Leggett volunteers and community members from local businesses and schools recently participated in the Carthage Annual Day of Caring, supported by the Carthage Area United Way. The Carthage Annual Day of Caring assists ten local non-profit agencies with various projects, including painting, cleaning and upkeep, landscaping, and minor repairs.
Our Leggett team assisted Jasper County Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) and Community Clinic of Southwest Missouri. At CASA, our L&P team cleaned the outside patio and playground equipment, provided general housekeeping, and sanitized all toys and equipment.
In addition, L&P recently held a donation drive for hygiene products. Through those donations, the team donated 200 hygiene kits containing soap, shampoo, a toothbrush, toothpaste, and other essential items to those in need at CASA.
“Our diverse group of employee volunteers learned a lot about what CASA does and who they serve, and even raised their hands for future events with CASA to show continued support,” said Sarah Peterson, Fraud/Due Diligence Supervisor at L&P. “It was really great to see everyone get their hands dirty and break a sweat for the good of others.”
In July of 1990, President George H.W. Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act—important legislation aimed at protecting people with disabilities from discrimination. In 2015, Disability Pride Month was officially celebrated, becoming a time to recognize that disabilities are a part of who we are and our diversity.
So, what exactly is a disability? The Centers for Disease Control defines disability as “any condition of the body or mind that makes it more difficult for the person with the condition to do certain activities and interact with the world around them.” According to the World Health Organization, 1 billion people worldwide — that’s 1 in 8 people — live with disabilities, making people with disabilities the world’s largest minority.
At L&P, we believe that disabilities are a part of the diverse human experience, and everyone should feel empowered to be their full selves. We celebrate our employees for who they are and what they bring to L&P.
If you’d like to learn more about disability pride and the experiences within the disability community, check out the resources and information in the sections below.
The Disability Pride Flag
Created by Ann Magill in 2021, the disability pride flag has five stripes — red, yellow, white, blue, and green — on a faded black background. Each color represents a facet of the disability community’s experiences:
Sensory disabilities are represented by the color green.
Psychiatric disabilities are represented by the color blue.
White represents undiagnosed and invisible disabilities.
Gold stands for neurodiversity.
Physical disabilities are represented by the color red.
Grief and anger over society’s negative attitudes and actions towards the disability community are represented by the black background.
Resources
Interested in learning more about the voices and experiences within the disability community? check out these resources:
Ballard, Jamie. “Everything to Know About the Disability Pride Flag and Disability Pride Month.” Woman’s Day, 23 May 2023, www.womansday.com/life/a43964487/disability-pride-flag. Accessed 5 June 2023.
“Disability and Health Overview.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 15 Sept. 2020, www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/disabilityandhealth/disability.html. Accessed 5 June 2023.
“Factsheet on Persons With Disabilities.” United Nations, www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/resources/factsheet-on-persons-with-disabilities.html. Accessed 5 June 2023.
Miranda, Gabriela. “A chance to ‘amplify one another’: What Is Disability Pride Month?” USA TODAY, 4 July 2021, www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/07/02/how-disability-pride-month-started-and-what-means/7840560002. Accessed 5 June 2023.
At Leggett & Platt, we are committed to being good stewards of the environment. One of the ways we are working toward that goal is by reducing our carbon footprint and energy use. In 2018, we partnered with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Better Plants program. The program is a national initiative to improve energy efficiency across U.S. industries, including manufacturing.
Since joining the program, three of our facilities have identified energy-saving projects through on-site trainings. We talked with Tamara Cook, Sustainability Director, about our partnership goals with the DOE Better Plants Program and the energy-saving projects across L&P.
Team Members participating in the energy Treasure Hunt at Carthage Spring.
What is our goal in partnering with the DOE Better Plants Program?
We voluntarily committed to this program in 2018 and set a goal to reduce our energy usage in our U.S. facilities by 25% in 10 years. As part of the program, the DOE provides free technical assistance to analyze energy usage in our U.S. facilities. Among other trainings, they offer Energy Treasure Hunts to help train a manufacturing facility to identify and quantify energy-saving opportunities.
What kind of energy savings did you find at the Carthage Spring Treasure Hunt?
