Colleague Engagement & Inclusion
Creating a workplace where everyone is valued and empowered by celebrating uniqueness, supporting growth, and building a foundation of respect and shared purpose for all.
Highlights
- Our people-focused culture is driven by a strong commitment to engagement, where we foster a sense of connection and belonging among our colleagues. Our culture enhances performance and delivers value to our business and customers.
- A cross-functional committee, comprised of senior leadership, drives inclusion and belonging initiatives across the company and facilitates the sharing of best practices.
- We achieved our goal of attaining global gender pay parity, ensuring equal pay for equal work, regardless of gender, and remain committed to sustaining this moving forward.
- Our 85th percentile ranking in manufacturing earned us the Gallup Exceptional Workplace Award, highlighting the link between engagement and performance.
Why Colleague Engagement & Inclusion Matters
At Greif, we strive to be an employer of choice, distinguished by our culture and colleague engagement. Building an inclusive and engaging workplace means ensuring equal access to opportunities and resources while fostering a sense of belonging where every colleague feels welcome and valued. Every colleague is essential to our business and should be treated equally, and with dignity and respect. We believe that varied perspectives, ideas, and skills drive innovation, strengthening our ability to fulfill our purpose and execute our Build to Last Strategy. We are committed to equal opportunity for all and will not tolerate harassment or discrimination.
Greif Core Value: Strong Through Diversity |
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We encourage and embrace our diversity of culture, language, location and thought. Our differences define but do not divide us; our common interests unite us. From the many, we are one: Greif. |
Our Approach
Our framework is based on the LEAD model: Listen, Engage, Act, and Develop. At Greif, we view our culture as a shared responsibility, with all colleagues playing a role in creating an inclusive, engaging workplace. By embedding these values into our operations, we treat inclusion and engagement as core business priorities, ensuring they align seamlessly with broader organizational objectives.
A committee led by the Human Resources team and including representatives from the Executive Leadership Team (ELT), Greif Leadership Council, and cross-functional departments such as Total Rewards and Operational Leadership, oversees our inclusion, belonging, engagement, and retention strategies. Meeting quarterly, the committee provides governance, shares best practices, and tracks progress.
At the local level, colleagues implement tailored initiatives, with the committee serving as a bridge between these efforts and company-wide strategies. The committee establishes alignment through strategic working sessions and transparent communication via the intranet, newsletters, and townhalls.
Additionally, the committee provides strategic direction to a number of cross-functional project teams that address key drivers of inclusion, belonging, and engagement. In 2024, these teams transitioned from planning to full-scale implementation, focusing on initiatives such as a global Exit/Stay Interview program. The Exit/Stay Interview program supports our ability to identify drivers of colleague retention and engagement. The interviews also provide us insights into the appropriate work environments that aid in recruitment and retention.
Engagement & Retention
At Greif, we recognize that colleague engagement plays a crucial role in the retention and success of colleagues. We actively measure engagement and identify areas of improvement through the Gallup Q12 Employee Engagement Survey, conducted annually across our global workforce. To encourage broad participation, we offer the survey in multiple languages.
In 2024, we achieved a 94 percent response rate, with results demonstrating the link between engagement and performance in key areas such as safety, customer service, financial outcomes, and human capital. Our 85th percentile ranking in the manufacturing sector earned us the Gallup Exceptional Workplace Award, making Greif one of only two manufacturing companies to meet Gallup’s inclusion criteria. Greif’s recognition underscores its leadership in creating a workplace that not only meets but exceeds these ambitious standards, fostering a motivated and high-performing environment.
We use survey insights to drive localized improvements, equipping leaders with resources to address key findings. Following the 2024 results, Greif teams developed 724 action plans to strengthen engagement and enhance the workplace experience.
We continue to make progress towards understanding the retention trends and challenges that contribute to colleague turnover. We are formalizing and standardizing our exit interview process and introducing a stay interview process to help define and improve the infrastructure considerations that make our facilities more inclusive to all colleagues. We also updated our succession planning process for key positions, striving for an improved approach to leadership development.
Recruitment
Recognizing inclusion and belonging as an industry-wide challenge, Greif is committed to embedding inclusive practices across the colleague lifecycle, starting with recruitment. Our recruitment approach focuses on building robust talent pipeline reflecting the communities we operate in through partnerships with universities and institutions, expanding our candidate pool, and leveraging inclusive recruitment tools and platforms. Our comprehensive policies, including our Anti-Harassment and Anti-Discrimination Policy and Equal Employment Opportunity Policy, support these efforts, during recruitment and throughout the colleague lifecycle.
