitigate these risks.

Total Rewards

We have demonstrated a history of investing in our workforce by offering competitive salaries and wages. To foster a stronger sense of ownership and align the interests of partners with shareholders, restricted stock units are provided to eligible non-executive partners under our broad-based stock incentive programs. Furthermore, we offer comprehensive, locally relevant, and innovative benefits to all eligible partners. In the US, our largest and most mature market, these include, among other benefits:

•Comprehensive health insurance coverage is offered to partners working an average of 20 hours or more each week.

•100% tuition coverage is provided to partners who earn a bachelor's degree online at Arizona State University through the Starbucks College Achievement Program.

•Parental leaves are provided to all new parents for birth, adoption, or foster placement.

•A Partner and Family Sick Time program is provided and allows partners to accrue paid sick time based on hours worked and use that time for themselves or family members in need of care.

•The Care@Work benefit provides partners with subsidized child, adult or senior care planning services. This benefit includes up to 20 days of subsidized backup care services through the end of fiscal 2021, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

•We view mental health as a fundamental part of our humanity and implemented a comprehensive suite of related programs and benefits in fiscal 2020. These include Headspace, an online application that enables guided mediation; Lyra, which provides mental health coaching, and Starbucks Mental Health Fundamental Training, created in partnership with National Council for Behavioral Health, which offers ongoing training to help partners recognize and respond to signs of mental health and substance use issues.

Outside of the US, we have provided other innovative benefits to help address market-specific needs, such as providing interest-free loans to our UK partners to help cover rental deposits, mental health services in Canada, and in China, a monthly housing subsidy for full-time Starbucks baristas and shift supervisors, as well as comprehensive health insurance coverage for parents of partners.

Role-based Support

To help our partners succeed in their roles, we emphasize continuous training and development opportunities. These include, but are not limited to, safety and security protocols, updates on new products and service offerings and deployment of technologies. Training provided through our Pour Over sessions include a wide variety of topics such as achievable goal setting, giving and receiving constructive feedback and effective engagement with customers and communities. To help further promote an inclusive culture and to better serve our customers, we encourage US-based partners to enroll in the To Be Welcoming courses we created in partnership with Arizona State University to address different forms of bias and discrimination.

Pay Equity

To be an employer of choice and maintain the strength of our workforce, we consistently assess the current business environment and labor market to refine our compensation and benefits programs and other resources available to our partners.

We previously achieved and currently maintain 100% pay equity in the US for women and men and people of all races for partners performing similar work. We have also achieved gender pay equity in China and Canada, two of our largest markets outside of the US, and we made a commitment to achieve gender pay equity in all company-operated markets.

As of Sept. 27, 2020, Starbucks employed approximately 349,000 people worldwide. In the US, Starbucks employed approximately 228,000 people, with approximately 220,000 in company-operated stores, and the remainder in corporate support, store development, roasting, manufacturing, warehousing, and distribution operations. Approximately 121,000 employees were employed outside of the US, with approximately 118,000 in company-operated stores and the remainder in regional support operations. The number of Starbucks partners represented by unions is not significant. We believe our efforts in managing our workforce have been effective, evidenced by a strong Starbucks culture and a good relationship between the company and our partners.

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TE Connectivity

We have employees located throughout the world. As of fiscal year end 2020, we employed approximately 82,000 people worldwide, including contract employees. Approximately 22,000 were in the Asia-Pacific region, 31,000 were in the EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa) region, and 29,000 were in the Americas region. Of our total employees, approximately 52,000 were employed in manufacturing. Our strong employee base, along with their commitment to uncompromising values, provides the foundation of our company’s success.

Our employees are responsible for upholding our purpose—to create a safer, sustainable, productive, and connected future; our values—integrity, accountability, teamwork, and innovation; and our strategy, execution, and talent (“SET”) leadership expectations. We track and report internally on key talent metrics including workforce demographics, critical role pipeline data, diversity data, and engagement and inclusion indices.