In May, we conducted an Energy Treasure Hunt at Branch One (Carthage Spring) in Carthage, Missouri. Carthage Spring has an annual energy cost of about $1.2 million for electricity and natural gas. Through the training, four teams of employees from Branch One and other U.S. Spring locations identified multiple energy-saving projects, resulting in savings of approximately 10% of the overall energy bill—over $100,000! All projects would have a payback period of less than a year and could be implemented by employees at Carthage Spring.
In addition, Branch One is considering installing solar panels on one of its buildings. Solar panels would result in additional electricity cost savings and generate zero-emissions on-site electricity, reducing the Branch’s energy use and carbon footprint if implemented.
What are the next steps for Carthage Spring?
The next steps will include taking action and implementing the identified project opportunities. The Branch may need to modify policies, update preventative maintenance plans, and install or optimize equipment to sustain the projects and eventually see year-over-year savings at the branch.
Additional energy-saving projects and equipment optimization opportunities may still be identified through additional information gathered from data loggers installed on equipment. The DOE will provide a final report that summarizes all potential options for Carthage Spring in the coming weeks.
Are there plans to have Energy Treasure Hunts at other L&P locations?
Teams from several U.S. Spring branches participated in the Branch One Treasure Hunt. By participating, they learned how to conduct an energy treasure hunt. These teams can now return to their locations and share their knowledge and best practices to implement trainings and find their own energy-saving projects.
The DOE has regular application processes for the free Energy Treasure Hunts. Branches can also conduct a hunt independently, and the DOE’s website provides instructions on hosting an Energy Treasure Hunt. If your U.S. or international branch is interested in learning how to conduct a Treasure Hunt, please contact the Sustainability team, and we can provide you with these online resources and assist in coordinating an event.
Congratulations to the Carthage Spring Team and Branch Manager, Kile Lesmeister, for doing their part to be good stewards of the environment and working together to better our culture of sustainability!
Whether you like telling jokes or just like hearing them, a joke has the power to uplift our moods by making us laugh, and studies show that laughing is good for our mental and physical health.
So, what’s your favorite joke? Share it with a colleague, someone close to you, or us! We may be all business, but we like good jokes, too. 😉
Share it with us on LinkedIn, Facebook, or Instagram:
We’re kicking back and relaxing before diving into an afternoon of. . .first aid training!
As we continue to spotlight safety at L&P, a group of employees got together in Detroit, Michigan, to learn how to administer first aid, protect against bloodborne pathogens, use a defibrillator, and perform CPR. We hope they never have to do it, but knowing how to do these things can save a life at work and beyond.
Thank you to our teams for putting people first by prioritizing safety and care for one another!
At work, we make a lot of decisions, and many of our decisions are affected by unconscious biases—subconscious beliefs that determine whether we approve or disapprove of people, things, and experiences.
Everyone has biases, and these assumptions and preferences seemingly help us simplify decision making. However, biases often reinforce stereotypes about people, exclude different perspectives, and stifle innovation.
At L&P, we strive to challenge the status quo and biases to make our workplaces better. Our Learning & Development team is helping us accomplish this by facilitating live courses on unconscious bias for our employees. These courses raise awareness about unconscious biases and discuss ways to challenge and mitigate them.
“I think it’s important to have a psychologically safe place to talk about these concepts and how they affect us in our daily lives,” says Rob Sotlar, Learning & Development Manager. “During the sessions, we explore our own biases (and we all have them). Then, we identify which of those biases require our immediate attention. Finally, we apply strategies to mitigate those biases. I truly feel that this subject gets us closer to being better colleagues, bosses, leaders, and people!”
Five Common Unconscious Biases
As we continue to spotlight safety and belonging at L&P, we’d like to share an overview of the five common unconscious biases we’re learning about and how to mitigate them:
Similarity — When people are similar to us, we tend to favor them. At work, this could look like giving an important assignment to or promoting someone who is similar to us. To mitigate this bias, we should look for commonalities with people we don’t think are similar to us.
Expedience — With this bias, we make decisions based on what’s immediately available to us and what confirms our assumptions. To mitigate it, we should give ourselves time to research and gather more information.
Experience — This bias says that our individual perceptions are accurate. At work, we might avoid giving a lead role to someone who we think is quiet and reserved. To mitigate this bias, we can invite others to share their perspectives and goals.
Distance — We tend to assign less importance to people and things that are farther away from us. To mitigate this bias, we can plan ahead to ensure that the people who aren’t physically close to us, like our colleagues who are working remotely, are included.
