Employee Satisfaction

In 2007, 63 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 2006 participation rate was 69 percent. However, employees had fewer business days in which to answer the 2007 survey. Prorated for the number of days available, the 2007 response rate was the third highest in the last 10 years.

The Pulse survey includes a total of 58 items, eight of which make up what we call the Employee Satisfaction Index (ESI). Sixty-four percent of respondents gave favorable ratings on the ESI in 2007, up two percentage points from 2006 levels. Compared with 2006, about 76 percent of the 58 items improved, 3 percent declined and about 21 percent remained the same.

The area showing the greatest improvement was employee perceptions about the future – their own as well as the Company's. Among the other areas showing improvement were employee satisfaction with the Company, supervision, workplace stress, workload, training, 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. As part of these efforts, we hold weekly interactive webcasts with all employees, during which employees can submit questions directly to top executives. We also have a Web-based innovation idea submission and discussion forum.