Sustainability 2011/12

People

Employees

Here at Ford, our employees are the driving force behind our success. Our recent financial recovery can be attributed in large part to the dedication and strong performance of our workforce, which pulled together as one team during difficult times. For several years in our Sustainability Reports, we talked about the reductions in our salaried and hourly workforce, which were necessary as part of our multi-year effort to return our North American operations to profitability. Today, we’re hiring again in North America.

Employees at Michigan Assembly Plant

Employees at Michigan Assembly Plant celebrate the launch of the 2012 Ford Focus

In the fall of 2011, as part of a new agreement with the UAW, we pledged to add 12,000 hourly jobs in the U.S. by 2015 – 5,750 more than the 7,000 jobs (6,250 of which were hourly) we previously pledged to add by year-end 2012. We’re also adding 3,000 new jobs in our Asia Pacific and Africa region to help keep pace with product demand in that region. And, as a result of the Company’s strong performance, we are in a position to provide competitive compensation and benefits. For example, we announced in January 2012 that the new profit-sharing formula in our UAW contract will generate $6,200 per eligible employee on a full-year basis. At year-end 2011, we had about 41,600 hourly employees in the U.S. Salaried employees received bonuses under the annual incentive compensation plan.

Our Company has a compelling vision of building cars and trucks that deliver the very best in quality, safety, fuel efficiency and design. Our employees are the ones who are helping us do just that. A skilled and motivated workforce is the essence of Ford, today and in the future. The Company is focused on developing a skilled and motivated team, while providing a safe, respectful and inclusive environment.

Ensuring a great place to work requires an understanding of employee satisfaction and what employees value about being part of Ford Motor Company. We engage employees as individuals and foster leadership development in a diverse environment where people feel valued and included. A safe workplace and a healthy workforce are also critical elements of our strategy.

As of April 2012, we employed approximately 166,000 individuals. Substantially all of the hourly employees in our Automotive operations in the U.S. are represented by unions and covered by collective bargaining agreements. Most hourly employees and many nonmanagement salaried employees of our subsidiaries outside the U.S. are also represented by unions. These unions are key partners with Ford in providing a safe, productive and respectful workplace. For more information about our collective bargaining agreements, please refer to our Form 10-K (pdf, 1Mb).