Colleague Resource Groups
Our colleagues form and operate eight Colleague Resource Groups (CRGs) open to all Greif colleagues, each with sponsors from the ELT. CRGs bring together colleagues who share a defining characteristic—or common interests—or colleagues who are supportive of and/or allied with these groups. In 2024, our CRGs became more coordinated and aligned with company objectives, enhancing their impact and driving greater value for colleagues. During 2024, approximately 700 colleagues actively participated in at least one CRG. Looking ahead, we aim to elevate CRGs as strategic partners in fostering belonging, inclusion and engagement while aligning their efforts with broader business priorities.
| Group | Description | Members | Primary Activities in 2024 |
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| Greif's Women Network (GWN) | Mission: A diverse and inclusive network working together to inspire, connect and develop women for the success of Greif. Vision: To support and enhance the experience and contributions of women at Greif, and to elevate diverse perspectives across the organization through gender parity. | 347 |
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| Black Employees Engaging @ Greif (BEE@Greif) | Mission: To strengthen a world-class, diverse, engaged and inclusive workforce to deliver on Greif's strategic priorities through a focus on recruitment, retention, learning and advancement of black colleagues at Greif. Vision: To help shape a culture that empowers the voices and fosters engagement among black colleagues and their allies at Greif. | 172 |
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| ¡HOLA! | Mission: ¡HOLA! is a global community that aims to promote a deeper understanding of the Latino/Hispanic culture and its connection to our Greif family. Vision: ¡HOLA!'s goal is to make a difference that inspires our colleagues to achieve collaboration and innovation, through promoting inclusion and diversity of Hispanic and Latino cultures throughout Greif. We strive to build an inclusive work environment, in which all colleagues feel proud, with a comprehensive, collaborative environment to serve our customers. | 85 |
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| NextGen | Mission: To attract and retain our workforce of the future. Vision: To develop a supportive network for young professionals and create a culture that embraces their opportunities and ensures that their voices are heard in shaping the future of Greif. | 240 |
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| EDGE | Mission: To build a confident and outspoken Asian community within Greif. Vision: To provide a platform for members in Asia to achieve full potential and contribute by recognizing and overcoming challenges from globalization and cultural barriers. | 87 |
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| PRIDE | Mission: To develop a supportive network for our LGBTQIA+ colleagues, to deepen our understanding of workplace challenges, and to strengthen a diverse, engaged and inclusive workforce to deliver on Build to Last missions. Vision: An open and welcoming culture, cherishing differences and celebrating all genders, orientations, and lifestyles. | 73 |
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| VETS | Mission: To embrace our proud community of colleague veterans who support and encourage each other through shared experiences, veteran recruitment, career development, outward engagement, professional growth and retention. Bringing together unique military service backgrounds, we seek to harness our veterans’ strengths of commitment, service, leadership and a bias for action to better serve Greif, our communities and our customers. Vision: Empowering Veterans, Strengthening Greif. | 75 |
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| Interfaith | Mission: Greif Interfaith Network is a forum where all Greif colleagues can come together to learn about the faith of others and leverage the power of faith to create a positive and constructive impact on Greif, our colleagues, and our communities. Vision: To develop a network of colleagues who use their faith to educate and learn from one another while making a positive impact on the culture and colleagues at Greif. | 19 |
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Goals, Progress, & Performance
2025 Goal:
- Using a FY17 baseline, improve the representation and advancement of women in management positions by the end of FY25, focusing on enhancing opportunities for professional growth and leadership development for our colleagues.
We achieved our 2025 goal to improve the representation and advancement of women in management positions a full year in advance, focusing on enhancing opportunities for professional growth and leadership development for our colleagues.
Our 2030 goals previously outlined here are currently under review. For more details on our approach, please see the Our Approach to Sustainability section of our report.
We are proud to have achieved global gender pay parity, reflecting our commitment to fair and equitable compensation by ensuring equal pay for equal work. To maintain this standard, we leverage a comprehensive framework that includes a global job catalogue, standardized job descriptions, and pay ranges across all countries. Additionally, we are conducting a wage gap analysis across all countries where Greif operates to develop actionable plans that address livable wage challenges and promote economic stability.
