Month: January 2024

Henkel, a leading manufacturer of well-known consumer and industrial brands, such as Dial® soap, Schwarzkopf® hair care, all® laundry detergent, and Loctite®, Technomelt® and Bonderite® adhesives, sealants, and functional coatings, has expanded its parental leave policy for all U.S. employees, regardless of gender or family structure.

Expansion in the United States 

To reaffirm our purpose as pioneers at heart for the good of generations, paid parental leave for Henkel U.S. employees has been increased from a maximum of 6 weeks to 12 weeks of fully paid time off for all new parents, regardless of gender, who welcome a child into their home through birth, adoption, surrogacy, guardianship or fostering — demonstrating our firm commitment to equity in parenting and childcare for all parents.

“Henkel values the uniqueness of our employees and offers a comprehensive Total Rewards package with benefits and programs that allow members of our organization to choose what’s most important for them and their families,” said Valeria Gladsztein, Regional Human Resources Head, North America. “Time for parent and child bonding can promote the health and wellbeing of all family members and increase equity and career growth in the workplace. I am incredibly proud to be a part of shaping a bright future for the good of generations to come.”

Paid Parental Leave is only one of the programs within Henkel’s U.S. Total Rewards package that offers choice and flexibility in family care. Henkel recently implemented program additions that include virtual behavioral health care for children and teens, access to reliable and affordable childcare and elder care, and confidential personalized mental health care for employees and their families. In 2024, Henkel will also be introducing benefit enhancements for fertility treatments, adoption, and surrogacy assistance.

Parents on leave also receive a ‘future pioneer’ welcome kit to show support for their growing family. With items meant for both parents and children, including a Henkel onesie, hat, bib, blanket, water bottle, diaper bag, and more, these care packages are a way of celebrating new additions and letting employees know that their team looks forward to welcoming them back upon their return to work.

Setting a new global standard

Beyond this expansion in the United States, in 2024, Henkel will implement a new gender-neutral parental leave standard for its close to 50,000 employees worldwide, intended to complement existing local practices and regulations. Each market will offer its employees a minimum global standard of up to eight weeks of fully paid parental leave, based on the caregiver role, rather than their gender or biological parent status. In many markets, including the United States, Henkel will continue to exceed this standard.

“Henkel will become the first German DAX40 company to offer its employees worldwide eight weeks of fully paid parental leave”, says Carsten Knobel, CEO of Henkel. “This initiative sends a strong signal to all our employees and underscores our unwavering commitment to fostering a more inclusive culture and more gender equity.”

Sylvie Nicol, Executive Vice President Human Resources, Infrastructure and Sustainability, adds: “Through this initiative, we want to support parents and challenge traditional gender roles, enabling everyone to participate equally in childcare. However, addressing this inequality is not the sole objective of our new global standard. It also positions us to meet the expectations of the future workforce.”

This global expansion serves as a crucial foundation for promoting family-friendliness and greater gender equity, particularly in countries where parental leave opportunities are currently lacking. Moreover, in some countries, local practices exclude specific family types, such as single fathers, adoptive parents, and surrogacy parents. Recognizing this, Henkel has identified the need to establish a universal standard that applies to all caregivers.

After implementation in 2024, Henkel employees in approximately 80 countries will have the opportunity to take paid time off to care for and bond with a new child. With this approach, the company demonstrates a firm commitment to its diversity, equity, and inclusion ambitions by taking tangible actions to promote equal access to opportunities consistently around the world.

CINCINNATI, January 17, 2024 /3BL/ – Cintas Corporation (Nasdaq: CTAS) was awarded the NETS Road Safety Achievement Award for Overall Road Safety. The award was presented at NETS’ annual Strength IN Numbers® Fleet Safety Benchmark Conference in Indianapolis, Indiana. 

The NETS Road Safety Achievement Award recognizes a member company for advancing the road safety of its employees, their families and the communities where employees live and work.

Cintas was recognized for its Cintas Driver Safety Program which incorporates several approaches that together improve the knowledge, skill, and driving habits of its employee-partners who get behind the wheel. 

“Safety is a top priority at Cintas, and our goal is to eliminate all vehicle incidents through engaging our employee-partners in our culture of safe driving, which includes ensuring our partners are provided with training and resources to drive safely,” said Stephen Jenkins, Director of Safety & Health at Cintas. “Earning this award recognizes those efforts, and we are honored to accept it.”

