It’s good to be here once again for what is Weyerhaeuser’s 25th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King Day Celebration.
Thelma Bryant started this program in 1979, seven years before it became a national holiday. She thought employees at Weyerhaeuser should celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King, Junior’s life. She still thinks we should listen to his message of acceptance and inclusion.
Today’s celebration and all that it represents is important to me from both a personal and business point of view. As you might expect from me, let’s talk about business first.
We want Weyerhaeuser employees to represent and reflect the people who live in our communities and the people who are our customers and other stakeholders. We can better reach out when we look like and talk like and reflect the values of all our stakeholders. Our employees benefit, plus fresh ideas and perspectives are good for our business.
We know, and our key stakeholders remind us, that we have a long way to go toward reaching our goal of becoming a diverse, inclusive company.
- Last spring, our senior management team and I were visiting key shareholders and securities analysts. One of them remarked that our management team is overwhelmingly a group of old, white men. She asked what we were doing to improve diversity in the company.
- Customers, including PepsiCo, have asked us what we’re doing about supplier diversity.
- Levels of satisfaction within some of our employee groups are lower than we want them to be.
So what are we doing to nurture a more diverse workforce at Weyerhaeuser? I could give you a long list of important efforts. But I’ll just pick a few.
- We are building increased leadership accountability. This year a significant component of bonus pay will be tied to diversity results.
- We have initiated a new Weyerhaeuser Scholars Program administered by the United Negro College Fund. It’s designed to attract students to Weyerhaeuser by providing scholarships and summer internships.
- We are broadening our diversity outreach to include more diverse suppliers and have recently enhanced our efforts in this area.
- The senior management team and I have spent many hours discussing and working on diversity. As a result, we are committed to changing the culture and building the pipeline of diverse leadership talent at all levels, through succession planning and career development, including good coaching and performance feedback.
These and others are all worthy efforts, but still our results are disappointing. It’s time for a new and different emphasis to support these efforts at Weyerhaeuser.
We can learn a lot from Dr. King.
I think he would remind us, that in order to increase our numbers of diverse employees, we must create a more inclusive culture at Weyerhaeuser. The numbers measure our progress and allow us to hold leaders accountable. And when we do meet our numerical targets, people of all backgrounds will find Weyerhaeuser a more comfortable place to work.
But focus on the numbers is not enough. We need to build a new culture of inclusion.
In Dr. King’s time, the word “diversity” was seldom used. To some, that word emphasizes our differences. Instead, Dr. King moved our nation by appealing to our common aspirations: respect, trust, equality and opportunity. I’m committed to ensuring that our company reaches those aspirations.
If we are to compete for and retain diverse talent, we must create a work environment in which everyone is respected, valued and feels a part of our team.
Programs are easy. Behavior change is hard. How do you change the work environment to be more inclusive of diverse people and ideas?
It starts with leadership.
We are holding leaders accountable. They are on notice that career and financial success at Weyerhaeuser demands performance against diversity targets, and it requires them to embrace this value and lead the culture change.
One important building block is trust. We must start from the basic belief that employees want the company to succeed. Leaders must trust people with unusual ideas and approaches, assume they’re trying to improve the company and give their contributions fair consideration. Leaders must create an environment where it’s safe to be different by emphasizing our common desire to succeed.
In the last couple of years I have seen managers hit efficiency targets in their mills that many would have thought impossible. Let us apply the same relentless energy to building a more inclusive company.
I’m asking our leaders to remember these words of Dr. King:
“Something tells me that the ultimate test of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and moments of convenience, but where he stands in moments of challenge.”
We have a long road ahead of us, but I’m optimistic. We have a better understanding than ever of the environment we must create to attract diverse talent. And we are putting meaningful actions behind our words.
I lived in the deep South in the 1960s. I saw first-hand the devastating effects of racism. It was difficult to accept.
I’ve returned many times in recent years and can tell you that the civil rights struggle led by Dr. King certainly helped improve race relations and equal opportunity.
As I travel across the country, I also see that the job is not finished. As a company and as a nation, we are not where we should be.
We at Weyerhaeuser have the obligation and the ability to attract diverse talent and help create an environment where everyone feels welcomed and valued. And as we change our company, we also help to change the nation.
In the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and all who have engaged in the struggle over the years, let’s keep pressing forward.
Thank you.