We embrace diversity and inclusion. A truly innovative workforce needs to be diverse and leverage the skills and perspectives of a wealth of backgrounds and experiences. To attract a global workforce, we strive to embed a culture where employees can bring their whole selves to work. Our employee resource groups (“ERGs”) are company-sponsored groups of employees that support and promote certain mutual objectives of both the employees and the company, including inclusion and diversity and the professional development of employees. The ERGs provide a space where employees can foster connections and develop in a supportive environment. As of fiscal year end 2020, we had six ERGs—ALIGN (LGBTQ), Women in Networking, TE Young Professionals, African Heritage, TE Veterans, and Asian Heritage. We are focused on recruitment of diverse candidates and on internal talent development of our diverse leaders so that they can advance their careers and move into leadership positions within the company. Also, during fiscal 2020, we conducted a fully digital, enterprise-wide engagement survey, our Every Connection Counts survey, which was available in 13 languages and focused on measuring engagement and inclusion.

We continue to emphasize employee development and training. To empower employees to unleash their potential, we provide a range of development programs and opportunities, skills, and resources they need to be successful. Our LEARN@TE platform supplements our talent development strategies. It is an online portal that enables employees to access instructor-led classroom or virtual courses and self-directed web-based courses. In fiscal 2019, we launched SET leadership expectations to all employees which focus on how we drive strategy, effectively execute, and build talent. We believe these behavioral expectations are integrated into the way we assess and select talent, manage performance, and develop our people. We are committed to identifying and developing the talents of our next generation leaders. We have a robust talent and succession planning process and have established specialized programs to support the development of our talent pipeline for critical roles in general management, engineering, and operations. On an annual basis, we conduct an Organization and Leadership Review process with our chief executive officer and all segment, business unit, and function leaders focusing on our high performing and high potential talent, diverse talent, and the succession for our most critical roles.

We believe our management team has the experience necessary to effectively execute our strategy and advance our product and technology leadership. Our chief executive officer and segment leaders average approximately 25 years of industry experience. They are supported by an experienced and talented management team who is dedicated to maintaining and expanding our position as a global leader in the industry. For discussion of the risks relating to the attraction and retention of management and executive management employees, see “Part 1. Item 1A. Risk Factors.”

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Tyson Foods

Employees and Labor Relations

As of Oct. 3, 2020, we employed approximately 139,000 team members. Approximately 120,000 team members were employed in the United States, of which approximately 114,000 were employed at production facilities, and approximately 19,000 team members were employed in foreign countries, primarily in Thailand and China. Approximately 31,000 team members in the United States were subject to collective bargaining agreements with various labor unions, with approximately 37% of those team members at locations either under negotiation for contract renewal or included under agreements expiring in fiscal 2021. The remaining agreements expire over the next several years. Approximately 5,000 team members in foreign countries were subject to collective bargaining agreements. We believe our overall relations with our workforce are good.

Health and Safety: We maintain a safety culture grounded on the premise of eliminating workplace incidents, risks, and hazards. We have created and implemented processes to help eliminate safety events by reducing their frequency and severity. We also review and monitor our performance closely. Our goal is to reduce Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recordable incidents by 10% year over year. During fiscal 2020, our recordable incident rate declined 17% compared to fiscal 2019. In response to the global novel coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19), we have implemented and continue to implement safety measures in all our facilities. As an expansion of our We Care workplace safety program and continued efforts to boost the overall health and wellness of our workforce, we are piloting health clinics near our production facilities, giving team members and their families easier access to high-quality healthcare.

Inclusion and Diversity: We embrace the diversity of our team members, customers, stakeholders, and consumers, including their unique backgrounds, experiences, thoughts and talents. Everyone is valued and appreciated for their distinct contributions to the growth and sustainability of our business. We strive to cultivate a culture and vision that supports and enhances our ability to recruit, develop and retain diverse talent at every level. We have a goal to build a highly engaged team by increasing retention year over year. For fiscal 2020, our domestic workforce realized a 1% increase in retention rate from fiscal 2019. As of October 3, 2020, our domestic workforce was approximately 40% gender diverse, and of our domestic team members, our workforce was approximately 33% white, approximately 27% Hispanic or Latino, approximately 25% Black or African American, and approximately 11% Asian American.

