Special Insights: Interviews mit ausgezeichneten Arbeitgebern

For SC Johnson, the Great Place To Work^® recognition is not a one‑time achievement, but a long‑term journey. We are proud to have participated in the Great Place To Work^® initiative for over 20 years and to have been certified for more than a decade. While a single recognition can reflect a moment in time, what truly matters to us is consistency. Even in challenging market conditions or during demanding internal phases, our ambition is to remain among the top employers and to stay on the podium of the best workplaces.

Being recognized as a Great Place To Work^® allows us not only to benchmark ourselves against leading employers, but also to be part of a group of companies that actively influence the labor market through their actions and values. This recognition confirms that SC Johnson is more than just a workplace — it is a community where people feel a strong sense of belonging. As a family‑owned company with a long‑term perspective, we strive to be not only an employer, but a place where employees feel supported, trusted, and treated with care, much like in a family.

At SC Johnson, we work every day to be a better employer and a better company than we were the day before. The Great Place To Work^® results, together with insights from our internal GEOS survey conducted in the first half of each year, provide us with honest and actionable feedback from our employees. This feedback enables us to continuously improve our internal processes, systems, and ways of working, and to shape an employee offer that truly reflects the evolving needs of our people.

Over the years, this approach of listening, learning, and adjusting has led to measurable progress. A clear example can be seen in our results related to leadership accessibility and communication. In 2014, 52% of respondents answered positively to the statement “Management is approachable, easy to talk with.” In our most recent survey, this figure increased to 88%. Through years we have developed more effective communication practices and continue to strengthen transparency and dialogue, ensuring that employees feel well informed and supported at every step.

The Great Place To Work^® recognition also plays an important role in how we position ourselves as an employer. It increases our visibility among potential candidates, who approach SC Johnson with greater interest, but also with higher expectations. We see this as a positive responsibility. Being recognized as a Great Place To Work^® challenges us to consistently live up to our values and to ensure that the experience promised externally is truly reflected internally.

Living the values represented in the Great Place To Work^® model helps us connect our business strategy more closely with the goals and aspirations of our employees. By embedding trust, credibility, respect, fairness, pride, and camaraderie into our daily ways of working, we are able to build a stronger and more sustainable organization — one where business success and employee engagement go hand in hand, and where people feel proud to contribute and grow together with SC Johnson.

Each and every day, we at SCJ work to unlock the power of SC Johnson people by respecting, valuing, and recognizing individuals and teams. Being a family company allows us to uphold our standards no matter the market challenges.  It matters to us that we do right by employees, consumers, the public, our communities, and the world at large, and treat everyone with integrity and respect. In ever changing and insecure times like we currently experience, these principles and values hold us together and enable our employees to navigate ambiguous and challenging times with less anxiety and fear. This strong sense of purpose and security are well valued by our employees.

Looking at our recent GPTW results by gender, the results overall make us very proud and confirm that we offer an excellent workplace to our female employees. We would like to highlight some of the statements and the scores of the female population:

• 95% of our female employees state that “Taking everything into account, I would say this is a great place to work”
• 97% state “I feel good about the ways we contribute to the community.”
• 92% scored positively the question “People here are treated fairly regardless of their gender“
• 97% state that “I’m proud to tell others I work here.”

These scores are the results of a holistic approach and a truly inclusive working culture, that allows women to balance work and family and develop their careers. Here are some of our concrete actions, which ensure SCJ is a GPTW for women:

