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Corporate Social Responsibility

Colleagues

Culture

Our culture strengthens our business. We believe that a positive working environment is built on empowerment, trust, continuous improvement and inclusion. With our Mission, Vision, 4i values and our PPI Business System as our operational foundation, we encourage our colleagues to help shape and cultivate our culture through participation in programs designed to elevate the colleague experience. Our focus and commitment is to create a culture where our colleagues are engaged and passionate about excelling; inspired to enable our customers make the world healthier, cleaner and safer; and committed to realizing our collective full potential.

 

We know that for employees to thrive, they must have meaningful work where they can learn and grow, be treated with respect and dignity, valued and recognized for their contributions, and feel connected to their colleagues and company. While we take great pride in our culture, we also recognize that there is always room for improvement, and we recognize the value of transparent communication. We measure the employee experience through our annual Employee Involvement Survey (EIS).  

 

 

We know that for employees to thrive, they must have meaningful work where they can learn and grow, be treated with respect and dignity, valued and recognized for their contributions, and feel connected to their colleagues and company. While we take great pride in our culture, we also recognize that there is always room for improvement, and we recognize the value of transparent communication. We measure the employee experience through our annual Employee Involvement Survey (EIS).

Quotation marks
As I reflect on our many accomplishments, I know that none of it would be possible without the hard work and commitment of our teams and the diverse and inclusive culture that we’ve all taken part in shaping. Our culture is based on the desire to continuously improve, and that’s how we will sustain our company’s success for years to come.”
Marc Casper
President & CEO

2019 impact

42,614

Colleagues recognized through “Appreciate” recognition program

81%

Participate in Employee Involvement Survey

0.20

Lost time injury rate

Great teams

Communication with our colleagues

With more than 80,000 colleagues worldwide, ongoing, effective communications is critical to maintaining our position as the world leader in serving science. Our commitment to keeping our colleagues informed about our company, programs and initiatives not only ensures alignment on our goals in support of our long-term vision, it strengthens our culture and employee engagement. And by fostering dialog among our colleagues, we build trust, camaraderie and teamwork.

 

Whether highlighting the many ways we fulfill our Mission and impact society, providing updates on our performance or recognizing our colleagues, our CEO Marc Casper leads by example by providing regular updates about our company through direct messaging, town hall events and site visits. Our business, functional and site leaders each have a role in communicating information that’s relevant to our colleagues at a local level, while our people leaders maintain ongoing dialog with their direct reports through team and one-on-one meetings. Our intranet, iConnect, allows for company-wide communication. And all colleagues can personally share news and information, initiate conversations and ask questions through our internal social collaboration channel.

 

In 2019, we launched the Colleague Service Center (CSC) in the U.S.and Canada to provide our colleagues one central location for all Human Resources-related information and support. Through the CSC, colleagues can easily access information, complete tasks and receive support related to their work experience at Thermo Fisher. The platform will be expanded to all our global sites in 2020.

With COVID-19 highlighting the importance of our Mission and heightening the need for our colleagues to feel connected, no matter where in the world they are working, our CEO town halls are now done virtually and made available to our global workforce.

Focus on continuous improvement

At Thermo Fisher, we work together to continuously exceed our customers’ expectations. We have developed a PPI Business System that supports the way we think about our work and serves as the foundation of our operational discipline. It enables us to drive profitable growth by continuously improving quality, productivity and our customers’ experience. This model empowers our colleagues to become problem-solvers and to implement change where they see opportunity or waste.

Culture of involvement

Involvement is one of our core 4i Values and we empower our employees to take ownership of the Thermo Fisher culture. Our company-supported, colleague-driven teams create positive change in a number of important areas, including:

Colleague recognition program

Our comprehensive benefits and rewards offerings help our colleagues feel recognized and supported. We also want our colleagues to have the ability to recognize one another, which we made possible through the social platform “Appreciate”. Our Appreciate Program allows for real-time, specific acknowledgement of colleague contributions and service anniversaries, creating a one-company culture of recognition and facilitating peer recognition across groups and countries. It gives both colleagues and managers the opportunity to celebrate success publicly, helping colleagues feel noticed, valued and appreciated for good work - whether it is consistently living our 4i Values, fostering customer allegiance or upholding our commitments to safety, cybersecurity and our PPI Business System.

Cleanrooms in the United States are categorized by federal standards based on the number and size of particles permitted per volume of air, with a specific set of requirements assigned to each classification. Our Hillsboro facility is an ISO 6 - Class 1000, which requires a strict dress code for access. After following appropriate gowning procedures, the visiting team was shown various aspects of the cleanroom, including a digital visual management board, air monitoring devices, clearly marked areas for safety, and tools organized for point-of-use for each technician. Notes were taken on special cleanroom paper as regular paper can degrade and cause potential airborne particulates.

