Michelin's pledge: Put people first, find strength in diversity

GREENVILLE, S.C.—When you say you put people first, you have to prove it.

And proof doesn't have to be perfection. Proof is progress. Steady, forward progress.

When a company says it puts people first, it needs to take steps toward creating safe, more diverse and inclusive workplaces. Places where employees feel heard and valued. Places where they have room to grow personally and professionally to take advantage of new opportunities.

So when Michelin says its guiding principles are built on a pledge to consider people, profit and planet in every decision, it's making a statement. Because when it comes to that mission, Michelin North America CEO Alexis Garcin said, there's a reason people are listed first.

"People are really at the heart of what we do," Garcin said during a recent media roundtable. "They are really what makes Michelin every day, and we are investing a lot to make sure that they can thrive within the Michelin organization … so that each and every one has an equal chance to develop, to grow and to develop himself or herself as a leader."

See, Michelin doesn't want to talk about being the kind of company that fosters growth and leadership. It doesn't want to just plan for inclusive, equitable work environments.

No, Michelin aims to prove—through its policies and practices—that it is and can be all those things, especially to the people it says matter most: the employees themselves.

And so far, it looks like the company is making strides toward those goals.

The employees have said as much through both internal and external communications. They have—at the very least—indicated that Michelin's professional development and inclusion policies and practices are moving in the right direction, making them feel like a central part of the company.

And that feedback has earned the tire maker a range of recognition.

Last month, Michelin maintained its ranking among the top 25 companies on Forbes' America's Best Large Employers listing, taking the top spot in the automotive category in 2023 for the second consecutive year.

And for the tire maker, that's a significant place to be. Because the award is evidence of strides that employees say the company is making.

"The methodology for the awards is really interesting to us," Felicia Sanders, chief human resources officer at Michelin North America, told Rubber News. "For example, to create the Forbes Best Large Employer list, Forbes and Statista use anonymous feedback from people across America, including our own employees.

"Knowing that our employees consider Michelin a great place to work is a special sense of validation for our efforts to ensure employees feel a sense of belonging here."

For Michelin, the validation doesn't start or end with Forbes. Michelin's workplace awards also include:

• U.S. Veterans' Magazine: Best of the Best, 2021
• Forbes: Best Employer for Veterans, 2021
• STEM Workforce Diversity: Readers' Choice Top 50 Employers, 2021
• Professional Women's Magazine: Best of the Best, 2021
• Black EOE Journal: Best of the Best, 2021
• Forbes: Best Employers for Diversity, 2022
• Woman Engineer Magazine: Readers Choice Top 50 Employer, 2022
• Minority Engineer Magazine: Readers Choice Top 50 Employer, 2022
• Hispanic Network: Best of the Best, 2022
• Redefining the Road: Top Employer for Women, 2022

If you notice a trend, Michelin says that isn't a coincidence.

Yes, a majority of those honors are from publications or organizations that serve women and minority professionals. And those honors, Michelin said, are further evidence of the strides it has and is taking to ensure a safe, inclusive and equitable workplace for each of its employees.

Because Michelin should be diverse.

More than that, Michelin should be inclusive.

And Michelin has a plan to achieve both.

"Our North American DEI strategy is comprised of three pillars: enriching our teams, cultivating a culture of belonging and impacting our society," Sanders said.

"We have ambitions to evolve our work force both through continuous upskilling and evolving in a way that leverages the collective intelligence of a more diverse work force," Sanders added. "We have made progress on diverse representation and are continuously working on creating a workplace reflective of the society we live in."

Ultimately, Michelin Group—and by extension Michelin North America—aims to set the industry standard for work force diversity by 2030.

Among the most prominent targets within the group's larger mission are goals surrounding gender balance. By 2030, Michelin said, it will achieve a benchmark of women holding 35 percent of management roles.

In its 2022 financial report, Michelin noted that it's taking steps toward that aim, at least globally. Groupwide, it said, 29.4 percent of managers are women.

According to Michelin Group's 2021 Environmental Social and Corporate Governance Report—the most recent available publicly—women held 25.7 percent of the extended management positions in 2017.