• Compensation: we conduct annual reviews of the salaries, promotions and merit increases by gender, ensuring that performance is the key driver for compensation changes and that any identified gender pay gaps are addressed accordingly.
• Benefits: we offer a wide range of benefits, providing the support and flexibility for those moments that matter. Our benefits range from physical and mental health-being options to short-term and long-term financial benefits, as well as sabbatical, home office, and special additional leave days. One benefit that is especially important to women with children is our Employee Assistance Program. We have been cooperating with PME Familienservice for many years, offering a variety of services such as back-up and regular child-care, Eldercare and Counseling. Additionally, we closed a cooperation with the global partner Lyra, offering additional options to women to join workshops and seek for support.
• I&D Education: fostering an inclusive work environment and culture is key for women and minorities. Trainings like anti-harassment, unconscious bias, micro-messaging and inclusive leadership are mandatory to all employees.
• Celebrating women: The International Women’s Day is celebrated every year with several activations locally and regionally.
• Creating a workplace where part-time work is possible: 25% of our female employees work part time. One nice recent story that illustrates how we not only support female employees but also support them in their return to work is the case of one of our Sales Managers. The employee was a key account manager when she went on parental leave. During her leave, an important group account manager role got vacant. Based on succession plans, she was a preferred candidate for the role. We contacted her during her leave to check if she would be interested in the role. She said yes, so we kept the position open until her return, promoted her and rearranged the team and the scope so that we could accommodate that she works only part time as long as she needs.
• Offering flexibility to accommodate family duties, unexpected situations like childcare strikes or children’s sicknesses, just to name a few, are also key to women with children. Aside from home office and flexible working hours, we offer 5 days paid leave on top of the statutory 10 days of child sick days so that mothers can dedicate time to their families. We are happy to see that 93% of our female employees state that they are able to take time off from work when they think it’s necessary.
• Development opportunities: We are proud that 36% of the people manager roles are heldby women, which exceeds the external market trend. In the next interview question we detail concrete programs and actions we undertake to strengthen the development opportunities of women at SCJ.

It starts with having insights. We are committed to minimizing barriers and ensuring every talent is treated with fairness and respect in every opportunity to develop or progress.  Time away from the workforce can create a barrier (or perceived barrier) that a female leader is lagging peers in development and preparedness for more senior level positions. Lack of role models with whom an aspiring leader can identify can also be a barrier, which can be particularly the case in certain functional departments, such as sales. Another barrier we can see and remove is the disparate impact of personal career advocacy.

To foster career opportunities at SCJ, we have a broad spectrum of functional and leadership trainings to prepare our talents for leadership positions. We know however that often women don’t dare to advance in the career, fearing they won’t be able to handle a leadership role and a family. We also know that having strong male allies and sponsors can make a huge difference in the career of female talents, as often they lack confidence. We have put into action several initiatives that tackle the typical hurdles for women to advance their careers:

