Introduction GE International "As one of the world’s most diverse and best performing global enterprises recognized repeatedly for leadership and innovation - they offer our employees an environment where what we imagine we can make happen, developing new technologies and services to grow our businesses. About the company GE traces its beginnings to Thomas A. Edison, who established Edison Electric Light Company in 1878. In 1892, a merger of Edison General Electric Company and Thomson-Houston Electric Company created General Electric Company. GE is the only company listed in the Dow Jones Industrial Index today that was also included in the original index in 1896. Today GE is a diversified technology, services and financial services company with operations in more than 100 countries and with over 300,000 employees worldwide. The Company has 11 global businesses, ranging from Advanced Materials, Commercial Finance, Consumer Finance, Consumer and Industrial, Energy, Equipment and Other Services, Healthcare, Infrastructure, Insurance, NBC Universal, and Transportation. GE is a company where possibilities are unlimited. You can change jobs, change industries, even change career direction, without ever changing companies. Our diversity provides limitless educational opportunities, which is unmatched in world business. We invest $1 billion per year in training our people. Page 1 Why we choose GE GE and its employees are committed to being a good corporate citizen through high ethical standards, leadership in corporate governance, environmental compliance and community engagement. GE continues to earn the respect of the business world. Once again, GE topped Fortune magazine’s top 500 companies. It holds 6th position consecutively for the second time. GE is recognized as being among the world's best-run companies and was named the World's Most Respected Company for 2003 for the sixth consecutive year by the "Financial Times". GE was also presented with the Catalyst Award 2004 for its innovative, effective and measurable initiatives to advance women employees. GE was honored as one of the 100 Best Companies for Working Mothers GE has a long and proud history of supporting the communities where its employees live and work. Contributing more than $140 million and over one million volunteer hours worldwide in 2003, GE is making an impact in local communities, educational standards and the environment in its communities all over the world. Page 2 BIBLE OF GE ‘THE SPIRIT AND THE LETTER’ Former CEO Jack Welch (now retired), introduced this concept at GE. During his work period GE was prized most deal-making, cost-cutting and efficient organization. Every day, everyone at GE has the power to influence company’s reputation — everywhere they do business. The Spirit & the Letter helps to ensure that, after more than 125 years, we still conduct our affairs with unyielding integrity. For well over a century, GE employees have worked hard to uphold the highest standards of ethical business conduct. They seek to go beyond simply obeying the law — they embrace the spirit of integrity. GE’s Code of Conduct articulates that spirit by setting out general principles of conduct everywhere, every day and by every GE employee. GE’s code of conduct The laws and regulations governing the business conduct world wide • Be honest, fair and trustworthy in all your GE activities and relationships. • Avoid all conflicts of interest between work and personal affairs. • Foster an atmosphere in which fair employment practices extend to every member of the diverse GE community. • Strive to create a safe work place and to protect the environment. • Through leadership at all levels, sustain a culture where ethical conduct is recognized, valued and exemplified by all the employees. It also provides other information regarding the rules and regulations of the business like hoe to deal with the government; customers etc. Employees and leaders who violate the spirit or letter of GE’s policies are subject to disciplinary action up to and including termination of employment. Page 3 OTHER IMPORTANT PRINCIPLE • Six sigma Six Sigma is a highly disciplined process that helps us focus on developing and delivering near-perfect products and service. The central idea behind Six Sigma is that if you can measure how many "defects" you have in a process, you can systematically figure out how to eliminate them and get as close to "zero defects" as possible. To achieve Six Sigma Quality, a process must produce no more than 3.4 defects per million opportunities. An "opportunity" is defined as a chance for nonconformance, or not meeting the required specifications. This means we need to be nearly flawless in executing our key processes. • Fair practices Fair employment practices do more than keep GE in compliance with applicable labor and employment laws. They contribute to a culture of respect. GE is committed to complying with all laws pertaining to freedom of association, privacy, collective bargaining, immigration, working time, wages and hours, as well as laws prohibiting forced, compulsory and child labor and employment discrimination. Beyond legal compliance, we strive to create an environment considerate of all employees wherever GE business is being conducted. • Base employment decisions On job qualifications (e.g., education, prior experience) and merit. Merit includes an individual’s skills, performance, values, leadership and other job-related criteria. without regard to a person’s race, color, religion, national origin, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, age, disability, veteran status or other characteristic protected by law. • Provide a work environment Free of improper harassment and bullying. Page 4 • Respect the privacy rights Of employees by using, maintaining and transferring personal data in accordance with GE’s Employment Data Protection Standards and related procedures found at integrity.ge.com. (While seeking to maintain employee privacy, GE reserves the right to monitor use of company property, including computers, e-mail, phones, proprietary information, etc., in accordance with applicable law.) • Take lawful affirmative actions