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 under our ONE Ford plan to restructure and return our North American operations to profitability. The same plan is currently guiding our restructuring efforts in Europe, where we made the difficult decision to close two U.K. facilities in 2013 and end production at a major assembly plant in Genk, Belgium, at the end of 2014.

Today, we’re hiring again in North America and in other parts of the world. In the U.S., we have filled more than 9,000 of the 12,000 new hourly jobs we forecasted to deliver by 2015 during 2011 contract discussions with the UAW¹. In 2012 we added more than 8,100 combined hourly and salaried jobs in the U.S., and in early 2013 we announced plans to hire 2,200 more salaried workers. In Asia Pacific and Africa, we added 2,470 hourly and salaried jobs in 2012 to help keep pace with product demand in that region.

As the Company continues to strengthen and grow in many regions, our employees are able to share in our success. In early 2013, for example, eligible U.S. hourly employees received average profit-sharing payments of $8,300 for the 2012 performance year. Salaried employees also 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. And our employees are helping us do just that. A skilled and motivated workforce is the essence of Ford – today and in the future. We’re focused on developing a diverse, skilled and motivated team, while providing a safe, respectful and inclusive environment.

Our goal is to attract, develop, engage and retain the talent we need to Go Further. To grow our pipeline of talent, particularly in the areas of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), we’re reaching out to diverse communities through our Partnership for Advanced Studies, professional organizations such as the Society for Women Engineers, and various scholarship programs.

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.

In the U.S., automakers are competing for talent, and we have stepped up our efforts to find the best people. We are using social media more than ever in our recruiting efforts and hosting webinars and virtual career fairs to expand our reach. For more on our hiring, read the perspective from our executive director of human resources for the Americas.

As of December 2012, we employed approximately 171,000 individuals globally. Ninety-five percent of the hourly employees in our Automotive operations are covered by collective bargaining agreements and are represented by 39 different unions globally. In the United States, approximately 99 percent of these unionized hourly employees in our Automotive sector are represented by the UAW. Approximately 2 percent of our U.S. salaried employees are represented by unions. Most hourly employees and many non-management 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, 6.56Mb).