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Culture and Belonging

 

Elevating a Culture of Safety, Inclusion and Community

Our employees are the foundation of our success. We believe that our employees deserve to feel valued and appreciated for who they are and the unique perspectives they bring to our workforce and workplace. Since 1866, our family-like culture has continued to build on the ingenuity, passions and talents of our team members.


Fostering a Culture of Belonging

At Sherwin-Williams, we welcome, appreciate and celebrate differences, and believe that inclusion has a positive impact on our people and business. We believe that fostering an inclusive culture is a moral and business imperative. This is reflected in our policies, including our Code of Conduct, and reinforced through our actions, training and approach to conducting business.

 

Our continuous efforts to create a supportive, welcoming environment for everyone across our global footprint are the shared responsibility of all employees. We intentionally lead with inclusion to highlight our commitment to embracing and leveraging the diversity of our global workforce. 

Our Belonging and Culture Goals

We have set the following goals to ensure we are making good on our commitment to fostering a culture of belonging: 

  • Attract and retain more underrepresented groups into the talent pipeline
  • Increase the number of underrepresented groups in leadership roles
  • Drive employee engagement to ensure diversity of thought and experience thrives in our culture and positively influences performance
  • Foster economic inclusion and supplier diversity

Our commitment is stronger than ever. We have an intentional focus on inclusion and belonging where all employees feel seen, heard, supported, connected, and appreciated. We remain committed to attracting, developing, retaining, and progressing the very best talent to become the employer of choice for a diverse pipeline of talent.


We Are Family is a series of short videos that invite you to meet members of our global family of Sherwin-Williams employees. Our family of 64,000 employees serves as the driving force of our Company, and we are proud to share their stories from our Northeast Ohio home and from around the world. Watch here


2023 Workforce Diversity Data

38%

underrepresented racial/ethnic groups (U.S.)

25%

women in workforce (global)

30%

underrepresented racial/ethnic groups in management (U.S.)

26%

women in management (global)

Our Culture of Belonging

Over the past year, we have focused on creating a culture of belonging — one where all employees feel seen, heard, connected, supported and appreciated. Programming throughout the year reinforced this theme. For example, we held Conscious Inclusion training designed to help leaders at all levels practice allyship and be intentional in learning and embracing differences. As of year-end 2023, all senior leaders have attended one of these learning sessions, and we continue to roll out this training across the enterprise and provide leaders with actions to create and lead more inclusive teams.

 

Sherwin-Williams continues a number of initiatives to attract a diverse candidate population, including relationships with various colleges and universities to broaden our talent pipeline with qualified women, underrepresented racial or ethnic groups, individuals with disabilities, veterans and other candidates. In 2023, we participated in over 500 recruitment activities and programs to attract and engage a diverse talent pool.

 

In 2024, we are strengthening our focus on education, training and our ERGs to drive ways that leaders and team members can show up and step up for one another. For example, we are conducting sessions at all U.S. national sales meetings and conferences where leadership teams can learn about the different types of allyship and how to harness differences for business impact.


Engaging Employees

We believe that an inclusive and collaborative workplace drives engagement. During our most recent employee survey, we learned that those who are members of ERGs are more engaged, on average, than those who are not involved in one, and scored higher on items related to career development and well-being. We currently offer ERGs to support women, African American, Asian American and Pacific Islander, Hispanic and LGBTQIA+ employees, as well as active military members/ veterans and those who feel connected to these communities.

 

In addition to building connections, employees engaged in an ERG can receive additional exposure and professional development opportunities. For example, our African American Network organized a mentoring program and professional development series in 2023. HOLA hosted a summit featuring global leaders during Hispanic Heritage Month. The Sherwin-Williams Women’s Club hosted its third Women’s Summit, which included virtual participation across 27 countries. To foster engagement on a more regional basis, Europe, Middle East, Africa and India (EMEAI) employees formed an Inclusion, Diversity & Equity (ID&E) Executive Council and Ambassador Network comprised of local leaders responsible for creating and executing strategies to drive belonging. Based on these efforts, Sherwin-Williams received the 2023 Diversity and Inclusion award from the British Coatings Federation.

2023 Employee Resource Group (ERG) Engagement Data

300+

chapters of ERGs

5,000+

employees leading ERGs


We also make available our most recently filed Federal Employer Information Reports EEO-1, representing employees as of 2023. Please note the EEO-1 report uses federally mandated job categories that are broadly applicable to U.S. companies across a variety of industries and that differ from how we categorize jobs and measure our progress. We believe the data presented above and elsewhere on our website provide a more useful and meaningful reflection of the Company’s workforce diversity as it is more tailored to our organizational structure.


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