Social
Our aspiration is to make GM the most inclusive company in the world. We are also focused on protecting human rights, fostering supplier relationships and bringing communities along.
“Collectively, doing the hard work of creating consistently inclusive environments that are supported by equitable practices makes way for every team member to thrive and contribute to the GM purpose.”
Telva McGruderChief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
We recognize that creating a culture that thoroughly embraces DEI throughout our global business is an ongoing journey. This journey must be rooted in transparency and accountability. We continue to take deliberate actions that support our commitment to cultivating a workforce that reflects the places in which we live and work.
Driving DEI Maturity
We build DEI maturity across the business by engaging in critical conversations with leaders and employees to improve our interactions with each other, as well as our customers, suppliers and communities.
We recognize that unconscious bias is one of the key impediments to building an inclusive culture so, in 2022, we trained more than 200 employees to facilitate unconscious bias workshops. This helped us provide more than 22,900 employees with experiential workshops to significantly increase unconscious bias awareness in the company.
In January 2022, we launched Inclusive Leadership Coaching to help people leaders live up to the “Be Inclusive” GM behavior. We prioritized our global manufacturing and finance organizations and, through 2022, nearly 25% of manufacturing people leaders and over 70% of finance people leaders had been exposed to the coaching experience.
Creating an Inclusive Culture With Employee Resource Groups (ERGs)
The employees in our ERGs are an important part of our cultural transformation. ERGs are global employee-led groups that serve as a resource for their constituent members and allies and help to improve DEI maturity throughout our business.
We have 12 ERGs, with chapters spanning the United States and globally. They have executive-led advisory councils to help them progress, address issues and pursue opportunities. More than 55% of our salaried employees are a member of at least one ERG.
Safety
GM views safety in a holistic way. We engineer our products through a human lens of driver behaviors and the driving environment, developing features and technologies that can assist drivers and help keep vehicle occupants and others safe.
Our workplace safety vision is to “Live values that return people home safely. Every person. Every site. Every day.” This vision is guided by our Global Workplace Safety Policy, which applies to everyone working at our sites.
Vehicle Safety
At GM, safety starts with our employees. All employees are trained to have an appropriate level of safety knowledge through annual training that conveys the importance of product safety. Product safety is also stressed during an annual Safety Week which is an opportunity to strengthen our safety culture and collectively reaffirm our foundational commitment to keeping ourselves, our colleagues and customers safe.
We bring together technology, safety advocacy and research to improve the safety of drivers, passengers and those outside the vehicle through:
- Development of vehicle technologies to help drivers avoid crashes, reduce injuries and help save lives
- Safety advocacy to support nonprofit organizations, such as Safe Kids Worldwide
- Research conducted with world-renowned universities and institutions, including the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI) and the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI)
Global Product Safety Management Process
Our Global Product Safety and Systems organization is responsible for vehicle safety systems, confirming and validating vehicle safety performance, identifying emerging issues and conducting field actions, including recalls.
Investigate and Analyze
Internal product investigators and safety forensic engineers investigate potential vehicle safety issues. Data analytics experts merge inputs from numerous data sources—including Speak Up For Safety submissions and service records to conduct statistical analysis and apply machine learning models to help identify potential issues early.
Review
Management, including senior leadership, reviews identified issues. Should a recall decision be made, a cross-functional team initiates all necessary actions to inform appropriate government agencies, dealers and customers.
Execute Recalls
Safety recall remedies are provided to customers free of charge, along with follow-up communications encouraging a repair. Completion rates are monitored and shared with government agencies where appropriate. Global Product Safety and Systems works cross-functionally to analyze recalls and address functional safety with the goal of ensuring that we do not repeat previous mistakes.
Workplace Safety
We strive for a culture where each person decides to keep themselves and their team members safe—“People First, Task Second.”
Our comprehensive Global Workplace Safety strategy highlights Culture, Knowledge, Systems, Data-Driven Decisions and Risk Mitigation. These five key focus dimensions enable us to achieve our vision as we aspire to zero injuries and fatalities. We have a three-year plan for each of these dimensions, refreshed annually with new initiatives to help us continuously improve.