In the United States, and elsewhere if required by local law, to increase opportunities in employment for women, minorities, people with disabilities and certain veterans. Page 5 Working Environment Employees’ performance can only flourish in a sound work environment. That is why GE is committed to supporting its leadership culture through systems and policies that foster open communication, maintain employee and partner privacy, and assure employee health and safety. • Operating with Integrity The way they deliver results is as important as the results themselves. GE seeks to lead in workplace and marketplace integrity by respecting the human rights of everyone touched by our business, and by enforcing legal and financial compliance. • Work and Life Balance Naturally, the passion that our people bring to their work extends to their own private worlds, and GE is committed to enabling a healthy balance between the two. GE encourages our people to meet their work commitments while balancing their own life responsibilities. To support this balance, flexible work arrangements are an integral part of the way we conduct business. The Company also offers many programs and resources to support employees including financial management, family counseling and more. • Quality of work life GE assures complete support to all its employees on both professional and personal fronts. Apart from creating a friendly and stimulating work environment, GE also extends support to its employees in their domestic lives. Page 6 ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR AT GE 1) Leadership at GE GE views its leaders as an extension of HR with the capacity to communicate how each employee fits within the overall business strategy. A leader must: create a culture of compliance in which employees understand their responsibilities and feel comfortable raising concerns without fear of retaliation; encourage ethical conduct and compliance with the law by personally leading compliance efforts; consider compliance efforts when evaluating and rewarding employees; and ensure that employees understand that business results are never more important than ethical conduct and compliance with GE policies Leadership Development The Corporate Leadership Development group's mission is to run training programmes to develop high-performing leaders, introduce and drive cultural change, and spread key corporate initiatives. These programmes can be held at business-owned training facilities like the GE Energy Learning Center in Florence, Italy or at our head quarters in Brussels. Such facilities bring people together to work, learn, and share across boundaries. It is also where we introduce newly acquired companies to our culture, offering them a network of peers enabling them to share best practices and business successes. GE also offers intensive management training through special leadership programmes. These programmes are designed to accelerate learning for high performing employees, using a variety of methods from e-learning to action learning, from boot camps to leadership summits. A core curriculum is managed at a corporate level, but each GE business complements these with business specific just-in time learning opportunities. All Leadership development programmes have similar core objectives: • Educate employees- focusing on leadership, change, and Six Sigma. Page 7 • • • Communicate and strengthen our employee's commitment to GE and the GE Values. Build bridges across boundaries by letting people interact across businesses, functions, and hierarchies. Enhance our customer focus; build relationships with strategic customers and other key stakeholders. GE works at being a true learning organization - instilling learning not only as part of the everyday work life but also counting on employees to help train their colleagues in their field of expertise 2) Communication GE views communication as the most critical element. The most important thing that they see with the HR function is that there always is a constant dialogue, as they don’t like to hide things in GE. GE offers several channels for raising concerns. Use the channel that is most comfortable for its employees. • GE Board of Directors An employee may report concerns about GE’s accounting, internal accounting controls or auditing matters, as well as other concerns, to the Board of Directors or the Audit Committee. [email protected] • GE corporate ombudsperson The GE Ombudsperson process allows an employee to voice his integrity questions and concerns, [email protected] • Within the business Page 8 Generally, the supervisor or manager will be in the best position to resolve an integrity concern quickly. However, the direct supervisor is not your only option. Other resources include: • Your compliance leader or auditor • Company legal counsel • Next level of management 3) Measuring performance Beyond the idealized growth traits, GE also upholds four basic actions to drive performance: imagine, solve, build and lead. Stemming from those action-oriented qualities are the foundational values that represent GE and its common set of beliefs: passionate, curious, resourceful, accountable, teamwork, committed, open and energizing. This specific set of corporate values lies at the heart of GE’s unique approach to leadership development. Ongoing appraisal processes and evaluations help to measure performance and also to sustain the values that GE leaders aim to embody. “Your ticket to entry at GE, your base premise to be a part of this game, is you have to perform and you need to have the GE values, 4). STRESS MANAGEMENT factors such as increasing completion, corporate restructuring and downsizing have compelled employees to work for longer hours to meet their deadlines. This stress could lead to various health problems. At GE, they have professional agencies to organize regular stints of aerobic exercises, meditation and dancing sessions for employees as part of stress management. They also provide counseling to the employees how to manage work and stress. 5) ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE It is a system of shared meaning held by members that distinguishes the organization from other organizations, this system of shared meaning is, on closer examination is a set of key characteristics that the organization values. Page 9 individual effort is much more important than group or collective efforts rebels are heroes (Jack Welch was an effective rebel against most of GE's official management practices throughout his career before he became CEO) going around the hierarchy is encouraged (this is the hidden purpose of work-out, not team-based participation and improvement) competition is king, internally and externally loyalty is determined by performance poor performers lose face publicly communications are direct and confrontational leadership comes from individuals, not groups or teams At General Electric, they have all begun programs aimed at keeping women professionally engaged. The results are starting to show, as more women who skipped out on companies that did not offer them intellectually challenging work resurface at companies that do. G.E. has women's networks, coaching and mentoring programs, and family-balance policies. But Susan P. Peters, vice president for executive development, says G.E.'s insistence that "everyone has quantity and quality to their work" may be most responsible for the fact that 15 percent of its officers are women, up from 9 percent in 1997. Jeanne M. Rosario is a case in point. While rearing her two children, she worked truncated hours and even turned down a big promotion. But, she said, G.E. never put her on a mommy track. "They gave me as much work as I could handle; they always let me be the one to say, 'No more!' “She said. Ms. Rosario, 53, is vice president for commercial design and services engineering at G.E. Transportation, making her G.E.'s highest-ranking woman in technology. Women’s network The GE Women's Network (GEWN) was formed to support the professional development of women at GE, with the mission of fostering professional women's development to help grow, attract and retain successful women throughout GE. Development is focused on leadership, advancement and career-broadening Page 10 opportunities in a variety of ways including information, education and networking with other men and women to learn best practices. GE was honored as one of the 100 Best Companies for Working Mothers. A "Best" Company for Working Mothers. Competitive pay and a great job In addition to great career opportunities. GE offers very competitive compensation and benefit packages. While plans may vary from business to business, they all are comprehensive and include such things as: Stock Purchase Plan Tuition Reimbursement Comprehensive Health Dental Care Medical Leave Parental Leave Life Insurance Work/Life Connections Relocation Assistance Pension Plan In addition, outstanding employees may be nominated for stock options and managerial awards. Providing security for family GE’s life and accident insurance plans provide eligible employees and their families with financial protection. And, if you need more coverage than the company provides, you have the option to purchase additional coverage at excellent group rates. OTHER SERVICES PROVIDED BY GE TO ITS EMPLOYEES. Page 11 • Employee Programs Committed to building stronger GE communities and strengthening education and human services, the GE Foundation supports various employee programs to encourage personal philanthropy. Empowering participants to help shape and direct our giving in their communities, we can support local organizations that address the greatest needs and highest priorities • United Way GE’s partnership with the United Way goes beyond employee campaigns and financial contributions. • GE star scholarships for children of GE employees Each year hundreds of children of GE employees and retirees receive scholarship support from the GE Foundation through a highly competitive selection process. • Parenting assistance The company assures complete assistance in childcare and adoption processes. It extends financial support for the education of the children and also provides parents with the confidential and expert counseling in raising the child and balancing work and family. • Elder care assistance The company helps employees find resources foe home safety and making living arrangement for dependents. It even helps employees develop their own retirement plan. • Financial assistance GE Provides resources and information in the areas like budgeting, saving, investment plan, buying home etc. Page 12 • Legal advice It assists in providing legal resources for sorting out problems regarding family, law, immigration, tenant’s right etc. • Work advice GE Supports employees with expert advice on issues like handling stress, managing relationships and dealing with change. CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY (CSR) • Donation to Disabled American Veterans In October 2007, the GE Foundation, GE's philanthropic organization, announced a two-year $1.5 million grant to Disabled American Veterans (DAV), an organization that focuses on building better lives for disabled veterans and their families. • Donations to Memorials and Museums GE businesses have given support to the armed services through the GE Foundation. In the past few years, GE has donated more than $1.5 million to the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund, Medal of Honor Foundation, Air Force Memorial Foundation, Air Force Museum, Marine Corps Museum, the Pearl Harbor Memorial Fund and the Vietnam Vets Wives. • Special Programs Through the Operation Home front and Operation Yellow Ribbon programs, we provide special recognition and support for our employees and their families before and during deployments and when the employee returns to service at GE: Operation Home front assists GE employees and their families to prepare for upcoming military deployments. Page 13 Operation Yellow Ribbon provides a welcome home package of benefits for our military heroes returning from extended periods of active duty. • Recruiting from the Military GE has a long history of hiring enlisted military and veterans and has appeared on GI Jobs Magazine's Top Military Friendly Employers for the last five years. GE has dedicated a