communitycommitment
employees – our greatest resource
Fifth Third's success is entirely attributable to the team of employees, shareholders, board members and community partners who work together to fulfill the Company's Purpose to improve lives of the individuals and the well-being of the communities it serves.
The collective talent of these individuals forms a powerful whole that touches every aspect of the Company's operations—from how Fifth Third treats people, to the products and services it offers, to its work in the community.
ENGAGEMENT & WELLNESS
Fifth Third measures employee engagement on an annual basis. Measurement is key to assessing progress against stated goals, identifying potential problems and working toward common goals. In 2016, Gallup once again administered Fifth Third's 2016 Employee Viewpoints Survey.
The survey showed that employees see and share the commitment to sustain our great workplace. The overall engagement score was 4.30 on a 5-point scale. Although even one actively disengaged employee is one too many, Fifth Third saw improvement on its engaged to disengaged ratio from the last survey, despite having undergone a period of great change in the industry and within the organization. Fifth Third believes this improvement speaks volumes about its leadership and the dedication of employees.
Inclusion items received high marks in the survey, indicating that employees feel the environment is trusting and open and that they are treated with respect at work. That's important because included employees are engaged employees; trust is essential to Fifth Third's ability to achieve its Vision to be the One Bank people most value and trust. This spirit of engagement and inclusion builds strong teams, and strong teams build strong futures—for customers, employees and Fifth Third.
Risk items also scored well. Results indicated that employees understand their role in managing risk at Fifth Third, are committed to living the Company's risk principles and feel comfortable raising their hands to escalate potential concerns.
The survey's administration and results reporting were just the beginning. As results were digested, teams developed workgroups to address key engagement findings. All employees were invited to be a part of that process to leverage strengths, address opportunities and further strengthen the outstanding work environment that is part of Fifth Third Bank's culture.
NorthStar Strategy
The Fifth Third Compass provides the strategic direction team members need to serve the Company's customers and accomplish its objectives. The Compass represents who Fifth Third is, what the Company believes, and how it defines success when guided by Fifth Third's NorthStar strategy.
The Why: Fifth Third's Vision is to be the One Bank people most value and trust. It sits at the top of the Compass and points to the north. It is colored in green.
The How: Fifth Third's Core Values direct how the Company acts and interacts with others. Integrity, Respect & Inclusion, Accountability and Collaboration are highlighted in light blue.
The What: Actions drive Fifth Third's business and inform its decision making. The Company's commitment to community, its will to offer innovative products and services, focus on operational excellence and dedication to proactive risk management are the four key elements. These priorities are dark blue.
Keep the customer at the center: The customer is at the center of the Compass, and at the center of Fifth Third's universe. A heart image further conveys the way Fifth Third feels about its customers.
VOLUNTEERISM
Engagement at Fifth Third is powerfully affected by team members' involvement in the communities served by Fifth Third Bank. In 2016, the Company worked to encourage the use of a new technology system to capture employees' volunteer service hours. As recorded by that system, employees volunteered more than 96,800 hours in the community last year.
Fifth Third team members volunteered in a variety of ways in 2016. First, they opened their own pocketbooks to support organizations like United Way. Employee, corporate and Fifth Third Foundation donations to United Way in 2016 totaled $7 million. Beyond their own generosity, team members taught financial education throughout the community, in schools and through nonprofit organizations, offered financial access via the eBus, and conducted affordable housing and other Fifth Third Bank Empower U® workshops.
WELLNESS
Fifth Third is deeply committed to the wellness—both physical and financial—of its team members. Fifth Third has taken a number of positive steps over the last several years to encourage physical wellness, including the implementation of Go365, a program administered by Humana and formerly known as HumanaVitality, which offers financial and other rewards for making healthy lifestyle choices.
In 2016, Fifth Third expanded medical coverage for weight loss surgery, infertility treatments, autism referral programs and gender transition. Fifth Third also worked to develop an expanded parental leave program for Fifth Third employee parents. The expanded program is for mothers and fathers, both biological and adoptive, and new employees are eligible for the program after just 31 days after employment.
