Thank you for doing your part to make a greener future!
L&P Brazil’s Commitment to Sustainability
Thank you for doing your part to make a greener future!
Suzanne Hall, Assistant Treasurer, was recently honored by Carthage Area United Way (CAUW) with the Spirit of Giving Award. This award is given to someone who exemplifies the best that United Way has to offer, whose efforts have advanced the mission of CAUW, and, most importantly, made it possible to better serve the needs of the community.
Suzanne has served on the Board of Directors of CAUW for the past seven years and as the Leggett & Platt United Way Corporate representative for the past eight years.
“Suzanne’s commitment to the Spirit of Giving is truly inspiring,” said Barbara Wright, Executive Director of CAUW. “She selflessly dedicates countless hours to our organization. Her passion for ensuring the community understands the benefits of CAUW is unmatched. She is a force to be reckoned with, and her dedication is truly admirable.”
We asked Suzanne to share about the importance of volunteering and advice on how to begin volunteering.
Why is volunteering important, especially at the United Way?
It’s not about the size of the contribution but the collective impact we can make. United Way offers a unique opportunity for individuals to give what they can, whether it’s a financial contribution, their time, or their talents. These contributions, no matter the size, can significantly benefit local non-profit agencies and the community.
God has blessed me tenfold, so I believe it is my duty to give back to my community. Being a volunteer, no matter in what capacity, gives me a sense of purpose. When you give to something you believe in, you receive many more blessings than you give. I think about those individuals served by local non-profits who have made choices that changed the trajectory of their lives. Knowing that people want to change makes me want to help them overcome their challenges. That is why I encourage others to find an opportunity to volunteer in their community.
For someone at L&P looking to get more involved in the community, where should they start?
Think about what you are passionate about. I feel a pull toward helping any organization serving abused and neglected children or helping men or women through development opportunities. Look online for those organizations that you believe in. You could start by ringing the bell for the Salvation Army, helping with a coat drive for your local school, or even forming a group within your branch to help serve a local food shelter with a canned goods drive. Donate your time at the Boys and Girls Club by being a tutor or teaching a dance class. Look for the needs in your community, and that will help you find your passion to give back. Remember, even the smallest act of kindness can make a big difference.
In her spare time, Suzanne also volunteers for other organizations and programs in her community and at work. She’s the Board President of Jasper County CASA, a local non-profit that finds court-appointed advocates for foster children. One a month, she helps at her church’s local food program for low-income families. She’s a part of the Women’s Employee Resource Group Leadership team at L&P and contributes to her local Chamber of Commerce by helping with monthly Women’s events.
Thank you, Suzanne, for your generous service to our community and living out our value of putting people first!
Throughout Earth Month, we’re sharing impactful tips to practice at home or work so we can all do our part to promote a greener future. By taking small actions together, we can make a big difference for our planet!
This week we are sharing simple ways to save energy:
Leggett & Platt Automotive’s Pullmaflex branch in Ammanford, UK, is doing its part to create a greener future.
Nearly 3 billion plastic cups end up in UK landfills each year, as the majority of cups cannot be recycled. To reduce waste, the team recently discontinued using disposable cups in their hot drinks vending machine and each team member received an L&P-branded reusable cup to use at the vending machine.
Congrats to Pullmaflex for their commitment to sustainability and exhibiting our value of doing great work together!
Throughout Earth Month, we’re sharing impactful tips to practice at home or work so we can all do our part to promote a greener future. By taking small actions together, we can make a big difference for our planet!
This week we are sharing simple ways to conserve water:
Mark Hodges, Manufacturing Engineer at Super Sagless in Tupelo, Mississippi, shared some simple ways he conserves water at home.
“One of my favorite ways to save water at home is in the shower. I changed my shower heads from 2.5 gallons per minute (GPM) to 1.25 GPM. Not only do you save water, but you also save a lot of energy by not having to heat it. In addition to the shower heads, I installed an inline flow-control valve to turn the volume down even more. Another tip is to ensure your hot water source is nearby so you don’t have to wait long for the hot water to get to you.”
Thank you, Mark, for sharing ways we can practice sustainability at home!
At L&P, we are committed to fostering a culture that cares about our planet and providing sustainable solutions for our customers.
Our businesses are building sustainability into product development processes, and we’re designing products for improved durability, recovery, and end-of-life recycling. This year, we completed and plan to share our first Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GHG) inventory covering 2019-2022. Companywide milestones like this one, plus numerous efforts at our branches, contribute to our strides in reducing our environmental footprint.
This month on L&P social, we look forward to sharing more around being responsible stewards of the environment and communities where we live and work!
April 1st was International Fun at Work Day – a reminder that work doesn’t have to be a fun-free zone!
Studies show that having fun at work enhances communication, collaboration, and productivity. We spend a lot of time with our coworkers, so why not have some fun? We asked a few of our colleagues around the world to share how they have fun at work and with their teams:
“In a world where connections are virtual and desks are miles apart, our team thrives on laughter that echoes through digital corridors. In our remote realm, every meme is a high-five, and every GIF is a nod of understanding. We’re not just a team – we’re a meme-dream machine that delivers on turning pixels into punchlines and delivering world class dad jokes one day at a time.”
– Ryan Fissinger, Manager of Service Desk, United States
“We sing some motivational local language songs together – it gives us a new team spirit to work efficiently and uplift our environment and mood. We often find hidden talents during these times! We also chit chat. If someone is feeling down at work, we have breakout conversations to combat tiredness.”