So, yes, Michelin is making slow and steady progress when it comes to increasing the number of women within its management ranks. But it's also slowly increasing the number of women in its work force altogether. In 2021, nearly 20 percent of Michelin's total global work force was female, up almost 2.5 points from 2017's 17.5 percent.

And Michelin North America is making similar strides. In North America, women held 26 percent of extended management jobs in 2021, an improvement over the 23.6 percent in 2017.

Women also held 38 percent of North American technical, administrative and supervisory positions in 2021, the ESG noted. That's nearly six points higher than the group's 32.1 percent that same year.

And while women held just 14.9 percent of the production operator positions in North America in 2021, it was higher than the company's global 13.6-percent mark.

Overall, women in 2021 represented 19 percent of the company's total North American work force.

For Michelin North America to grow successfully, Garcin said everyone within the organization will need to take a leadership role.

And when Garcin says everyone, he means every single one of the company's nearly 23,000 employees.

Because leadership, he said, isn't directly connected to the title or position anyone holds. Leadership, instead, is about the passion you have for the work you do, the people you work with and the impact you can have on the world around you.

"Leadership is not linked to whether you are a manager, nor is it linked to the breadth or depth of your responsibility," Garcin wrote in a LinkedIn Post last month in recognition of National Leadership Day. "Leadership is in fact deeply linked to how you are able to engage with the people around you: your peers, colleagues, teammates, partners. It's how you can unleash their energy, their willingness to work with you, to give their best around them.

"In other words, leadership is contagious, and it starts within; get to know yourself better and you will be a better leader. Why? Because you will understand what you can give to others—your passion for figures, for disruption, for people, for processes, whatever it is—and you will also know what you should look for from others."

That spirit of seeking direction and aligning strengths for greater impact is built right into Michelin's growth plan. Simply, employees help to chart the course forward.

They are leading the way.

And they are doing so through co-construction, which calls on employees throughout the company to take active roles in helping to identify challenges and opportunities for Michelin as it moves toward bigger goals.

"We have called a group of leaders that were willing to participate in that, to help us to drive this transformation," Garcin said. "That is why all of those, what we call 'the shifts'—this is all driven by employees. We want them to be part of those evolutions, those transformations, be part of the group."

Involving employees in the decision-making process also helps to ensure that they see the broader vision for the company's future. And that allows them to focus their efforts—and their leadership skills—on moving toward those clearly defined aims, both for themselves and the company.

"I don't believe at all in some top-down decisions," Garcin said. "We really co-construct and involve them in the process so that I can see that, today, our employees understand where they are headed to. And they know exactly what kind of role to play."

To help ensure employees feel heard, seen, appreciated and included for who they are, Michelin offers opportunities to connect, lead and make changes.

The company, Sanders noted, has 11 Business Resource Groups and 13 diversity councils, all of which are critical pieces to shaping the company's diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. The groups, she said, help to identify challenges and opportunities across the company, and they work to represent Michelin at recruiting fairs, through mentoring initiatives and conferences to promote inclusion.

And that is just the start. Michelin also is giving its employees the tools they need to face difficult circumstances and support them through whatever changes life brings their way.

"In the past few years, we've learned how important it is to create safe spaces for employees," Sanders said. "We've been working with our wellness team to increase visibility to mental health tools and resources so we can focus on holistic well-being. Employees have also initiated support groups for well-being, which has helped us focus our efforts on how to best support our employees."

Building a more diverse and inclusive company isn't just the right thing to do, Garcin said. By committing to a more diverse workplace, Michelin also is committing to making the company—and the communities it serves—stronger, too.

"I truly believe that our differences are a source of strength," Garcin told Rubber News in 2021. "To bring your true self to work every day, this is how we will grow at Michelin and how we will be able to have an impact on the community around us. It starts with the person."

It's the same reason Michelin's all-sustainable pledge starts with people.

When Michelin puts its people first, the company is positioned to thrive. Because it's the people, Garcin said, who "make Michelin."

"I really believe that our people are our first competitiveness lever," Garcin said last month. "…Honestly, there are a lot of unknowns. The only way to be humble and ready for the unknown is to rely on our people. And that is why we consider our people as being our first priority, because they make Michelin."