As a follow-up to the visit, the team will be conducting a review at their manufacturing sites in San Jose and Bremen, Germany, to determine what improvements they can make to create an ISO 7 environment for production of the core elements of their instruments.

Actionable feedback

Each year, our EIS gives every colleague a voice and is used to influence our enterprise-level goals, drive leader action plans and develop more opportunities for colleagues to grow and innovate. The survey is open to 100 percent of our workforce. It is mobile-enabled and designed to be universally accessible with 23 language offerings. The survey serves as a way to capture employee feedback and deliver comprehensive and insightful analytics to our leaders and managers in the following areas:

  • Leadership: company leadership and effective management
  • Inclusion: fostering a workplace where everyone is valued for their individual differences
  • Involvement: colleague commitment to the company

The survey consists of 40 questions with five-point scales and comment fields available, and one open-ended question. Additionally, our colleagues are always encouraged to utilize Thermo Fisher’s [24/7] Ethics Hotline if they need to provide feedback related to a violation.

2019 highlights

Based on opportunities identified in our 2017 EIS, we increased efforts specific to promoting diversity and inclusion in our workplace. Our 2019 survey showed positive results directly correlated to these efforts. Other strengths of our company and culture that were recognized in our 2019 survey results included pride in the company, confidence in our future success and workplace safety.

75%

Inclusion Index

73%

Involvement Index

75%

Leadership Index

Quotation marks
I take this feedback very seriously because our future as a company depends on continuously improving the way we work. I believe the improvement in our D&I score is a direct result of our focus on creating a diverse and inclusive culture where our colleagues feel empowered to bring their authentic selves to work.”
Marc Casper
President & CEO

82%

Participation by female employees

81%

Participation by male employees

In 2018, we saw a 80 percent participation rate, which was consistent with prior years, and stable Involvement scores. Our colleagues make it clear: they’re comfortable sharing their feedback, but there are always opportunities to make meaningful improvements to our colleague experience.

Culture of respect

Our colleagues deserve and expect to be treated with fairness, dignity and respect. We promote a culture of trust through transparency of company goals and expectations. Our policies provide guidelines that inform how we treat our employees and how they should engage with one another. Our Code of Business Conduct and Ethics is supported by our 4i Values and reinforces the importance of engaging in ethical business practices. This policy helps communicate our commitment to providing equal employment opportunities and expresses our belief that colleagues should be treated fairly and evaluated on their contributions, and not on any personal attribute or characteristic.

As stated in our Equal Employment and Affirmative Action Policy, Thermo Fisher provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and employment applicants without regard to unlawful considerations of sex, sexual orientation, gender (including gender identity and/or expression), pregnancy, race, color, creed, national or ethnic origin, citizenship status, religion or similar philosophical beliefs, disability, marital and civil union status, age, genetic information, veteran status or any personal attribute or characteristic that is protected by applicable local, state or federal laws. We are proud to not only attract, but to retain and support a diverse and inclusive workforce.

We extend our commitment to respect by striving to create equitable pay practices. Pay for performance is the cornerstone of our Total Rewards philosophy, not only as it applies to salary, but to other rewards as well. For example, stock options and restricted stock units are awarded based on performance rating and pay band to eligible colleagues. Our policies ensure we are accommodating the unique needs of every employee and enabling their growth at Thermo Fisher. We recognize the barriers to achieving an equal and equitable workplace. We measure our current state and our progress toward addressing our gaps to success, such as our gender pay gap, and its root causes.

Culture of safety

We are committed to fostering a culture of safety and wellbeing for our colleagues around the globe. Our Environment, Health and Safety (EHS) professionals are vital to the success of our company. A strong commitment to EHS helps us achieve our business goals by enabling productivity and quality improvements, ensuring stewardship of our colleagues and the environment, and creating a strong culture of involvement. For example, our focus on continuous improvement and our proactive approach to site safety have helped decrease our lost-time injury rate (LTIR) – a standard industry metric that measures the number of injuries resulting in lost workdays per 1 million hours worked – by more than one-third in recent years. We utilize our EHS 2 management system and the engagement and involvement of our workforce to drive continuous improvement in our overall performance and ultimately a safe working environment. In 2019, an EHS course focused on workplace safety became part of the regular onboarding training for all new colleagues. The
training is offered in multiple languages. 

 

Safety in the workplace is best complemented by safety in one’s personal life, which is why we’re committed to securing our employees’ holistic and familial wellbeing through comprehensive benefits and rewards offerings. 

1/3 <

decrease in our lost-time injury rate

(LTIR) in recent years

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