10-15-20 CEO Update

- I hope you're all doing well as we continue this journey together as ONE Southwire and combat COVID-19. We've got a lot to share today, first of all though I want to thank you for everything that you do. I was just on a couple calls with our largest customers and I gotta tell you they really appreciate all we do. So thank you. I'm committed, as I've told you numerous times, I'm committed to do these videos to keep you updated through the rest of this year. My main messages remain the same. One, again thank you. Two, continue to stay safe, stay healthy, use common sense, follow protocols, keep your family healthy. And, by the way, follow the protocols both at home and at work. I really do ask you, think about what you're doing when you're home and make sure you keep yourself safe, both for you and your family. Some things that I ask you to do every week, I'm gonna continue to ask you maintain social distancing, where you can't maintain social distancing wear a mask, wash your hands, cover your mouth, stay home if you're not feeling well, and obviously follow the advice of the CDC and local health officials. I strongly, strongly, encourage you to keep using the protocols we've established so we can flatten this curve. So one, thank you, two, stay healthy and three, a very important message, continue, continue to unite under ONE Southwire. As you've already heard, we'll be launching our Fall Living Well Engagement Survey at the end of this month. We're really looking forward to it. This survey tells us so much important information. It tells us what we're doing well and it tells us what we need to improve on and we look at this, all the leaders look at this, all the way down to your supervisors, look at this as an opportunity to make Southwire better. I have Kristian Whittington on, she's gonna join me, I'm looking forward to talking to she, and she's gonna tell us a little about the process and Kristian, first of all thank you for joining me, and I got a couple questions for you. - (Kristian) Hey thanks Rich, I'm excited to be here. - (Rich) Can you start off by giving us a quick overview on what the Living Well Engagement Survey is? And why is it so important to us? - (Kristian) So we typically would conduct the Living Well Engagement Survey a couple of times a year using an experienced employee engagement vendor, Peakon, and Peakon's platform helps us really identify those areas for improvement in real time and then deliver the insights we need to drive our business forward. So as we build organizational capability and lead the way in sustaining what I believe is a great culture here at Southwire, listening to the voice of our people, and really addressing their needs, their wants and concerns, is incredibly important to how we will move our business forward and how we'll actually achieve those strategic goals we've put in place. The feedback we collect from the survey is vital to measuring engagement, and the responses help our leaders to address employee feedback at the local level, and then beyond that take action where they can to hopefully improve the employee experience over time. And with the impact that COVID has had on us, not only as a company but as individuals, it may be more important now than ever to really hear from our people and understand where they are right now. - (Rich) Well that's really great feedback Kristian, and since we're launching this platform, we've been able to identify many areas that we can improve on and we really have a lot of great experiences behind us and I'm looking forward to finding out this fall what we can do better. But since we're in the midst of COVID, you mentioned COVID and the pandemic, does this change our process of taking the survey and how's it gonna look this year? Is there anything new we should know? - (Kristian) So that's a great question, taking the survey this year really won't look that different in terms of access. So employees will still have those three ways of accessing the surveys. If you have a Southwire email address then you're gonna receive an email invitation. And then across all of our facilities you'll have access to shared devices that you can participate in the survey on. And then beyond that Peakon offers a mobile app that employees can download on their iOS devices for individual access as well. However we're working with our leaders to make sure that appropriate COVID-19 preventative measures are being used as employees complete the survey. We've given plenty of great suggestions on how to on how to best follow those CDC recommended guidelines, things like sanitizing devices between users, making sure proper PPE is worn, that sort of thing. We know that there is going to be concern relating to the pandemic, but we really want our employees to feel safe and secure in taking the survey this year and letting their voice be heard. - (Rich) So as an employee, what do you think the top three things I should know before taking the survey? I mean it's exciting to be able to talk and tell people what you think, but what are the three most important things in your mind? - (Kristian) So we're gonna be adding a couple of additional questions this time, All 18 questions will be grading scale questions, that is zero to ten option, and then beyond that you'll have the ability to add a comment and tell us a little bit more about why you chose the number that you chose to rate that specific question. We're also expanding the time to access the survey, so normally we would run the survey for about two weeks, this time we're gonna leave it open for a total of three weeks, you have plenty of time to participate and to do so safely. I think past that, what I would want to share with our people is just a reminder that your feedback is so vital and so valuable to what we want to accomplish as an organization. I want to encourage all of our employees to share your thoughts, your feelings and suggestions openly and honestly. In the past we've seen about 85 percent of our people participate and we would love to see that and even more this time around. We're also looking forward to opening this up to Madison and CEP, couple of our new locations, so that we can get some feedback from them for the first time. And then finally I just want to reiterate a message we've shared many times before, the number one question that I get around this survey is about anonymity. Are my responses anonymous? So let me just say yes, the survey is anonymous and secure, in fact that's one of the main reasons why we use a third-party vendor like Peakon, so employees never have to worry about their leaders seeing a name tied to specific feedback or comments. We hope that this will really encourage our people to participate. - (Rich) Kristian, thank you for spending time for us today. I know I learned a lot, and hopefully the employees enjoyed it as well, and I'm really looking for the survey this fall. Talking about the fall, I want to remind everyone to get a flu shot. The outbreak of flu is here, it is flu season and it is approaching us extremely, extremely quickly. Our US Health Officials are telling us and warning us that with another respiratory illness, which is the flu, all on top of COVID-19, it could burden our healthcare system. So here are some things I want you to consider as Southwire employees. First of all it's free, if you're enrolled in Southwire's medical insurance plan, it's free. There's easy access in all Carrollton plants, at all shifts, We will offer on-site hours through Tanner Medical, Wiggins Family Medical Center and Pharmacy, and we'll offer set hours by calling (770)836-0770. For those of you who work in the Greater Southwire Area you will have two options; use your Anthem health provider, or the most major U.S. pharmacy chains with the Envision prescription drug plan. And then last, I would really suggest you contact your HR manager to make sure that you get your flu shot. I want to again remind everyone thank you, be safe, unite under ONE Southwire. Next week we're gonna take some time to conduct another virtual town hall, I'll tell you how the business is coming. It's really important you guys pay attention to these videos, I'm trying to share as much as I possibly can. Next week I'll be answering more questions. As I wrap up today, I wanted to take a few key points from Kristian about the engagement survey. We're going to end today with a short video, a few additional facts about the survey, again your voice and participation in this survey is incredibly meaningful, we take a look, we try to understand all the feedback we get so we can make Southwire a better place to work. I encourage you, I encourage you, all of you, to participate. So thanks again for all you guys do, and see you next week. Living Well Engagement Survey. Your Voice Matters. The engagement survey is scheduled to occur October 26 - November 15 We want to hear from you. Contact your local HR Representative for details on how to participate. What can you expect? 18 survey questions Survey takes approx. 15 minutes Focus on Employee Net Promoter Score Three ways to access: 1. Email invitation 2. Facility Kiosk 3. Mobile App (iOS Only) As always, the information that we recieve via the survey is anonymous and secure. Leaders have the opportunity to respond to specific comments, but they don't know who submitted them. Your name will never be provided. Our leaders will help you participate safely and in compliance with all CDC-recommended guidelines. Company eNPS: 27 Survey Goal: 33 Participation Rate 85 Percent More than 95 thousand comments exchanged since 2018 Please contact your local HR representative for more information, and let your voice be heard.