See our safety performance data in our 2022 Sustainability ReportHuman Rights
We are committed to transparently upholding and respecting human rights. Our approach is informed by our understanding of our potentially salient issues and grounded in our companywide commitments, which include expectations for our suppliers.
In 2022, we began creating a roadmap of specific steps for continuing to operationalize our commitments. Using expert guidance, our cross-functional team identified strategic priorities and focus areas, and has begun creating detailed action plans that will enable us to achieve our objectives, integrate robust processes across the business and achieve meaningful outcomes for people.
See our human rights strategic priorities and focus areasIdentifying Potential Impacts
To effectively prevent and mitigate potential impacts to people, the United Nations Guiding Principles defines how to identify those potential impacts and prioritize them through a human rights saliency assessment.
In 2021, as a part of our saliency assessment, we conducted desktop research, reviewed industry analyses and connected with external stakeholders. We also held a series of interactive internal capacity-building and exploratory workshops with leaders from across the business and geographic footprint to identify and prioritize potential human rights-related impacts.
Nearly all of the potential impacts we identified through this process are systemic and not limited to GM or even the automotive industry. Nevertheless, we take seriously our responsibility to work to identify, prevent, mitigate and remediate potential human rights impacts to which we may contribute.
Supply Chain
Our global supply chain spans thousands of businesses and is built on strong and trusted relationships. These relationships, managed by our Global Purchasing and Supply Chain organization, are critical for product quality, availability, affordability and sustainability. To become the customer of choice for suppliers, we strive to improve competitiveness, mitigate risks, improve quality and efficiency in our value streams, and help address societal concerns.
Sourcing Strategic Raw Materials
We know the importance of a resilient and sustainable supply chain. This is especially relevant as we expand our EV portfolio, where improving visibility and traceability in the supply chain is critical.
To manufacture our EVs, we require cobalt, aluminum, battery-grade nickel and lithium, as well as other minerals and materials. Aluminum has both battery and nonbattery needs, such as aluminum sheets for body panels, and ingots for foundry applications. We pursue responsibly sourced materials at strategic tiers of the supply chain and explore where investment and partnerships can yield benefits and untapped value.
We are developing battery technologies that maximize efficiency and performance while minimizing their environmental footprint. We are also engaging suppliers to identify socially responsible and low-carbon aluminum products that can be incorporated into our vehicles.
Supporting Diverse Suppliers
We continue to build upon our legacy of leadership by helping diverse suppliers advance. In 1968, we became the first OEM to establish a formal supplier diversity program. To support diverse suppliers, we contribute to many community initiatives, aligning our actions with our vision.
For over a decade, we have attracted thousands of attendees to our annual Supplier Connections event to strengthen existing relationships, enhance our business acumen and identify new sourcing opportunities.
$0.0BApproximate spend with North America diverse Tier I suppliers1
$0+Invested in technical assistance programs, reaching more than 47 diverse businesses through key collaborations
1 United States and Canada spend only.
2 Tier II spend is self-reported by suppliers.
More on Social in Our 2022 Sustainability Report
A Team That Includes Everybody
To attract and inspire the most qualified and diverse talent, we focus on fostering great employee experiences in an inclusive culture in which everybody can learn, grow and thrive.
Promoting Equality
We believe everyone deserves to work in an environment where they can be proud of who they are, and have long advocated for women in the workplace. We are also committed to equal pay practices.
Supporting Communities
Our Corporate Giving Strategy is designed to support our vision of a world with zero crashes, zero emissions and zero congestion.
Also on This Site
Strategy
Our sustainability strategy supports our vision of an all-electric future, our carbon neutral goal and our growth strategy, which we believe can lead to greater revenue and margins.
Innovation
Our innovations include electric vehicles and charging infrastructure, self-driving ride-hailing services and low-carbon delivery vehicles.
Environment
To become carbon neutral across our products and operations by 2040, we are working toward greater efficiency in our products and operations through our production processes and the resources we use.
Governance
We have robust governance structures and policies in place to manage our business in a responsible and ethical way.