To continue on our journey of becoming the best-operated energy company in North America, we rely on our exceptional team of DTE employees. Our employees represent a skilled, dedicated workforce whose hard work and tenacity propels us toward greatness. The future of DTE Energy is our people.
Our commitment to respect each other and create an engaged, inclusive environment goes beyond just race and gender to appreciating and valuing our diverse backgrounds and life experiences. We believe that a diverse workforce with a healthy mix of educational experiences, backgrounds, ages, cultures, religions, sexual orientation, abilities and personal interests expands our base of knowledge, skills and cross-cultural understanding.
Approximately 49 percent of DTE’s workforce of 10,000 is represented by unions under collective bargaining agreements. We value and respect our employees’ right to choose to be represented by a labor union, and we work together to promote productive relationships with our unions that consider the interests of our employees, our customers and our business. Non-represented employees are considered “at will” and the terms of their employment are guided by U.S. labor law for “at will” contractual relationships.
DTE Energy has a long and rich history of creating a diverse workforce and inclusive working environment. In 2015, we worked to assess the effectiveness of existing diversity and inclusion initiatives and developed internal goals to drive continuous improvement in this area.
DTE's recruiting and outreach efforts focus on ensuring that our workforce is skilled, talented and reflective of our customer base. We actively support programs to encourage young students to pursue STEM-related academic programs. We strive to raise awareness and promote education around technical and skilled trade careers in the energy sector.
DTE Energy is proud to hold the title of Silver-Level Veteran Friendly employer by the Michigan Veterans Affairs Agency, which recognizes employers that commit to military veteran recruitment, training and retention practices. We are committed to helping veterans make a successful transition from the military to a rewarding career in the energy industry. In 2015, 11 percent of our external hires were veterans.
Within our workforce, we focus on developing and sustaining programs to create an inclusive culture, with strong supporting programs and structures. As part of this support, we offer employee resource groups for women, students, and those employees identifying as African American, disabled, LGBT, Hispanic, or Asian and Middle Eastern.
DTE Energy was ranked number 3 among utility companies in the 2016 rankings published by DiversityInc, recognizing our strong efforts to hire, retain and promote women, minorities, people with disabilities, LGBT and veterans.
Supporting Individuals with Disabilities
DTE believes that we all have a role to play in breaking down employment barriers that individuals with disabilities face when pursuing a career. Each October, we participate in the National Disability Employment Awareness Month to raise awareness about disability employment issues and celebrate the many and varied contributions of America's workers with disabilities.
Project Search
We launched a partnership with Detroit Public Schools in 2014 through Project SEARCH. This unique collaboration aims to help Detroit Public School students with significant disabilities make a successful transition from school to a productive adult life. The program targets young adults in their last year of high school eligibility, ages 18 to 26, who have finished their academic requirements and who may need assistance entering the workforce.
In our second program year, we enhanced our participation by creating a dedicated onsite classroom along with a teacher and job coach from Detroit Public Schools. We provided students with rotational job assignments, and their teacher and job coach worked closely with them to assist in skill development and task assignments. Job assignments included tasks such as filing, data entry, blueprint scanning and payroll entry. Students spent two hours in the classroom each day and four hours at their respective work sites. Additionally, students participated in professional development days.
While we recognize the benefits of Project SEARCH, we also know we can do more. As we continue to benchmark against companies that have mature programs for employees with disabilities, we will increase our outreach efforts to find the right people for the right job. We also will ensure we have the proper tools they need to do their jobs, and that our leaders and other employees are well-trained and embrace a culture of diversity and inclusiveness.
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