People

Workplace

Our employees are crucial to delivering our vision of building great products that contribute to a better world.

We completed the planned closures of two manufacturing facilities in the U.K. in 2013, and we will close our Genk, Belgium, manufacturing facility at the end of 2014.

We recognize the impact our actions have on many employees and their families, and we have been working together with all stakeholders as we make these difficult changes to our business in Europe. In total, 6,200 positions or about 13 percent of Ford’s European work force are affected by the plant closures in 2013 and 2014, including the salaried head-count reduction equivalent of 400 positions in late 2012. Wherever possible, we have been achieving employee reductions through enhanced employee separation programs and, with regard to our U.K. facilities, voluntary means and redeployment to other Ford locations. Read more about our European market.

Communities

Ford Motor Company has a long legacy of compassion. More than 100 years after the company began, we continue to touch lives. Our commitment to supporting local communities through strategic investments and volunteer efforts has remained unwavering.

As we continue to expand our business in new markets across the globe, we are also expanding our community investment and volunteering efforts internationally. In 2013 we continued to expand our global reach through our Operation Better World program. Launched in 2012, Operation Better World is a coordinated, strategic approach to how Ford engages with communities everywhere that we do business. In 2013, we expanded the program from India and China to South America, Mexico and Europe. Through this initiative, Ford Fund works with nongovernmental organization (NGO) partners in four key areas: education, auto safety, community needs and sustainability (with a focus on water). The Ford Fund works to ensure that programs meet local community needs, align with the One Ford business plan, have a measurable impact and, where possible, can be replicated in other markets. This grassroots engagement in the community is implemented and led by the local Ford teams in each region.

Throughout Europe, Ford has made a positive impact on communities and the environment through Operation Better World initiatives such as the Community Involvement Program, Global Week of Caring and the Ford Driving Skills for Life (DSFL) program, which teaches drivers about fuel efficiency as well as safety (as discussed in the Vehicle Safety section).

In 2000, Ford in Germany launched the Community Involvement Program, which connects Ford employees to opportunities for volunteering in the community. As of year-end 2013, nearly 11,000 Ford employees had volunteered through this program, working on some 1,400 projects and dedicating more than 175,000 working hours. In the record year 2013 alone, we supported approximately 145 volunteering and community projects through this volunteering program. This is a all-time high within 13 years of engagement. Also a record: 960 employees each contributed up to 16 hours of their time, funded by Ford, totaling 15,000 hours and more than ever before. We also provided five Ford Transit vans to support 74 additional community projects. The vans were driven a total of 61,000 km.

In Germany in early 2013, Ford received an “Engagement of the Year 2012” award from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. This award honors Ford’s Community Involvement Program in Germany as a role model for corporate citizenship. The prize money was donated to the nonprofit school project Gandhi Award in Cologne, which aims to foster and reward diversity at schools, conflict management and volunteering. Ford actively supports Gandhi Award activities, for the first time in Cologne in July 2013.

Also in 2013, Ford of Europe volunteers went out into the community as part of the Ford Global Week of Caring. Our People section contains a full list of our Global Week of Caring and other volunteerism efforts in Europe and elsewhere.