The program, which will launch in 2017, is expected to make four weeks of paid bonding leave available to new employee parents. For birth moms, this means additional paid time away as Fifth Third already provides a Company-paid leave benefit. For non-birthing parents, this new benefit would provide important paid time away without the need to use sick and vacation time.
In addition to additional paid time away, Fifth Third is supporting mothers in an innovative way with the Fifth Third Maternity Concierge program. This first-of-its-kind offering was designed specifically for our employees and will focus on providing assistance for the unique challenges during pregnancy, from birth up to the child's first birthday, and especially upon a mother's return to work. This assistance may include researching child care options and scheduling visits, ordering breast pumps and facilitating meal deliveries during maternity leave, along with many other helpful tasks that enable new or expectant moms to make the most of their time—at work and at home. These programs were developed in response to employees' family needs, and to demonstrate the Company's level of commitment to facilitating work-life integration.
Fifth Third also is committed to financial wellness for its employees. Fifth Third is a leader in delivering financial empowerment programs in the communities it serves, and the same commitment applies to its team members. Fifth Third has offered specialty financial programs for its employees for many years, and in 2016, did an extensive search for a new partner for the delivery of financial education to employees.
INCLUSION & DIVERSITY
Fifth Third Bank believes that inclusion and diversity are essential to living its Core Values; serving its customers; delivering financial performance; and being recognized as a leader in building an engaging workplace, a strong supplier base and vibrant communities.
FIFTH THIRD EMPLOYEE & BOARD DIVERSITY, 2016¹
¹ Source: December 31, 2016, employee data produced in a manner consistent with EEO-1 reporting with aggregation across EEO-1 ethnicity categories.
² "All others" is a combination of the following EEO-1 job categories: sales workers and administrative support.
Fifth Third also is committed to talent diversity at every level of the Company, from its Board of Directors, to its Enterprise Leadership Committee, to the 18,000+ employees throughout its markets.
Further, the Company is committed to full disclosure—to publishing Fifth Third's inclusion and diversity practices and demographic data on an annual basis via this CSR Report. Fifth Third will disclose information that demonstrates its commitment to inclusion and diversity, as both are critical components of Fifth Third's strategy.
The Company is proud of its efforts and recognizes that it still has work to do to ensure its workforce representation matches the supply of skilled talent available for current roles. Fifth Third is determined to focus on progression so that every employee feels valued, respected and understood.
WOMEN IN LEADERSHIP
Fifth Third operates the Women in Leadership (WIL) program, an integrated development experience that is targeted to high-performing senior female leaders who Fifth Third believes can have more impact and influence on the success of the Company. The program is focused on accelerating their readiness to lead at the next level and, ultimately, in the C suite. Participants are challenged to look inward, outward and forward to leverage their leadership capabilities through skill building, experiential learning and exposure to enhance the achievement of business outcomes.
I gained so much self-confidence going through this program. I realized that it is a matter of making up my mind about what I want to do and seeing it through, not leaving my destiny in someone else's hands. This program gave me the confidence and the platform to reach higher.
Beena Mathew
Retail group manager, senior vice president and WIL participant
The areas of focus for the WIL program include:
- Leading authentically, through increased self-awareness and understanding of unique • talents, strengths and challenges.
- Gaining clarity on others' perceptions of their leadership capabilities vs. self-perception.
- Developing behaviors that align with and support their professional leadership brand.
- Projecting a powerful executive presence.
- Leveraging strategic relationships to enhance leadership effectiveness.
- Building a strong, broad internal support network.
Members of Fifth Third's LBGT BRG in North Carolina marched in the Pride Parade in 2016. This photo of Fifth Third team members was featured in the Charlotte Observer newspaper. In addition to marching, the BRG wrote the names and ages of the 49 Orlando shooting victims on letters, so that they could literally carry their memory along with them as they marched. After the parade, the group sent their letters to fellow team members in Orlando to encourage them and their local community, who were still recovering from the tragedy.
PROJECT SEARCH
Fifth Third's commitment to inclusion is evidenced by its years-long leadership with Project SEARCH, a school-to-work transition program for people with physical or developmental disabilities. Fifth Third provides interns with three rotational opportunities throughout the Company to build marketable and transferrable work skills. The goal of Project SEARCH is competitive employment at the end of the program, either at Fifth Third Bank or in the community. It is a public-private collaboration operated out of Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.