• RISE program: we launched in 2021 a women leadership program called RISE: Respect, Inspire, Support and Engage, sponsored by the European Leadership Team. The program was established after we conducted interviews with employees to understand how we could better support them. As the program is extensive, only a limited number of 12-15 female talents are selected every year across all functions and countries in Europe, based on our succession planning. The program runs over one year and includes mentorship, 360 Feedback, Hogan Personality Assessment, Talent Career Card Preparation with career advice from senior leaders, Individual Development Plan, Self Confidence Training, Career talks where other female leaders share their journey and learnings, Leadership Trainings, Network within the organization and creating a women community. The program is a huge success as it tackles common hurdles women face when they progress in their careers. With sponsors in the European Leadership Team, these talented women have the opportunity to develop their full potential.
• Annual performance and succession plan cycles: Through the process, we proactively refresh on types of bias and ways to actively address our own unconscious bias as we have discussions on performance and development. HR facilitates the conversation to ensure objectivity and challenge in cases where conversation is not objective. Here we have intentional discussions to accelerate the development of those individuals who have the potential for higher level leadership positions, identifying specific plans based on the person’s capabilities, aspirations, experiences, and the company need. In cases where a talent is identified as having potential for a senior leader role where they may not yet personally have the confidence to pursue that role (which is sometimes because of the lack of role models with whom they can identify), then we will match them with a mentor or advocate to help them breakthrough their own perceived barrier. We also ensure that our succession planning discussions are not biased to those individuals who are most bold and vocal regarding their aspirations but really challenge consideration of all candidates, even those who are less active in self-promotion and career advocacy, to ensure that no one is overlooked. For anyone who is identified as a talent with potential for advanced leadership positions, we define a career advocate for that talent who can increase visibility and provide support to open more opportunities in the future. At the conclusion of each process, we do a follow-up check for any potential biases in performance ratings and succession plans based on the final data. Additionally, in our succession plans we analyze the succession candidates for all managers and above roles in terms of gender balance to to evaluate any areas where we may have potential concern. If we don’t have a balanced talent pool, we discuss actions to strengthen our bench of female talents. When providing performance review feedback, leaders can use the 360° Feedback tool to gather input from peers, other leaders, direct reports, or any important stakeholder who works with the employee. This enriches the feedback provided, allowing an even stronger assessment of strengths and development opportunities. For us, this is a powerful way of ensuring fairness and providing employees with diverse insights from different stakeholders so they can develop in their careers.
• We are gold partners of the LEAD Network. The Lead Network is a non-profit and volunteer-led organisation committed to attracting, retaining and advancing women in the Consumer Goods and Retail sector in Europe. This partnership is a strong commitment and sponsorship from our European leaders to achieving gender balance in leadership positions. The partnership encompasses among other things Inclusive Leadership Trainings for people leaders and a mentorship program where SCJ leaders can be mentors to women in other companies and our female talents can be mentored by leaders in other FMCG companies. Annual face to face conferences and regular exchanges in each country round up the possibilities for learning from others so that we continuously review our actions and introduce new tools to develop our female talents.
• Internally we have built a Lead Champion Network. Any employee (male and female) can join and drive initiatives toward a gender-balanced environment. The team organizes Lunch & Learn sessions to discuss struggles from women in the workplace, organizes education sessions about gender-related topics and the representatives join a bi-monthly meeting with the European Leadership Team to discuss actions and strategy to advance women in their careers.
• We launched 2022 in Europe a gender-neutral parental leave policy aiming to provide pre-natal support in the form of more flexible working conditions, extended parental leave vs. statutory leave and post-natal return to work support.

During parental leave, managers, HR and mothers are in regular contact, providing the sense of belonging and connection to women and keeping them informed of news and important changes. Before returning from leave, the employee, manager and HR discuss the return, the current organizational set up, any changes in scope or relevant information to ensure the employee is set to succeed upon return.

Additionally, the European parental leave policy adds additional support on top of the local statutory benefits:

• Mothers can request to have their working hours adjusted i.e. starting later or finishing earlier to accommodate personal circumstances after the child is born and up till the child is 1 year old.
• Mothers are permitted to apply for 1 additional work from home day per week up until the child is 1 year old.
• In order to better accommodate breastfeeding, mothers have the option to attend business meetings virtually where travel is required. This is valid for the first 12 months following the birth of the child. The business is expected to make arrangements for virtual participation at such events.
• The salary of women returning from parental leave is adjusted to include any merit increases missed due to the parental leave. This ensures there are no compensation gaps driven by a longer leave period.

Another initiative taken by many women returning from leave is the support of a “transition mentor”: upon request, returning mothers have the opportunity to have a mentor/buddy appointed to ensure a smooth transition back into the workplace. The mentors are experienced mothers that can provide ideas and guidance about different motherhood topics.

As already mentioned before, our Employee Assistance Program in Germany offers special support and programs to returning women and their families, ranging from counseling to daycare and vacation care.

Finally, part time work is offered to all women upon returning from parental leave. Also, women with the need to care for parents have the possibility to reduce their working hours to better accommodate the family needs.

