Driving Growth Through Culture at Edgewell
As we approach the end of 2024, I am proud to look back on a year marked by our unwavering commitment to innovation and growth and value creation. Our team has worked diligently to bring innovative, new products to life and craft meaningful strategies and campaigns that resonate deeply with our consumers. We’ve worked to do all of this while operating with our core purpose and values in mind – which drive all our actions and serve as the beacon that keeps us on course.
When I became Edgewell’s CEO back in 2019, there was a moment at a company townhall that stuck with me. The event was held in an auditorium to accommodate the larger audience that was in attendance, and I asked the room if anyone could tell me what our current vision, mission, and values were. Unfortunately, no one could come up with anything. I knew then that we had to change that. What we had was nice on paper, but it wasn’t unique to Edgewell. Because of this, there was no recall of our mission or values and no one was matching their behaviors with the statements that we said were so important to us.
With that in mind, I wanted to anchor the transformation of our business and culture on a new purpose, underpinned by meaningful values that meant something to us. That ended up becoming our purpose, Make Useful Things Joyful which is carried out through our values; putting People First, always aiming to Move Forward, actively Listen Up and Speak Up and to approach each interaction with an Own It Together mindset. I firmly believe that the growth and success we’ve had over the past five years is due to this foundational mindset and cultural shift, and I’m so proud of how far we’ve come.
Our annual Global Experience Survey asks teammates to evaluate what’s working and where we can improve. This year, 80% of respondents reported positivity for the engagement index questions that focus on satisfaction, advocacy, retention and pride . Following the launch of our cultural transformation, these engagement scores have continued to rise year-over-year, with a significant 20-point increase over this time period. Our results and this positive engagement has translated directly to a significant reduction in employee turnover, with turnover rates now running at an all-time low. And with this, we are now being recognized by third-party and external candidates for the culture we maintain at Edgewell.
This year we continued to put a genuine emphasis on our People. We’ve worked hard to create a culture that empowers and supports our people, through ensuring everyone has meaningful work to do. This includes growing our Teammate Resource Groups, launching a wellbeing program and BeWell champions which fosters a culture of wellbeing and caring by supporting teammates’ physical, social, financial and emotional fitness. We’ve also worked to provide opportunities to recognize fellow teammates for their accomplishments with our InspireJOY recognition program, promoting learning and development opportunities and more.
Because of these things, we received some humbling recognition, like ranking #2 on Forbes America’s Best Midsize Employers list and achieving a Great Places to Work UK certification for many of our locations in Europe.
We were also recognized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, with a SmartWay Excellence Award for operating as an industry leader in freight and supply chain environmental performance. I know how hard our Sustainability and Operations teams work to improve efficiency and better optimize and manage distribution and this is a clear reflection of our Move Forward value in action.
Edgewell was also recognized this year on Newsweek’s list of America’s Most Responsible Companies 2025 for the sixth year in a row. The ranking focuses on a holistic view of corporate responsibility that considers all three pillars of ESG: Environment, Social, and Corporate Governance. We’ve put our Listen Up and Speak Up value to the test here, working to continuously evaluate feedback and seek out divergent opinions. With this, we hope to adjust our path forward to better serve our consumers and provide products that truly do make useful things joyful. While we will always have room for improvement and continued growth, we’ve worked hard to welcome new thoughts, ideas and voices in service of operating responsibly.
Our Own It Together value has also been present in all that we’ve accomplished this year. Edgewell is comprised of 6,800 teammates in more than 50 countries, so working together is essential to ensure that all the right folks can contribute their unique perspectives and expertise to their work. This past year we were named by Forbes as one of America’s Dream Employers as surveyed by college and technical students in the U.S. I believe this is partly due to our emphasis on teamwork and collaboration, which is something that those entering the workforce value. It enables us to teach new skills and bring big ideas to life which allows our teammates to carry a sense of accomplishment, make meaningful personal growth and feel like a part of the collective success of the business. By balancing ownership and empowering our people to lead, we can all finish strong.
I am so proud of our team and all that they’ve accomplished. While this is just a subset of some of the external recognition we’ve received over the past year, it’s a testament to our ongoing efforts to truly live out our purpose and values. Whether it’s been working toward operating as efficiently as possible, innovating to create new trail-blazing products, or bolstering our culture through community support and engagement, 2024 proved to be a strong and compelling year. Stepping into 2025 I am assured and confident that our business will continue to grow and push new boundaries, with our culture and people fueling those efforts.