– Women at Branch 0669, India
“When we finish a call, we say, ‘Leg dich wieder hin‘ – ‘lay down again’ – as a joke to imply that our colleagues aren’t working hard. We also like to joke during our breaks and talk about what we did during the weekend or previous days. If the weather is good, we take walks together around our facility.”
– Andreas Wagner, Quality Manager, Germany
“During breaks, I have fun with colleagues through games, activities like walking, and sharing experiences. At least once a week, my team and I do something together to unwind, like having lunch, eating ice cream, going to the market, or holding a happy hour. We also hold special meetings on commemorative dates.”
– Jackson Souza, Junior Planning Analyst, Brazil
At L&P, we’re inspired by our colleagues who go above and beyond to enhance our businesses. This month, we’re sharing stories of women at L&P who have improved our products and processes with their creativity and leadership.
We’d like to recognize Susan Chapman, Creative Services Operations Manager! This spotlight of Susan, who has been instrumental in L&P’s adoption and maintenance of technologies during her 44-year career, was written by Paul M. Johnson. They’ve worked together since 2010.
For reasons obvious to her coworkers in Creative Services, one of Susan’s nicknames is “The Oracle.” If you need to connect to a network printer, locate an obscure sales sheet from 1995, or find the phone extension for someone to help with a medical claim, you ask Susan. And no matter how busy she might be, which is always, she’ll have the answer, sometimes before you finish your question.
The Oracle. When there is one person who has this catalog of information – one Susan, in this case – it is often referred to as “tacit knowledge.” It’s the know-how born of experience, which includes knowledge of myriad things not documented in job manuals. It’s critical for the success of companies large and small.
But forget about that. Yes, Susan is a fount of workplace knowledge, absolutely. But that only touches lightly on the benefits she brings to Leggett and everyone she works with.
TECH TRAILBLAZER
Susan hasn’t stopped learning and adding skills during her long career. It just wouldn’t be her. She was atop the tech wave before most Leggett coworkers even saw the swell, and she’s stayed up there for more than a quarter century. But, change came slowly.
“When I started, I had a correcting typewriter and a Dictaphone,” Susan says, almost apologetically. “When I did mail merge, it was typing each letter on letterhead with carbon and onionskin paper.”
We’ll pause while you Google that. Soon, the typewriter turned into a desktop computer and the Dictaphone got the memo it was time to go.
L&P’s MAC MAESTRO AND MORE
In the mid-80s, Susan received the first Apple computer Leggett ever owned, working with graphic designers to create professional-grade design that didn’t require tedious hand sketches. (Macs have always been eons ahead of PCs in term of design capability.)
“I learned how to service and update each Apple computer we’ve had since that initial Mac,” she says, adding that she’d often pull the machines apart and reassemble them for upgrades, downloading those upgrades on her home “dial-up” since Leggett didn’t have internet access. “And still today, I continue to keep our Macs updated so we can better service our business units and their needs.”
Susan’s latest tech-related accomplishment is the creation of a digital content library to house Creative Services’ many assets, and it has led to a seamless sharing of content with Leggett business units.
“I have always been excited by any challenge and fueled by the experience it takes to solve anything put before me,” she says. “I have never grown out of the ‘why’ stage from an early age and no one ever told me I couldn’t find the answers.”
HOMEGROWN TALENT
Raised on a farm – not, perhaps, the natural starting point for a technophile – Susan developed her unswerving work ethic as well as important lessons from her father.
“My dad stressed that he wanted me to be an independent woman. I was exposed to mechanical work and by the time I graduated from high school I was more knowledgeable in mechanics than my male classmates – maybe that is why I gravitated to computer mechanics. My dad instilled in me I could do anything I wanted to do, and that is how I have always viewed the world.”
At L&P, we’re inspired by our colleagues who go above and beyond to enhance our businesses. This month, we’re sharing stories of women at L&P who have improved our products and processes with their creativity and leadership.
Meet Claire Jarvis! Claire has been with us for seven months and is a Quality Manager at our Aerospace branch in the United Kingdom. We asked her some questions about work and how she approaches problem solving.
What is a day at work like for you?
A typical day in my role consists of managing my branch’s workload and supporting business processes to achieve customer satisfaction.
How have you improved L&P processes and products?
I’ve updated some of our core operating procedures, led our business through a BSI AS9100 audit, and supported special process owners through a NADCAP (National Aerospace and Defense Contractors Accreditation Program) audit. We also recently changed our approach to non-conforming products, introducing a triage process to effectively determine the root cause.
AS9100 – for the Quality Management System – enables us to continue shipping products with a AS9100-certified certificate of conformance. We hold NADCAP approval for welding and NDT (nondestructive testing). Both of these audits are beneficial because they ensure we’re working within stringent requirements, and these standards are recognized by our customers and industry as being at the height of best practice.
How do you approach problem solving?
I ensure the problem is clearly identified. It can be easy to assume what the problem is, which could lead to ineffective solutions. Also, I work as part of a team! We all have different strengths, and by working collaboratively, we can pull on each other’s strengths and find robust solutions.
Our Automotive team in India celebrated International Women’s Day with a cake cutting, talent show, gifts, and by sharing words of appreciation:
Check out some of the photos from their celebration below!