The Cintas Safety Program includes two main components: new employee-partner training and continuous ongoing training for all partners that operate Cintas motor vehicles. Since 2003, Cintas has partnered with Smith System to collaboratively create content for its driver safety program. This includes a three-part Smith driver training for all new employee-partners, a catalog of driving drills to practice real-life scenarios, monthly online e-learning training lessons and continuous Smith System on-road coaching evaluations.

“A core value of Cintas’ culture is continual improvement, and we are always looking for ways to build on the success of our driver safety program,” said Jenkins.

About Cintas Corporation
Cintas Corporation helps more than one million businesses of all types and sizes get Ready™ to open their doors with confidence every day by providing products and services that help keep their customers’ facilities and employees clean, safe, and looking their best. With offerings including uniforms, mats, mops, towels, restroom supplies, workplace water services, first aid and safety products, eye-wash stations, safety training, fire extinguishers, sprinkler systems and alarm service, Cintas helps customers get Ready for the Workday®. Headquartered in Cincinnati, Cintas is a publicly held Fortune 500 company traded over the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol CTAS and is a component of both the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index and Nasdaq-100 Index.

Cintas Media Contact:
Michelle Goret, Cintas Vice President of Corporate Affairs | goretm@cintas.com, 513-972-4155

Erin Bigley, CFA| Chief Responsibility Officer

David Wheeler, CFA| Portfolio Manager—Sustainable Climate Solutions; Senior Research Analyst—Sustainable Thematic Equities

Kent Hargis, PhD| Chief Investment Officer—Strategic Core Equities; Portfolio Manager—Global Low Carbon Strategy

Transcript

Erin Bigley: As equity investors hunt for opportunities, why should they consider climate-focused investing?

Kent Hargis: We see plenty of investments growing in both energy transition, through wind and through solar, also through the growth of electric vehicles, and we expect that to grow much faster than the market over the course of the next 10 years. We also see that in the private sector is supporting or complementing the public sector.

Erin Bigley: David, what are you seeing?

Dave Wheeler: I see government policies, I see technological innovation, I see capital flows really lining up behind the need to address climate change. And so when I think about the investment opportunities, certainly companies that provide solutions to climate challenges should see strong tailwinds for their businesses in the years ahead.

Kent Hargis: So really it is more than just excluding companies that have risk to climate change. It really is taking advantage of those opportunities.

Erin Bigley: How has the landscape for climate-focused investing changed over the past year or so?

Kent Hargis: The US has increased investments in renewables, solar and wind, with the aim of reducing carbon emissions by up to 40%. We also see on the European side, an attempt of similar spending, again focused on increasing renewables. The changes and the constraints here are really around permitting and actually getting the project started, and we’re also seeing some advancements and some relaxation of some of the rules to move forward, it’s actually getting some of these investments started and getting along the path that we’re all aiming for.

Erin Bigley: We’ve just come out of COP 28. What sort of impact do you think that will have on climate-focused investing?

Dave Wheeler: When I think about not only COP 28, but other policy developments going on around the world, we’re really seeing an alignment of political consensus around the need to address climate. And I think they’ll result in accelerating capital into solutions to help address the challenges.

Erin Bigley: So can climate-focused strategies perform in a challenging environment?

Kent Hargis: We feel that investing in companies that are very high quality, that are at attractive prices, those companies will do quite well in this environment. So we like companies that have operational excellence, those companies that are still innovating on the quality side. We like companies that have less leverage, those that have very extended pipelines many years out in the future. And those companies that are more diversified in their customer base, so less exposed to a single client to reduce the risk of mispricing or causing issues with profitability.

Dave Wheeler: One thing that I think about is capital going in is not dependent upon economic growth and cycles. For example, over the last four years, which has been pretty bumpy, we’ve seen the amount of capital going into decarbonization double over that period. So we’re seeing secular growth in this area that shouldn’t be vulnerable to economic slowdown.

Erin Bigley: So how do you see this space evolving over the next several years?

Dave Wheeler: Along with high inflation, supply chain bottlenecks, rising interest rates, those have been headwinds to performance in climate investments. But as we move forward, I think those are going to move into the rearview mirror and it’ll be smoother sailing for climate-related investments.

The views expressed herein do not constitute research, investment advice or trade recommendations and do not necessarily represent the views of all AB portfolio-management teams. Views are subject to revision over time.

Learn more about AB’s approach to responsibility here.