Altria Group and its companies measure and assess our people management programs to ensure we are meeting the talent needs of our businesses and providing a productive, satisfying and competitive work environment.
Recruiting
Altria and its companies employ more than 200 summer interns in a variety of job functions with a goal of converting 50 percent of eligible interns to full-time employees. In 2011, we met our 50 percent goal. Additionally, of the interns who were offered full-time employment with one of Altria’s companies, 87 percent accepted.
People Development
In 2011, Altria and its companies spent more than $15 million for tuition reimbursement, seminars, internal and external training programs and professional memberships to advance our employees’ personal and professional development.
Leadership Development Programs
Similarly, our leadership development programs represent a sizeable investment of time and money. For example, in 2011:
- 341 employees participated in Discovery Days, our two-day employee orientation program. We invested approximately $550,000 dollars in its execution.
- 107 employees completed our week-long Leadership Journey for New Managers program after they were promoted into a formal managerial role. This program represents an annual corporate investment of more than $500,000.
Diversity & Inclusion
Altria and its companies maintain a longstanding focus on fostering a diverse workforce. Our companies employ approximately 9,000 employees from different lifestyles and backgrounds and work in all 50 states in the United States and in Puerto Rico.
Employees across the Altria family of companies averaged 13 years of service as of the end of 2011.
Review our recent awards related to diversity and inclusion for more details.
Workplace Safety & Health
Our focus on improving our safety management system by establishing safety policies, engaging our workforce and assessing our performance, resulted in a decline in workplace injuries. Our companies focus less on injury rates and instead on supporting a culture that openly encourages injury reporting and collaboration on avoiding repeat incidents.
Each of our tobacco operating companies proudly reports solid safety records working toward our overall goal of an injury-free career culture. Our companies seek to eliminate injuries and to reach a point where all employees:
- Communicate safety instinctively
- Use internal safety requirements as solutions
- Apply training in the workplace
- Participate in safety initiatives
- Plan safety into business processes
- Recognize strong safety performance
- Enforce safety practices fairly and consistently
Philip Morris USA’s composite safety assessment results are shown in the chart below. Since 2000, PM USA has placed considerable emphasis on workplace safety and their safety programs continue to improve. From 2000 through 2008, as safety assessment scores climbed, injury rates declined. This is an indication to us that safety is being incorporated into the day-to-day work of each employee, driving us toward our ultimate goal of having an injury-free career culture. With the closure of PM USA’s Cabarrus Manufacturing Center in 2008, PM USA’s hourly workforce experienced significant change which impacted the total injury rates. Historically, we know that our focus on implementing and enhancing safety programs and processes, as evidenced by our safety assessment results, leads us to a long-term reduction in injuries. Since acquiring John Middleton and U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Company, the companies have implemented a similar assessment module system and the overall philosophy of improving our safety processes and increasing employee engagement to work injury free remains our focus.
Compensation & Benefits
Our compensation program for salaried employees consists of fixed pay, which includes base salary and variable pay for certain employees, such as cash-based and equity awards. We designed the program to deliver total employee compensation at levels between the 50th and 75th percentile of the market. However, employee pay can exceed the 75th percentile when business and individual performance exceed performance targets.