At SCJ, we aim to attract and hire the best candidates, regardless of gender or background, to build an inclusive and equitable workplace. We use data to monitor diversity trends but focus on merit during recruitment to prevent bias. Actions that safeguard un-biased recruitments:

• All individuals involved in the recruitment process must complete our comprehensive ‘Interview Expectations’ training, refreshed every three years. This training addresses unconscious biases among other things.
• Our Talent Acquisition coordination team ensures diverse hiring panels are in place. The final recruitment decision is based on the feedback from all panelists.
• Our Talent Acquisition Centre of Excellence tracks key metrics, stays updated on industry best practices, and brings external insights in-house. We conduct candidate experience surveys to gain valuable feedback and continually enhance our hiring process.

When it comes to promotions, we rely on the following actions:

• Our strong annual Management and Succession Process identifies potential successors to all key roles in the company. These plans are discussed by HR and Local and European leaders, ensuring that there is no bias, favoritism or politics. Succession is based on performance and potential, and actions are defined to support and accelerate the career progression of our employees.
• For roles below Management, promotions can happen in two situations:
• Someone has an enlarged scope or additional responsibilities that justify a promotion: in this case, the manager, function head and HR submit a request to the Rewards Team, who will serve as a gate keeper to ensure the promotion is justified and fair.
• A position is vacant and an internal recruitment is triggered, offering the possibility to anyone in the organization to apply. The internal recruitment follows the same process mentioned above for external recruitments, guaranteeing a fair and unbiased selection process.

We offer a wide range of benefits, and physical and mental health-being options are a large part of them, especially for women. We are proud that 92%  Women state that “People are supported by helpful measures in promoting health”.

Mental Health

• One of our pillars to support mental health are our Employee Assistance Programs. Both PME and Lyra offer a variety of counselling and workshops that address mental health challenges.
• Sabbatical: More and more we recognize that after so many years working, women have an interest in making a pause and taking time for the family or for themselves. Our sabbatical benefit offers the opportunity for up to 12 months of leave.

Physical Health

• We have been cooperating in Germany with Detox Rebels for many years. During workshops and keynotes with health specialists, employees have a chance to learn about for instance sleep, breathing, blood sugar or dealing with stress, to name a few.
• Personal Trainer & Gym: we have a gym in the office that can be used from 07 am until 7pm. A personal trainer comes once a week to the office and offers a round training program that fits all age groups.

Inclusion & Diversity events: critical topics for women like menopause and breast cancer are discussed in annual events like International Women’s Day, when women can exchange experiences and acquire information.

At SC Johnson, promoting a culture where discrimination, sexism, and microaggressions are actively addressed and prevented starts with reinforcing our core values—respect, integrity, and acting as a family company. This means focusing on awareness, accountability, and everyday behaviors. We work to ensure that inclusion is something employees experience daily, not just in formal trainings. Our commitment is to create an environment where all colleagues feel safe, valued, and respected.

Building Awareness and Inclusive Mindsets

We reinforce our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion by offering continuous learning opportunities such as unconscious bias training, inclusive leadership workshops, and Employee Resource Groups (ERGs). Employees are encouraged to actively engage with these programs so that inclusion becomes part of everyday habits. With 63% of our workforce being women, fostering fairness and mutual respect is a fundamental expectation. Awareness also begins during onboarding, where new employees complete D&I training and receive clear guidance on reporting inappropriate behavior.

Throughout the year, we create spaces for dialogue and reflection by celebrating meaningful occasions that deepen understanding of an inclusive work environment. International Men’s Day focused on modern fatherhood and shared caregiving, strengthening empathy and creating more balanced team dynamics. This helped achieve very strong survey results, with both women (92%) and men (100%) agreeing that people are treated fairly regardless of gender. International Women’s Day further raises awareness through workshops that highlight unconscious bias and provide practical tools to prevent it.

Cultural Diversity Day offers colleagues the chance to share elements of their cultural backgrounds, helping the organization better understand differences in traditions, communication styles, and collaboration. These exchanges build trust, reduce misunderstandings, and strengthen team cohesion. Their impact is reflected in our survey results, where 99% of employees say people are treated fairly regardless of race. Together, these initiatives embed awareness and inclusion into our daily culture.