Safety — We show a preference towards what we perceive to be safe, which may prevent us from taking a growth opportunity or risk. When we are facing a decision and become aware of this bias, we can imagine that we are making the decision for someone else—what advice would we give them?
We are proud to announce that, for the fourth year in a row, our Leggett & Platt Brazil location has received the Great Place to Work Certification from the Great Place To Work Institute!
To celebrate, L&P Brazil employees came together to enjoy food, music, and some fun. Check out some of the photos from the celebration!
We are proud of all of our employees who embody our values of Put People First, Do Great Work Together, Do the Right Thing, and Take Ownership and Raise the Bar. Their commitment to these shared values is what makes L&P a great place to work.
The Home Furniture team in Kendallville, Indiana, operates with safety as the focus of everything they do, leading with the motto, “safe by choice, not by chance.”
Jess Morris, Human Resources Manager, shared about the team’s safety culture and what they are doing to put people first.
How do you promote safety at the facility?
Jess Morris, HR Manager at Kendallville
Every partner has a hand in our safety culture. Our partners look out for one another, and if they see something, they say something. It is an integral part of our daily routine to make sure all safeguards are in place, partners are using personal protective equipment (PPE), and our work areas are clean of debris and slip/trip/fall hazards.
We also have a suggestion program where we ask our partners what we can do to ensure they are protected. Our mindfulness of safety through this program has produced many safety measures that can prevent injuries and property damage. For example, one partner suggested we add a locking mechanism to our conveyors to prevent a rack from sliding back down into an operator’s area and potentially causing a safety incident.
Have you celebrated any safety milestones recently?
We celebrated an entire quarter, January through March, incident free! This achievement is simply due to our safety-minded and diligent partners. They put each other first by prioritizing safety – it’s not just a poster on the wall or a Monday morning meeting. Our safety team consists of many people from all aspects of our business – from office and shipping to production and maintenance – who work together to ensure we are undoubtedly safe in all operations.
Congratulations to the Kendallville team for their commitment to safety and living out our Leggett Values!
June 19 is Juneteenth—a national holiday that celebrates the end of chattel slavery in the United States and freedom of African Americans. Often called the U.S.’ second Independence Day, Juneteenth is a time for us to reflect on the struggle for racial equality and equity and to celebrate those who work to make the American ideal of liberty and justice for all our reality.
During Juneteenth celebrations, you will likely see at least two flags waving and flying in various communities—the Pan-African flag, also known as the Black Liberation flag, and the Juneteenth flag. Read about the flags’ symbolism in the sections below.
Pan-African Flag
Created by activist Marcus Garvey and adopted by the Universal Negro Improvement Association in 1920, the Pan-African flag represents the African diaspora and the freedom of black people. The flag’s colors — red, black, and green — evoke a sense of shared struggle and roots. Red symbolizes shared African ancestry and the blood of Africans who died fighting for freedom, while black represents a shared race. Africa is known for its abundant natural resources and beauty, and the color green represents this abundance.
Juneteenth Flag
In 1997, activist Ben Haith, founder of the National Juneteenth Celebration Foundation, created the Juneteenth flag. Representing the end of slavery in the U.S., the Juneteenth flag contains many symbols that evoke belonging and hope. The red, white, and blue colors serve as a reminder that enslaved people and their descendants are Americans. The curve within the flag symbolizes a horizon, which stands for the opportunities waiting for African Americans. In the center of the flag, a white star represents Texas — the state where the last enslaved people learned they were free — and the freedom of all African Americans. The burst surrounding the star represents a nova, which symbolizes a new start.
Happy Juneteenth!
References
Donnella, L. (2017, June 14). On Flag Day, Remembering The Red, Black And Green. NPR. https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2017/06/14/532667081/on-flag-day-remembering-the-red-black-and-green.
Kaur, H. (2022, June 17). The Juneteenth flag is full of symbols. Here’s what they mean. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/17/us/juneteenth-flag-meaning-explainer-cec/index.html.
Our team at Omega Motion in Saltillo, Mississippi, just celebrated 250 days without a recordable injury – a new safety milestone!
They also recently had a contest to name the new safety mascot: Safety Sam.
Safety Sam helps to visually display the key risks in different work areas and promote safer behaviors. This is part of a focus on putting people first and a broader goal to “Drive to Zero” injuries.
