July 1st is International Joke Day!
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!”
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:
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?
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.
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.
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!
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.
Congrats to the entire Omega team!
As a global company, we come from many backgrounds — different cultures, ethnicities, and political systems — but what matters most is how well we work together and treat each other, and we see this every day in our employees around the world.
At L&P, our teams put people first. They are dedicated to prioritizing safety and care for each other, offering learning and development opportunities, demonstrating trustworthiness, and creating an inclusive environment of mutual respect, empathy, and belonging.
We invited a few of our People First Champions — L&P leaders who host local conservations with their co-workers to discuss how we work well together — to share how their teams are putting people first at L&P. Check out what they said in the video below.
Our Adjustable Bed team in Spring Hill, Florida, is prioritizing safety and living out our value of putting people first.
When recognizing that the pneumatic stapler, a tool critical to the manufacturing process, posed a safety risk, the management team met with maintenance. Together they brainstormed, tested, and implemented a safety guard made out of scrap metal from a bed base.
Since using the safety guard, there have been zero accidents with the pneumatic stapler!
“Spring Hill is committed to a safety-first mentality,” says Jeff Nickell, General Manager. “Our motto is safety, quality, and production – in that order. We want to ensure every employee goes home safe each day.”
The team is continuing to innovate safety. They are working to improve the current safety guard design while testing safety prototypes for other tools.
Thanks to the Spring Hill team for prioritizing the safety of our employees and doing great work together!
At Leggett & Platt, we are committed to building a culture of belonging and workplaces where everyone feels that they are accepted for who they are and for what they bring to L&P.
To help us accomplish this, we launched our People First learning series, which is designed to enhance our leadership skills and strengthen inclusion by putting people first—our first company value. After a successful launch in the U.S., we’re excited to announce that People First will be rolled out to our international teams starting this summer.
We are confident that this multi-year, four-module series will help us promote great relationships within our teams at L&P. The first module — INCLUDE — helps us build inclusion in our workplaces by teaching us how to discover commonalities with our coworkers, ensure everyone feels valued and respected, and inspire confidence in one another.
To help facilitate conversations around what these habits look like at work, we created a People First Champion Network. Our People First Champions are L&P leaders who host local conservations with their co-workers to discuss how we work together and how we can make our workplaces better.
We invited a few of our People First Champions to share their experience with the learning series.
The People First learning series is important because it gives everyone a voice. No matter what department you work in, what position you hold, or how many years you’ve been working at L&P, this series provides essential tools to help everyone feel heard and accepted. If we can become better individuals in our workplaces, we can become stronger teams.
Since starting People First at my branch, I’ve seen a positive impact on our communication. We are seeing the benefits of recognizing each other’s strengths and using words of encouragement and affirmation.
We’ve also learned how some of us work differently. Whether this is how each one of us approaches a project, assists customers, or troubleshoots an issue, we have all grown in understanding that we have individual methods that help us thrive. Creating a safe space for different opinions and open dialogue has greatly benefited our daily work.
Abby McWilliams, Administrative Assistant
I think that learning about People First is important because it shows employees that supporting each other and listening to different viewpoints improves teamwork and collaboration. We build better teams by developing better relationships. It also makes us aware that it‘s ok that we are different, and that by sharing certain behaviors, we can thrive and reach higher levels of performance and productivity.
I think that People First actions fit nicely in our branch and reinforce common behaviors that we have developed over the years at Gribetz International. I have been with Gribetz for a while now, and I’m confident management is committed to building an inclusive environment and making People First work. There is a reason why the word “International” is a part of our company name—more than half of our workforce comes from a place other than the U.S., so I think this initiative sends the right message, and it is something we can all relate to.
Jorge Lozan, Facilitator
Our meetings are allowing us to have open and safe dialogue and helping establish basic guidelines that can be summarized as “treat people with respect and the way you would expect to be treated.”
The meeting formats have made interactions between team members more positive and have improved tolerance and understanding. When problems arise, the issues are resolved in a much more collaborative manner.
Everyone should get the opportunity to contribute and should know that they are an important part of our team. Inclusion creates a more dynamic and friendly work environment for everyone, and having everyone’s contributions makes us better.
Mike Dock, General Superintendent
These conversations remind us that, if you include people in daily conversations, diversify team settings for better results, and treat people fairly with equal chances for advancement and promotion, everyone will benefit. This sounds basic, but in the sometimes-hectic world we live and work in, these simple and effective approaches are easily overlooked.
These techniques have brought me closer to my crew, and I believe they are more comfortable coming to me with issues and ideas to improve our workplace. I feel that the first conversations we’ve had have already led to greater communication in our branch.
Perry Lobitz, Production Supervisor