Creating Psychological Safety and Clear Expectations

We promote an environment where employees feel safe speaking up—whether sharing ideas or raising concerns. Clear expectations are communicated across the organization: discriminatory behavior, sexist comments, and microaggressions are not tolerated. This message is reinforced in town halls and through our Code of Conduct. Psychological safety is a core element of how we work together and support one another.

Responding Promptly and Effectively to Issues

When concerns arise, we address them promptly, factually, and confidentially. Our approach is guided by strong HR policies and SCJ’s Code of Conduct to ensure fairness and consistency. It is essential that employees see that their concerns are taken seriously and handled with care. By responding effectively, we reinforce that dignity and respect are non‑negotiable.

Our Long-Term and Consistent Actions

Clear expectations, education, and open dialogue help prevent discrimination before it occurs. A psychologically safe environment ensures employees feel respected, valued, and heard. Together, these actions strengthen our culture and make inclusion a lived reality for everyone at SCJ.

Regional context meaningfully shapes how our culture shows up day to day. Since 1976, when Sam Johnson first articulated This We Believe, one of our guiding principles has been: “we believe in contributing to the well‑being of the countries and communities where we conduct business.” This commitment still lives in us and informs how we operate locally — from how we engage with our community to how we design the employee experience in our region.

As a global family company, our values are consistent everywhere, but how we bring them to life must be adapted to regional realities if we want to remain an attractive employer. While our global values are clear, we recognize that culture is expressed differently around the world. We work with local leaders to ensure our inclusion expectations are not only understood but also meaningful within the cultural context. This includes adapting communication styles, strengthening manager capability, and integrating regional insights from our Employee Resource Groups. Our European ERGs follow the general global guidelines but remain focused on European and local initiatives and needs of employees to address regional and country differences. Doing so allows our culture to feel authentic—never imposed—and ensures people from all backgrounds feel respected and valued. The local culture values reliability, openness, and respectful collaboration. We embed these norms through clear leadership expectations and regular moments of cultural learning — from celebrating Cultural Diversity Day to dialogue sessions around unconscious bias. These reinforce a working environment where people feel welcomed, treated fairly, and able to contribute in their own authentic way. For us regional factors are a source of strength. By listening to our local context and acting on it with consistency and care, we build a culture that is authentic to our area, aligned with This We Believe, and compelling to current and future colleagues.

In and around Düsseldorf, we contribute to the well‑being of our community through hands‑on partnerships and volunteering. Our teams support local initiatives such as Plant‑My‑Tree and Wünschewagen, reflecting our belief that business success and social responsibility go hand in hand. These activities strengthen our sense of purpose, build pride, and tangibly connect our people to the communities where they live and work. In line with our sustainability values, our site is not in a high‑rise city center but on the edge of town, close to tranquil forests and green spaces. Colleagues often spend lunch breaks outdoors and enjoy walks after work — a simple, everyday benefit that supports well‑being and fosters informal connection. The setting also reinforces our mindset of stewardship: being close to nature makes our environmental commitments more real, day after day. The Rhine‑Ruhr area offers a competitive, diverse talent pool. Rather than competing on compensation, we attract and retain people through a balanced proposition: meaningful work with visible community impact, a strong emphasis on work‑life balance, credible sustainability commitments, and opportunities to grow. For example, our teams contribute to innovations that serve a broader societal good, such as continuous improvements to repellents that support malaria‑prevention efforts worldwide — a purpose that resonates strongly with candidates and employees alike.  The Düsseldorf region is well connected, yet commuting realities and family needs vary. We respond with flexible work arrangements that respect different life stages and personal situations. This includes scheduling around peak traffic patterns, and practical supports that help people manage both work and care responsibilities. The goal is straightforward: make it easier for colleagues to do great work without sacrificing well‑being or family commitments.