Hershey's CSR Report: Keeping Hershey a Great Place to Work

•  Logged more than 56,000 hours of training on topics from ethics to leadership to high-tech factory jobs of the future
• Reduced injury and incident rates in 2011 by up to 29% over 2010
• Expanded commitment to workplace diversity, including recruiting military veterans
• Promoted employee health and wellness through a variety of expanded programs

(3BL Media) August 28, 2012 - This spring, The Hershey Company issued its second Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Report – “Listen. Learn. Act.” – outlining how the company is committed to developing and managing a performance-oriented workplace that is dedicated to a shared set of values and actively focused on engagement priorities.

Fostering a desirable place to work has been a key component of Hershey culture since the days of company founder Milton Hershey. Committed to making The Hershey Company a great place to work, Milton Hershey undertook several projects, including building quality public schools, utilities, a department store, hotels and recreational venues from parks to golf courses and a zoo, to ensure that workers were healthy and enjoyed a good lifestyle. This commitment continues today through a variety of programs available to Hershey employees.

The report reveals that the company met or exceeded most of its Workplace goals for 2011.

Safety and Wellness at Work
Safety performance is a company priority, and Hershey’s over-arching safety goal is to consistently achieve best-in-class safety performance. All wholly owned manufacturing facilities and office employees are represented by a Health, Safety and Productivity committee as well as a dedicated safety director for manufacturing facilities.

In 2010 Hershey set the goal of continuing to achieve top-tier (top 30% of our peer group) safety performance as measured by Total Recordable Incident Rate, Lost Workday Incident Rate and no work-related fatalities. The company’s performance in 2011 shows significant progress, with Total Recordable Incident Rate improving 15% over 2010 and Lost Workday Case Rate improving 29% since 2010.

Training
Hershey provides a variety of training and development opportunities that encourage employees’ personal and professional development. One example of this is Hershey University, an educational program that offers both classroom instruction and online courses. Since July 2011, the company has been tracking employee training and development initiatives through programs such as Hershey University and has logged more than 56,000 hours.

Diversity and Inclusion
Hershey sees diversity and inclusion as opportunities to accelerate performance and results and, ultimately, help contribute to a high-performance culture. The company places a high value on diversity and has teams dedicated to driving success in this high-priority area.  Hershey is pursuing numerous opportunities to attract, engage, and retain a more diverse workforce.

Hershey is also expanding its commitment to hire returning U.S military veterans in 2012 and 2013 in recognition of the expertise and skills they can bring to the company, as well as of their need to find opportunities to transition successfully to civilian life. Significant planning in 2011 resulted in the company creating a Veterans’ Business Resource Group (BRG) that is the newest of the employee affinity teams. This BRG will serve to support veterans within the company and those seeking work through a number of initiatives including reaching out to veterans group and offering support to those veterans transitioning to the civilian workforce.

Looking to the Future
The company has already set new goals for the workplace that continue to help make Hershey a great place to work. One main goal is increasing employee engagement in the myWell-Being program that promotes health and wellness. Hershey aims to achieve 20% participation in the Well-Being Assessment, achieve 25% compliance with preventative exams, and achieve 50% overall employee satisfaction with the myWell-Being programs.

Other goals include continuing to achieve top-tier safety performance, implementing a Diversity & Inclusion strategy to accelerate performance and results, create CSR Manufacturing Leads at all wholly owned facilities and measure employee engagement.

Hershey realizes that an engaged workforce is critical to the company’s ability to succeed in the global marketplace. For Hershey, helping our employees be healthy, safe and engaged is one of our highest priorities.

For more information on Hershey CSR progress and programs, read Hershey’s CSR reports at: http://www.thehersheycompany.com/social-responsibility/csr-report.aspx