Kimberly-Clark: Better Care for a Better World

Personal care company Kimberly-Clark has been an innovator throughout its 151-year history. From its earliest days in 1872, betting on the potential of paper as one of the nation’s first paper mills, to putting the feminine hygiene category on the map with the revolutionary introduction of Kotex in 1920, Kimberly-Clark has consistently invented and adapted its way toward becoming the expansive global brand it is today. The company now serves a quarter of the world’s population in 175 countries every day with essentials from Kotex, Kleenex, Huggies, Depend, Scotts, and Pull-Ups, among many others.

The organization approaches its journey toward workplace inclusion in much the same way.

According to Chairman and CEO Mike Hsu:

We are guided by our purpose of delivering Better Care for a Better World. It drives everything we do. We are proud of the work our team does for Global Inclusion Week. It’s important to our employees and enables us to live our values.

In 2023, Kimberly-Clark’s Inclusion, Equity, and Diversity (IE&D) team delivered a company-wide Global Inclusion Week. This large-scale, global endeavor began as a single virtual Town Hall meeting just three years prior, on the heels of the Black Lives Matter movement in the US.

Global Inclusion Week included presentations open to all employees on challenging topics like “Women and Intersectionality,” “Destigmatizing Mental Health,” “Creating a Speak-Up Culture,” and “Covering” in the workplace. To help maintain momentum, participants received “Power Packs,” on-demand learning resources with summaries and links to programming, recommended go-forward plans, conversation starters, and a mental health check-in guide.

A major emphasis of Global Inclusion Week was engaging mill workers, who make up a large portion of Kimberly-Clark’s employee population. To reach them, the IE&D team worked cross-functionally to create touchpoints within the (often 24-hour) manufacturing environment. From a logistics perspective, they asked that planned maintenance in the plant’s operating schedule, when machines are down, fall during Global Inclusion Week where possible, and that events be streamed in mill conference rooms. Mill employees were also asked to tap into their creativity by contributing to colorful banners decorated to celebrate different aspects of employee identities—which were crafted in partnership with La Casa de Carlota, the first design studio in the world to have creatives with intellectual disabilities on its team. Lastly, the IE&D team provided topical thought-starters for mill leaders to share at pre-shift stand-ups, and “caring conversation” guides to help employees discuss their experiences on topics like the importance of psychological safety or trusted relationships with leaders.

These efforts paid off. More than 2,000 of the 6,800 Kimberly-Clark employees who participated in Global Inclusion Week were mill staff, representing a 1,900% year-over-year increase in attendance by manufacturing employees and a 120% increase in engagement overall. Every event was rated 90% or higher, meaning employees considered the content moderately to highly valuable.

Positively impacting frontline employees is an overarching goal for Kimberly-Clark, says Gary Short, Director, IE&D Organizational Effectiveness Leader, whose work focuses exclusively on mill culture. “As we saw in the pandemic, frontline workers really keep the lights on.” So, when engagement survey results indicated there could be improvement for mill employees on the inclusion indices, the IE&D team set out to make changes. Says Short, “We conduct assessments to see where each mill is from a culture perspective—what’s going well and what could be improved—then we help develop programs and strengthen capabilities to move toward a more inclusive culture.”

Like all culture-related work, explains Short, nothing happens instantly:

There’s no light-switch moment, but there has already been improvement. We’re piloting flex work programs for people with family responsibilities. We’ve also developed lots of mentoring programs…but we’re always asking ourselves, ‘How can we do better when it comes to recruiting and maintaining the best talent?’ It’s a journey, and we just have to stay focused.

Whether on the manufacturing floor or in the executive suite, for two employees who took part in the Destigmatizing Mental Health panel, the ability to bring their whole selves to work is reflective of Kimberly-Clark’s culture.

Tammy Aguilar, Beech Island Operational Excellence (OPEX) Change Agent Leader, felt so passionate about the topic of mental health that she started an Employee Resource Group (ERG) called HOPE (which stands for “Happiness. Optimism. Peace. Empowerment.”), just for her mill. She says, “I’ve experienced firsthand how difficult it is to navigate life’s challenges when you’re struggling with your own battles. If my experience can help others when they feel helpless, then it’s worth sharing.” Response has been nothing but positive, says Aguilar: “I’ve been pleasantly surprised at the support and reaction to HOPE, and the growth I have seen from leaders and fellow team members when it comes to understanding the mental health of others.”

Aguilar reports that HOPE supplies resources and support through sharing sessions, “where we provide a safe space for people to share what they’re struggling with, or what they survived.” HOPE also offers focused activities, tips, webinars and more for all employees, in support of Mental Health Awareness Month (May) and Suicide Prevention Month (September).

Regarding her company’s culture, Aguilar says:

It’s so important that we can be open and honest with one another because we may not know what people are dealing with in their lives. It makes me proud when I see my colleagues show genuine care for one another, even in small everyday ways. These things matter, and K-C culture created the environment to allow it.

Dan Howell, VP, Managing Director UK & Ireland says, of his motivation to talk about mental health on a global stage, “I wanted to role model a more vulnerable and open leadership approach to mental health, especially as a man talking openly about my journey… hopefully inspiring other men to be more open.”

And on the importance of inclusion, Howell says:

I believe strongly that business should be a force for good and see this in K-C as a strong value and differentiator to our peers. Making sure everyone feels they can be their amazingly unique self at work feels very aligned to what K-C stands for, and it aligns strongly to my own personal values. I also see strong performance benefits of being more inclusive; fully embracing and leveraging our differences can help us innovate better, move faster, and solve bigger, more complex problems.

Better Care for a Better World evokes Kimberly-Clark’s culture, purpose, and values, infusing care into everything they do. It is the underlying principle behind the IE&D team’s work to ensure all employees have the resources and space they need to have caring conversations, and behind the efforts of employees like Tammy Aguilar and Dan Howell, who are sharing their personal stories to help grow what Howell calls “Kimberly-Clark’s heritage of care.” And with care factored into every endeavor, Kimberly-Clark’s journey toward a whole-hearted, inclusive culture is sure to succeed.