Air Products Has D&I EDGE in the Gulf Coast
 When Air Products, a global supplier of industrial gases with more than 20,000 employees, earned the Texas Diversity Council's 2013 Corporate Commitment Award in late October, it was the culmination of five years of fieldwork for EDGE, a regionally based employee resource group.
EDGE-Ethnically Diverse Gulf Employees-is one of eight Air Products employee resource groups dedicated to diversity and inclusion. But EDGE sets itself apart as a regionally exclusive group connecting local operations and employees to the community, while communicating employment opportunities and encouraging diversity in job recruitment. EDGE has strong educational, social and volunteerism outreach components.
Jonte Greer, senior project engineer and current chair of EDGE, says, "We look at diversity and inclusion from an educational standpoint." |
In addition to providing scholarships to local colleges and technical schools to encourage women operators, EDGE gives whirlwind, day-long tours of Air Products regional facilities three times each year. "They allow new employees, interns and co-ops to see different aspects of our products beyond what they get from their current jobs or temporary jobs. When they see the different sites, it opens their eyes to the different opportunities we have-all the different types of engineering they can do. It gets them excited to come back and shoot for jobs in other areas. We use these tours as recruiting and retention tools."
Engagement with each other and the community is also a important aspect of EDGE, so the group combines social and volunteerism opportunities like a local international festival, food drives, job fairs, music events, even a soccer team. "We want to make sure that we are delivering information, education and awareness and make sure we offer opportunities for community outreach," Greer says.
When Air Products Texas facilities physically linked with Air Products Louisiana facilities through a pipeline recently, EDGE linked the employees as well. Now the entire Gulf Coast is a single operating region and EDGE reaches out to support employees and offers the same kinds of activities to all members.
It is this extraordinary and unfailing commitment to diversity and inclusion in the workplace and business community that earned EDGE the Texas Diversity Council award and continues to advance the cause of diversity and inclusion in the Gulf Coast Region.
"EDGE plays a key role in diversifying our talent pipeline in that region," Anne E. Helme, diversity and inclusion specialist, global diversity and inclusion organization, says. "We are looking to bring in a diversity of thought and background that can have a positive impact on productivity and innovation. Diversity and inclusion plays a role in our business strategy."
"When the opportunity came up for EDGE to join the Texas Diversity Council, we saw it as a really great way for EDGE-being a group that has no base in our corporate headquarters, but based in the field-to connect locally with other companies that are also doing diversity and inclusion work and to share best practices," Helme says.
"We really had the desire to align some EDGE goals with Air Products business strategies so that we could really prove the impact that D&I has on the bottom line," Greer says. "One of the things that the Texas Diversity Council really confirmed for us was that forming EDGE to include and branch out and embrace Louisiana into a single operating region was the right move. It is one Gulf Coast and we wanted it to be aligned. We are already starting to see the results of that effort."
Beyond the regional success of EDGE, Air Products offers seven other employee resource groups: women in business, working parents and caregivers, employees with or living with disabilities, LGBT, Asian, African-American and Hispanic. The priorities of these groups fluctuate. "Some groups do recruiting and concentrates on employee retention, while others operate in a support function for employees," Helme says.
Beth Douglass Silcox
