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Hello and welcome back to The Leader Show With Lou Carter! Today, we are delighted to welcome Halsey Cook Jr., the CEO of Milliken & Company, a leader in the manufacturing industry with over 30 years of experience. On the agenda is Milliken & Company’s recognition as a Most Loved Workplace® and how the company created a strong culture through career development programs and team recognition initiatives. Halsey’s conversation with Lou also touches on the significance of being an employer people love working for and how it has impacted the company.
If you would like to nominate your company for the Most Loved Workplace® certification, be sure to visit our website and fill out the form. With that said, lets jump into today’s episode.
Cook explains that the Most Loved Workplace® certification is external recognition for the culture and values Milliken & Company has established over its 158-year history. As a fifth-generation family-owned business, Milliken’s foundation was built on solid values. When Halsey became CEO, he aimed to create a vision, purpose statement, and values that aligned with the company’s core business principles.
Their purpose statement is: “Together, we strive to positively impact the world around us for generations to come”, and the five values they established are integrity, excellence, sustainability, innovation, and people. Halsey highlights that the other values depend on the people within the company to work together towards common goals. The external validation from Newsweek is meaningful to them, as it confirms that their efforts have paid off, and they see evidence in their business results and internal metrics.
Lou highlights the unique approach of the Most Loved Workplace® certification process, focusing on sentiment and emotion through peer and employee reviews. He asks Halsey about Milliken’s emphasis on team empowerment and career development in the manufacturing industry. In response, Halsey explains that they noticed a disparity in job satisfaction and engagement between their office and manufacturing environments, which led them to launch the “Together Empowering Associates in Manufacturing” (TEAM) initiative. This program aimed to improve communication, celebrate wins, create career paths for hourly production associates, and provide training on unconscious biases.
Additionally, the AMP program, short for “Aspire to Management,” is another initiative implemented by Milliken & Company to create a career path for hourly production associates looking to move into management positions. This program addresses the feedback they received from associates who felt a lack of career progression, particularly for those with high school degrees.
The AMP program provides these associates with opportunities that not only fosters career growth but also empowers associates by giving them a clear trajectory within the company. As a result, they have created a more inclusive and supportive work environment, ultimately benefiting both the associates and the company as a whole.
As the CEO, Halsey Cook recognized authenticity as a crucial component of Milliken’s approach to employee satisfaction. It is essential for organizations to listen to employees’ concerns, areas of dissatisfaction, and challenges they face in their jobs or relationships at work.
Rather than just focusing on processes and programs, Milliken also tries to maintain a human element in their initiatives. This includes hosting events like ice-cream socials to encourage people to come together, interact, and build camaraderie. The tone set by the leadership is one of openness and genuine interest in employees’ well-being.
By fostering an environment where employees feel heard, valued, and authentically engaged, Milliken has been able to create a positive work culture that resonates with its workforce. This combination of diversity, equality, and inclusion initiatives, along with authentic engagement and opportunities for social interaction, contributes to creating employees who are not just satisfied with their jobs but are also passionate advocates for the company.
The Inspire program at Milliken is an app-based platform that allows employees to recognize and thank their colleagues for living the company values, such as excellence, integrity, and innovation. These electronic shout-outs can be accompanied by a $25 gift certificate for particularly exceptional actions. With over 7,000 thank-you messages shared in the past year, the program fosters a culture of peers recognizing peers and shouting them out for doing the right thing.
The Milliken Honors is an annual event resembling the Academy Awards, where employees are acknowledged for their adherence to company values through 16 awards. These awards focus on various areas, including innovation, diversity and inclusion, customer service, and environmental concerns. With hundreds of nominations and 126 award recipients, the event is CEO Halsey Cook’s favorite day of the year. The awards help operationalize the company’s values, turning them from abstract concepts into tangible actions and achievements.
Cook’s favorite award from this year was given to a team in LaGrange, Georgia, for developing labor-saving devices and digital solutions. This award highlights how Milliken empowers and recognizes its employees for their creative problem-solving and dedication to the company’s values.
Milliken’s digital transformation has led to innovation and improved employee satisfaction. The company has been successful in applying digital tools to existing lines, such as implementing labor-saving solutions and more efficient changeovers. Another example of innovation is the use of optical eyes and artificial intelligence to inspect cloth for flaws, ensuring high-quality products for their customers. This technology is part of Milliken’s new Apollo range.
These innovations have grown organically within the company, with passionate leaders testing and learning from new ideas that bubble up from employees. Milliken’s focus on facilitating and encouraging the best ideas helps to create a dynamic work environment. Halsey gives a shout-out to an associate named Sarah who shared her positive experience working at Milliken, highlighting that the company provides resources for employees to perform well, values their contributions, fosters enjoyable work relationships, and supports career development. Milliken strives to create this positivity across the entire organization, ensuring that employees feel engaged, valued, and empowered to innovate.
Milliken’s focus on people and digital tools is crucial for the long-term success of manufacturing in the United States. As competition for manufacturing jobs increases with the expansion of major companies and distribution centers, it’s essential to create an attractive work environment and invest in employee development. Milliken has managed to close the gap in employment levels by working with technical centers, and community colleges, and implementing second-chance programs for individuals leaving the penal system.
To thrive in this competitive landscape, Milliken is also committed to advancing its digital capabilities. The company prioritizes digital tools that improve safety and efficiency, focusing on areas that can be unsafe or injury-prone, such as visual inspections around fast-moving lines of textiles or heavy lifting tasks. Milliken’s combination of people-centric initiatives and digital transformation efforts ensures that the company remains an attractive place to work and a leader in manufacturing innovation.
Finally, Halsey highlights the importance of a people-centric approach, innovation, and strong values in the company culture. To those considering joining Milliken, he emphasizes the need for curiosity, hard work, inclusivity, and a focus on collaboration to drive performance. Milliken offers an environment where employees are oriented and acclimated to the company culture, fostering a strong sense of teamwork and problem-solving.
Milliken is an innovation-driven company with an extensive technical community dedicated to finding better solutions to various problems. By being open to new ideas and fostering an inclusive environment, the company continues to grow and succeed. If you are interested in working at Milliken, you can find more information on their website or through their LinkedIn and Facebook pages.
Thank you for listening.