careers webpage to U.S. Military Veterans Careers and more than 35 recruiters participated in career fairs on military bases in 2007. Additionally, GE offers an entry-level leadership program, Junior Officer Leadership Program, designed specifically for military officers as well as supporting specialized programs for reservists and guard called to active duty. • African American Forum The AAF provides employees with mentors, seminars, networking, and career discussion. The forum also contributes to the development of local African American communities. Asian Pacific American Forum The APAF supports the Asian Pacific American community with a career development network while promoting broader awareness of differences in Asian and American cultures. • Hispanic Forum The Hispanic Forum supports coaching, mentoring, role modeling and the recruitment of Hispanic talent. It also reaches out to Hispanic communities with service and corporate sponsorships. • GLBT Forum GE's commitment to the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender communities is supported by the GLBT Forum, as well as our offering of benefits for domestic partners. Page 14 • Disaster Relief Fund When lives are devastated by natural tragedies, the people of GE help to rebuild. Read how resources like GE's Disaster Relief Fund are making a difference. • Planet Paint Fest Learn how the largest and most comprehensive volunteer effort in GE Volunteers' history has transformed hundreds of the world's hospitals into more colorful environments for healing. • ECOmmunity in Asia Throughout Asia, GE's ECOmmunity aligned over 1,800 volunteers in river cleanup, reforestation, and other expressions of ecomagination in action. Learn more about our eco-friendly adventure. • Entrepreneurship and Employment Training for Youth in Indonesia Global Education Partnership received a $575,000 from the GE Foundation to expand an initiative aimed at fostering economic self-sufficiency among low-income youth • Rebuilding Efforts in South Asia The GE family remains committed to long-term recovery efforts focused on re-building the lives and communities of the tsunami survivors. GE Volunteers For more than a century, volunteerism has been a vibrant part of GE’s culture. At GE, giving back is both an individual employee activity as well as an organizational effort. We coordinate our resources - including product donations, matching gifts, grants, and volunteerism - to create responses tailored to local and individual challenges. Today, the ultimate measure of GE’s business is found in the improvements to the lives touched by our work. Page 15 • GE coordinates volunteer efforts company-wide by keeping a close eye on societal needs and inviting all employees to build stronger communities where we live and work. Our employees volunteer over 1 million hours of community service every year, discovering opportunities through our online Volunteer Portal or in their own neighborhoods. And during Global Community Days, we coordinate our efforts company-wide to address urgent projects around the world. GE Volunteers Foundation The GE Volunteers Foundation strengthens the communities where we live and work by partnering with local charitable organizations worldwide to address key needs and opportunities. Through hands-on commitment in more than 38 countries and grants made possible through the donations of our GE family, the foundation has supported senior centers, children with autism, literacy for low-income communities, neglected urban spaces and many other worthy programs. Page 16 A CAREER AT GE IS OPPORTUNITY FOR LIFE LONG LEARNING When you work at GE, you work with people who have a passion for excellence. Their obsession with finding better ways to do things creates exhilarating work environments. And to fulfill this desire, GE invests nearly $1 billion a year in career development for employees. Our boundless environment also supports "horizontal learning". Through GE's professional communities and networking forums, people talk to each other and share knowledge: sales people share leads; engineers share technologies; and people share ideas resulting in great innovations. • • • • Growth and Self-Direction GE helps to map your career and move ahead. You'll have ongoing occasions to learn from mentors and peers for dynamic career growth. You'll be amazed at the fluidity with which you can move from challenge to challenge, within a specific business or across businesses. Performance Feedback and Coaching GE is proud of its annual performance and career review processes. You'll meet with your manager for feedback on your performance. Through coaching and planning, your manager will help you shape an action plan to achieve your short-term and long-term career goals. Annual Human Resource Review GE's annual Human Resources Review (Session C) gives managers a broad view of the team — its strengths and its needs. By reviewing the group as a whole, managers can identify ways to further each individual's career while supporting the overall goals of the business. Session C is an essential part of succession planning to ensure a pipeline of management talent for GE's future. Mentoring Mentoring is a developmental relationship that fosters personal and professional growth. The best mentoring partnerships are formed when you take the initiative. Talk to your peers, search out people with experience you can learn from, and talk to your manager. Page 17 Managers are excellent resources for information about career development. They've often been in the same position as you, and can provide valuable insight on what you need to achieve your full potential • Ability Edge Internships Ability Edge, a Career Edge program that serves as a national youth internship strategy. This program offers six-, nine- and twelve month paid internships to graduates with disabilities in effort for interns to gain work experience, learning, coaching and networking. At GE since we believe the value of diversity is that it promotes innovative thinking and more creative ideas, the Ability Edge program is another avenue for GE to explore and reinforce our commitment towards it. Page 18 Growth Prospective