Employee Satisfaction

In 2008, 69 percent of our salaried employees participated in the annual Pulse survey, which provides insight into employees' overall satisfaction with the Company, their jobs, diversity and other aspects of workplace satisfaction.

The Pulse survey includes a total of 62 items, eight of which make up what we call the Employee Satisfaction Index (ESI). Sixty-six percent of respondents gave favorable ratings on the ESI in 2008, up two percentage points from 2007 levels. Compared with 2007, about 61 percent of the 62 items improved, 17 percent declined and about 21 percent remained the same.

The area showing the greatest improvement was employee perceptions about work-related stress. Other areas showing improvement included supervision, diversity and communications. In addition, employee satisfaction with actions being taken to improve quality maintained a high level of favorable employee satisfaction.

As part of our efforts to increase satisfaction, we are constantly improving our strategies for fostering open dialogue with employees. We know that communication is especially important during difficult financial times, and we have been enhancing our internal communication efforts to build trust and increase transparency. For example, we hold weekly interactive Webcasts with all employees, during which employees can submit questions directly to top executives. We also have a Web-based forum for submitting and discussing innovative ideas.

We are also working to ensure that our employees share in the excitement of the vehicles we are developing. In 2008, we held "Drive One" product events at our headquarters and several of our plants, so that employees could be among the first to test drive our 2009 vehicles, including the Ford Edge, Flex, F-150 and Escape Hybrid.