Talent and Development: Our talent strategy is focused on attracting the best talent, recognizing and rewarding their performance, while continually developing, engaging and retaining them. We focus on the team member experience, removing barriers to engagement, further modernizing the human relations process, focusing on hourly team member retention, and continually improving equity and effectiveness of all talent practices. Through our Upward Academy Program, we offer English as a second language and financial literacy training to all team members. As of Oct. 3, 2020, we have launched the program in 59 company locations. We have a goal to be the employer of choice within our markets and peer groups, and strive to grow and develop the different capabilities and skills that we need for the future, while maintaining a robust pipeline of talent throughout the organization.

Capital Management actions taken by the company in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Master the Principles of Stakeholder Capitalism And Implementation Through Enterprise Engagement

Education, Certifications, and Information to Activate

Stakeholder Capitalism Available Nowhere Else

A complete learning, certification, and information program and a course syllabus for educators.

Training and Certification

Enterprise Engagement Alliance Education: Certified Engagement Practitioner; Advanced Engaged Practitioner, and Certified Engagement Solution Provider learning and certification programs on how to implement Stakeholder Capitalism principles at the tactical level.

International Center for Enterprise Engagement: The only training and certification program for ISO 30414 human capital reporting and ISO 10018 quality people management certification.

The EEA offers a complimentary course syllabus for educators.

Join the EEA to begin your certification process or see our other resources below.

Or contact Bruce Bolger; Bolger@TheICEE.org; 914-591-7600, ext. 230 to learn more.

THE ONLY BOOKS ON STAKEHOLDER CAPITALISM IMPLEMENTATION

Enterprise Engagement for CEOs:The Little Blue Book for People-Centric Capitalists
This is the definitive implementation guide to Stakeholder Capitalism, written specifically to provide CEOs and their leadership teams a concise overview of the framework, economics, and implementation process of a CEO-led strategic and systematic approach to achieving success through people. (123 pages, $15.99)

Enterprise Engagement: The Roadmap 5th Edition
The first and most comprehensive book on Enterprise Engagement and the new ISO 9001 and ISO 10018 quality people management standards. Includes 36 chapters detailing how to better integrate and align engagement efforts across the enterprise. (312 pages, $36.)

OTHER RESOURCES TO ACTUALIZE STAKEHOLDER CAPITALISM
Communities: The Enterprise Engagement Alliance and Advocate and the Brand Media Coalition free resource centers offering access to the latest research, news, and case studies; discounts, promotions, referrals, and commissions, when appropriate to third-party solution providers from participating coalition solution provider members.

Enterprise Engagement Resources: EEXAdvisors.com provides the only curated online marketplace to access hundreds of solution providers in all areas of human capital management and enterprise engagement throughout the world.

Online Overview:
10-minute short course: click here for a 10-minute introduction to Enterprise Engagement and ISO standards from the Coggno.com learning platform.

Services:
•  The Engagement Agency at EngagementAgency.net, offering: complete support services for employers, solution providers, and technology firms seeking to profit from formal engagement practices for themselves or their clients, including Brand and Capability audits for solution providers to make sure their products and services are up to date.
•  C-Suite Advisory Service—Education of boards, investors, and C-suite executives on the economics, framework, and implementation processes of Enterprise Engagement.
•  Speakers Bureau—Select the right speaker on any aspect of engagement for your next event.
•  Mergers and Acquisitions. The Engagement Agency’s Mergers and Acquisition group is aware of multiple companies seeking to purchase firms in the engagement field. Contact Michael Mazer in confidence if your company is potentially for sale at 303-320-3777.

Enterprise Engagement Benchmark Tools: The Enterprise Engagement Alliance offers three tools to help organizations profit from Engagement. Click here to access the tools.
•  ROI of Engagement Calculator. Use this tool to determine the potential return-on-investment of an engagement strategy.
•  EE Benchmark Indicator. Confidentially benchmark your organization’s Enterprise Engagement practices against organizations and best practices.
•  Compare Your Company’s Level of Engagement. Quickly compare your organization’s level of engagement to those of others based on the same criteria as the EEA’s Engaged Company Stock Index.
•  Gauge Your Personal Level of Engagement. This survey, donated by Horsepower, enables individuals to gauge their own personal levels of engagement.

For more information, contact Bruce Bolger at Bolger@TheEEA.org, 914-591-7600, ext. 230.

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