in GE Professional growth: Capital Solutions learning culture Employee personal and professional development is the key to our overall success. The most important asset remains is valued employees. Online, classroom and one-on-one, joining GE means joining a culture of continuous learning, where you have the opportunity to reinvent yourself. Development, training and leadership development: A Capital Solutions priority GE’s talented team of professionals is the cornerstone of its continuing success. It’s a powerful mix of individual talents and collective Page 19 experiences that powers our growth. As a Global Employer of Choice, Capital Solutions embraces the significance of employee training and development. We strongly support GE training and development efforts complemented with an impressive mix of Capital Solutions programs and development tools to discover your potential…your future. There are many GE and Capital Solutions resources, training and development programs available to strengthen your overall development. Global Organizational & Leadership Development (GOLD) GOLD's vision is to help Capital Solutions exceed its business objectives by driving performance through continuous learning and development. GOLD strives to lead effective change management in the areas of coaching managers, identifying training needs, conflict management, team building, acquisitions integration and facilitating "Voice of the Employee" improvements. GOLD is able to realize its vision because of our people. The GOLD Team is a group of energetic, passionate people who want to "steer" you on your road to success through the gateway of continuous learning and development experiences! The GOLD Team offers a robust curriculum for continuing growth. INTERPRETATION GE's success is driven by its abilities to obtain management-synergies across a broad of businesses. It is one of the most deliberately managed businesses in the world. It success is directly dependent on its creation of a process that produces generation after generation of extremely capable executive leaders. Companies without such a process will have a greater risk in following GE's strategies. Drivers of GE's success • The ability to select from among the best practices available the ones most relevant to its immediate (2-6 year time horizon) needs, • The ability to flawlessly implement these practices, Page 20 Most important - the ability to periodically change its formula of management practices as new needs emerge - adopting new practices, ruthlessly discarding the old formulas for success before they led to weakened performance. • GE knows better than most every company in the world how to manage the life cycle of a business idea: put it in place, exploit it, and then abandon it. • GE’s operating system, referred to as its ‘learning culture in action’, entails year-round learning sessions where leaders from GE and outside companies share intellectual capital and focus on generating the best ideas and practices. Conversations about developing talent and reaching business objectives are side-by-side so there is a continuous link. • GE is very critical on their intake of talent and participates in behavioral skills interviewing in order to predict behaviors moving forward, specifically looking at how experiences people have had can translate back into GE. • GE also offers intensive management training outside of its facilities through leadership programs that maintain a curriculum for GE’s highest performing employees. Beyond its sophisticated development system, its leaders are groomed with depth and substance through simple and natural approaches such as consistent ongoing dialogue and ingrained corporate values paired with various assignments for on-the-job development. • Initiatives taken by GE Imagination is the starting point for any kind of growth from GE’s view. “If you want to drive a growth culture, you have to have imagination.” Clear thinking, involves being able to transform those imaginative ideas into clear business actions and to articulate clearly, and also be clear in terms of your strategy and where you want the business to go. Inclusiveness is particularly important for GE given its wide-reaching global operations, but in any situation it helps to have people understand how their diverse roles fit together within the overall business scheme. Page 21 As a direct offshoot of inclusiveness comes, external focus, which is being able to expand your focus outwards. It provides Quality of work life The success of any organization depends on how it attracts recruits, motivates, and retains its workforce. In order to develop their talented workforce and gain their commitment GE address their work life issues. Page 22 The basic objectives of a QWL program are improved working conditions for the employee and increase organizational effectiveness. Providing quality work life involves taking care of the following aspects: a) Occupational health care b) Suitable working time: Organizations are offering flexible work options to their employees wherein employees enjoy flexitimings for dedicating their efforts at work. c) Appropriate salary: The appropriate as well as attractive salary has always been an important factor in retaining employees. Providing employees salary at par with the other counterparts of above that what competitors are paying motivates them to stick with the company for long. Providing quality at work not only reduces attrition but also helps in reduced absenteeism and improved job satisfaction. Common beliefs support the contention that QWL will positively nurture a more flexible, loyal, and motivated workforce, which are essential in determining GE's competitiveness. Transparent work culture A transparent work environment can serve as one of the primary triggers to facilitate accountability, trust, communication, responsibility, pride and so on. It is believed that in a transparent work culture employees rigorously communicate with their peers and exchange ideas and thoughts before they are finally matured in to full-blown concepts. It induces responsibility among employees and accountability towards other peers, which Page 23 Page 24
