Attracting Talent

In the U.S. especially, automakers must compete for talent, and we have stepped up our efforts to find the best and the brightest to join our team. We are in the midst of the largest hiring initiative in more than a decade as we continue to ramp up our production to meet growing consumer demand.

To attract potential salaried candidates, in 2013 we launched a new recruiting campaign with a large social media element. Titled “The Distance Between You and an Amazing Career Has Never Been Shorter,” the campaign encourages candidates to bring their talents to Ford and contribute to serving customers through innovative solutions. We created the campaign to highlight that Ford team members are leading the way in imagination and creation. We wanted a fresh and innovative image that illustrates that our employees are as important to Ford as the vehicles they create.

Our message to job candidates is simple: Bring your talents to Ford and help us build an even greater future.

The new initiative engages job candidates on the three major social network sites that we use for attracting employees – Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, as well as our Ford corporate careers website. We have been creating profile videos of current Ford employees to showcase to job seekers the different types of positions available at our company.

In addition to an expanded online presence, we are stepping up our recruitment efforts on college campuses since about one-third of our annual hires come from colleges and universities. We recently opened the new Ford Talent Center in Dearborn, Michigan, where we can provide better interview experiences for potential hires while showcasing our company’s rich history and exciting products.

In 2014, we will be increasing the number of college interns we bring to our operations by approximately 20 percent. This is primarily attributed to an increased need for interns in our engineering and other technical areas to meet the needs of our customers. Our internship program is one of the key ways that we find and develop talent.

In 2013, we announced we would hire 3,000 salaried employees in the U.S. – 800 more than previously expected. With only a 2.7 percent voluntary quit rate among current employees, the majority of these jobs are new positions. Of the 3,000 new jobs, roughly 2,400 of them were technical professionals to work in product development, manufacturing, quality, purchasing and information technology. Engineers and technical professionals are in as much demand as our vehicles.

In addition to the salaried hires, we announced in April 2013 that we would hire an additional 2,000 hourly workers at our Kansas City Assembly Plant to help meet demand for our Ford F-150 truck. In November, we announced we would add about 350 new jobs at our Buffalo Stamping Plant. We have pledged to create 12,000 hourly jobs in the U.S. by 2015.

During 2013, we made significant improvements to the “on-boarding” process for newly hired employees. These improvements include more information up front about Ford, steamlined office logistics (such as laptop distribution on the first day of work) and benefits enrollment within a few days.

The updated corporate orientation program is designed to give new employees better insight into our history and our global reach while forging new connections with other new employees and with corporate leaders. In 2013, 1,200 new employees attended three on-boarding events, and 99 percent of participants said they felt the events met their expectations.

Compensation and benefit programs are an important part of the company’s employment relationship, which also includes challenging and rewarding work, growth and career development opportunities, and being part of a leading company with a diverse work force and great products. Ford is a global company with a consistent compensation and benefits framework that is affordable to the business.