For 12 years, Fifth Third has operated three programs, two in Cincinnati, Ohio, and one in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Over that time, Fifth Third has trained 236 individuals, and is proud to have 30 of those individuals as employees of the Company. The placement rate for all Project SEARCH interns since 2005 is 73 percent.
Fifth Third goes a step farther each year by collaborating with the College Leadership Program to host the Tee Off for Project SEARCH golf outing, the proceeds of which go to replicating the program throughout the country and sponsoring the Project SEARCH national conference. Over the past 11 years, Fifth Third has raised over $1.1 million for the program.
HUMAN RIGHTS CAMPAIGN
For the second consecutive year, Fifth Third Bank has been awarded a score of 100 percent on the Corporate Equality Index (CEI), a national benchmarking survey and report on corporate policies and practices related to LGBT workplace equality, administered by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Foundation. Fifth Third joins the ranks of 517 major U.S. businesses which also earned top marks this year. This recognition is evidence of Fifth Third's commitment to inclusion and diversity and earned the Company the designation as a Best Place to Work for LGBT Equality. Executive Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer Teresa Tanner accepted the 2016 HRC Corporate Equality Award in Cincinnati in recognition of Fifth Third's exceptional commitment to equality through inclusive corporate policies and practices that embrace the power of diversity.
Fifth Third Project Search Grad Teddy Kremer Extols Benefits of ABLE Accounts
Fifth Third Bank supports Ohio's new STABLE* Accounts, which allow people with disabilities to save for the future without losing their benefits. Under the new federal ABLE Act, people with disabilities and their families can set aside up to $14,000 a year without affecting their eligibility for Supplemental Security Income, Medicaid or other government programs.
"You want to raise your child to be independent, to work and to do as much as they can," said Dave Kremer of Cincinnati, whose 33-year-old son Teddy has Down syndrome. "The ABLE accounts help encourage that for families of a person with a disability. Before ABLE, some families discouraged a person with a disability from working because they didn't want them to lose their benefits."
Teddy works part-time in the mailroom for Fifth Third Bank and part-time in guest relations for the Cincinnati Reds. He is a graduate of the Project SEARCH program at Fifth Third in Cincinnati. In 2016, he participated in a video that explained the value of ABLE accounts.
The ABLE account, which stands for Achieving a Better Life Experience, is loosely modeled after the popular 529 state-sponsored college savings accounts. Ohio was the first state to launch an ABLE account, with its version called STABLE Accounts. STABLE Accounts, administered by Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel's office, stands for State Treasury Achieving a Better Life Experience. States offer their own versions of ABLE accounts, with different options for investments, managing the accounts, fund limits and other variables.
"This will help me save money for my future," Teddy said. "So I can save and one day I can go to live with my brother."
"A big worry for parents of children with a disability is who will help care for them when we are gone," Cheryl Kremer said. "ABLE accounts help us plan for Teddy's future beyond us."
ABLE accounts can help lift people with disabilities out of poverty, said Stuart Spielman, senior policy advisor and counsel for the national group Autism Speaks. According to the U.S. Census, almost 30 percent of Americans ages 15 to 64 with severe disabilities live in poverty, compared to 14 percent of Americans without disabilities.
"ABLE accounts will help ensure that financial planning is not just for people without disabilities," Spielman said. "For many people, tools like trusts are not within reach because they don't have a lot to invest, or they are just too complicated. ABLE was created to be accessible, and simpler than other financial products."
Spielman, who has an adult son with autism, has advocated for laws that would allow a product like ABLE. Now he urges families to explore ABLE accounts among their financial options. Congress approved the Achieving a Better Life Experience legislation in 2014, making the STABLE Account and other such programs possible. Since then, 46 states have passed state legislation to implement such a program.
Increasing Inclusion & Diversity
Fifth Third Bank's Business Resource Groups (BRGs) are constituencies of employees and allies, focused on employee development, community involvement and business excellence. The BRGs foster employee engagement and are evidence of the Company's Core Values, particularly the Core Value of Respect and Inclusion. The Bank encourages all employees to share their voices, talents, perspectives and creative thinking through its BRGs.
