Employees
The forest products industry is highly competitive. Work force demographics in North America are rapidly changing. In this dynamic environment, Weyerhaeuser must attract, engage and retain diverse talent to help us safely deliver on our commitments to customers and shareholders.
Our goal is to have current and prospective employees consistently recognize Weyerhaeuser as a preferred place to work. We accomplish this by:
- Maintaining a strong company culture that emphasizes safety, ethical conduct and environmental responsibility.
- Offering a unique employment experience that includes:
- Identifying and closing any gaps between what we say and what we do:
- Our businesses annually update work force plans to proactively address challenges.
- We conduct a regular climate survey to gather feedback from employees about our work environment.
- We routinely implement best practices across the company to improve performance in areas such as leadership development, cross-business teaming, and diversity improvement planning.
EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT SURVEY
- 83%
- Number of U.S. salaried employees who believe Weyerhaeuser conducts itself with honesty and integrity
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- 73%
- Number of U.S. salaried employees who would recommend Weyerhaeuser as a good place to work
We measure how well employees understand company, business and personal goals through our companywide employee engagement survey. In 2011 we significantly revised this survey to be shorter and more focused. Our goal is to roll out the survey to every employee between April and June. By the end of the year, results will be shared and actions plans in place for any improvement required.
In 2008 we conducted a pay and benefits survey that included some questions about how well employees understand business goals and their contribution to the success of the company. All U.S. salaried and non-union hourly employees received the survey and 66 percent responded. The results show that:
- 87 percent understand how their job contributes to the company achieving its goals
- 83 percent believe Weyerhaeuser conducts its activities with honesty and integrity
- 73 percent would recommend Weyerhaeuser as a good place to work
- 72 percent have a good understanding of Weyerhaeuser’s business goals
- 71 percent would prefer to work for Weyerhaeuser even if a comparable job with comparable pay and benefits was available at another employer
- 63 percent have confidence in the information they receive from management
SOURCING TALENT
Our primary goal is to develop diverse leaders from within the company. For top 50 positions of Weyerhaeuser leadership, our target is to fill at least 80 percent of those jobs through the development and promotion of current employees. In practice, significantly more than 80 percent of these critical roles are filled by employees.
In North America, where 94 percent of our employees work, we follow a hiring policy that bases employment decisions on consistent, job-related criteria. Many facilities are in rural areas and rely heavily on the local work force for talent. Hiring locally is preferable, but we use many sourcing channels to fill open positions depending on the requirements of the role. We start with defining job duties and qualifications. Then we monitor staffing decisions to ensure selection processes are free from bias. Our process aligns with an employee relations policy that reflects values such as diversity, teamwork, effective leadership and personal accountability.
Hiring Local Talent
At our global locations, our practice is to hire local management and employees. In fact, the proportion of expatriates placed outside of North America to the total global Weyerhaeuser employee population is less than 1 percent. We place expatriates in international assignments when broader experience is required, when specialized expertise is not available in the host country, or for startup operations.
In some cases, the best skills for the job may come from another source. In each case, Weyerhaeuser's staff works to recruit the most talented candidates with the potential to grow to their fullest capacity.
