Why Sherwin-Williams is a Great Employer

Sherwin-Williams is an Ohio-based American company that develops, manufactures,
and sells coats, paints and other related products. A Fortune 500 company, it is the world’s
second biggest paint and coat manufacturer (Meyerson, 1). It is also one of the oldest
companies in the US, with a history going back to 1866 (Meyerson, 1). The company’s
success over the long period of its existence can partly be attributed to its ability to attract
highly talented and motivated employees. As of 2017, the company had over 60,000
employees (Meyerson, 1). Apart from attracting talented employees, the company is able to
retain them by having a work environment and conditions that meet the lofty expectations of
its employees. This paper examines various factors that make Sherwin-Williams a great
employer.
Fundamental driving forces that shape Sherwin-Williams’ environment and the

company’s specific practices to manage this environment
Sherwin-Williams, like other business organizations, does not operate in a vacuum. It
operates in an environment that is shaped by practices of its competitors, changing
technologies, and changing consumer behaviors. In order to succeed, the company needs to
leverage all of its resources -human, financial, and technological- to meet the challenges of its
business environment and take advantage of the opportunities that such an environment
presents.
Competition
Sherwin-Williams has been a global leader in the paints and coating industry for
much of its history. However, it faces intense competition both within the US and in other
parts of the world. Its major competitors include PPG, an American multinational
headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Akzo Nobel, a Dutch multinational

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(Meyerson, 1). In addition to these big companies, Sherwin-Williams also faces competition
from smaller regional companies. Even though it has acquired a significant number of these
companies, there are still many others that compete with Sherwin-Williams. To remain
successful in the intensely competitive global marketplace, Sherwin-Williams has sought to
leverage the talents of its employees and technological innovation.
Technological innovation
Sherwin-Williams operates in an industry that is relatively mature. Therefore, growth
is often quite slow. To increase its growth rate beyond the average growth in the industry,
Sherwin-Williams has fully embraced innovation to help it meet changing demands of
customers. The company knows that being an old company with over 60,000 employees can
be a hindrance to technological innovation because of bureaucracy. To overcome this
problem, Sherwin-Williams has opted for open innovation (Meyerson, 1). One of the
characteristics of this type of innovation is technology scouting. The company regularly
scouts for potential technological solutions from startups, universities, various research
institutes, independent laboratories, and inventors.
Work Conditions
Work conditions include terms, environment, and demands of a job that influence the
level of employee satisfaction. To attract and retain talent, it is important for an organization
to have work conditions that employees are comfortable with. Sherwin-Williams has sought
to have attractive work conditions with regards to work-life balance, health and safety, and
work schedule. Sherwin-Williams’ excellent work conditions are what has it to be one of the
best employers in the U.S.
Workplace safety

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As a chemicals company, Sherwin-Williams understands that workplace accidents can
be devastating for employees. Therefore, it has put in place various measures to help maintain
safety of employees at the workplace. These measures include factoring in employee safety in
workplace designs and automation (Sherwin-Williams, 2).
Workforce diversity
Diversity is differences that exist among people with regards to their race, ethnicity,
gender, values, religion, age, and other characteristics that differentiate one person from
another one. Sherwin-Williams has a strong commitment to the culture of inclusion where
differences are not only welcomed but also celebrated and appreciated (Sherwin-Williams,
2). The company’s leadership believes that creating an inclusive workplace environment
drives innovation and also improves the performance of the organization. For the company,
fostering diversity and inclusion is not just the right thing to do, it is crucial for the
company’s growth.
The company has shown its commitment to diversity through various initiatives. For
instance, in 2019, it expanded its employee-led professional development and networking
that help it acquire new talents by including groups that are focused on African Americans,
Hispanic Americans, women, and LGBT networks (Sherwin-Williams, 2). Through such
groups, the company is likely to increase the number of talented employees that it gets from
minority groups. Apart from simply seeking out more employees from minority groups, the
company also has conscious inclusion education where its employees are trained to recognize
their unconscious biases and take practical actions to eliminate such biases so that they are
able to effectively work with employees from diverse backgrounds (Sherwin-Williams, 2).
Salary and benefits

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Sherwin-Williams understands the importance of having well-compensated
employees. Employees are paid based on their skills, qualifications, and experience. Apart
from competitive salaries, the company offers its employees numerous benefits. In total, there
are twenty benefits that Sherwin-Williams offers its employees (West et al., 3). These
benefits are put in four categories – personal well-being, health management, wealth creation,
and wealth building (West et al., 3). In general, the organization hopes to have employees
that are healthy, wealthy, and happy. Some of these benefits extend to the families and
dependents of employees. Therefore, the salary and benefits strategy of Sherwin-Williams is
geared towards helping employees achieve their personal financial and health goals as the
employees help the company to achieve its own goals. With regards to the financial success
of its employees, Sherwin-Williams has encouraged them to be investors in the company.
Such has been the success of this strategy that currently, 17% of the company’s shares are
held by current and former employees (Meyerson, 1).
Opportunity for advancement
Sherwin-Williams provides its employees with great opportunity for advancement.
One of the pillars of the company’s success is its commitment to developing its employees.
Rather than sourcing personnel from outside to fill various middle-level and senior positions
within the organization, Sherwin-Williams focuses on preparing its employees for higher
positions within the organization. To make sure that its employees are always ready to
assume greater roles within the company and keep it competitive, Sherwin-Williams invests a
lot of resources in providing both technical and leadership training to its employees
(Meyerson, 1). This is a very deliberate strategy because the company’s leadership believes
that in order to survive in the paint and coatings industry, it is important to have both a
continual pipeline of talent and robust succession planning. By continually sourcing its own

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employees for senior positions, the company not only motivates its employees and wins their
loyalty but also ensures that there is continuity at the very top of the company’s leadership.
Ethics and Morality
Sherwin-Williams places a very high premium on integrity. When preparing the
company’s Code of Principles in 1907, its then chief executive officer, Walter Cottingham,
placed integrity and ethics among the top principles of the company (Meyerson, 1). Apart
from its Code of Principles, the company’s mission statement also emphasizes the role of
integrity in the operations of the company. Therefore, the idea of earning through merit is
deeply ingrained in the company’s culture. For the company, there is nothing more important
than its credibility. In everything it does, it ensures that it does the right way. These reasons
explain why Sherman-Williams has been regularly cited as being among the most ethical
companies in the US.
Practices related to work attitudes in U.S. organizations that are strongly affected by

diversity

Diversity is increasingly becoming commonplace in the U.S. Many companies have
to realize the importance of diverse workforce on issues such as innovation and better
satisfaction of customer needs. The practice that is strongly affected by diversity is
teamwork. Many workplaces in the U.S. emphasize teamwork with many tasks being
completed through efforts of teams. It is generally easier to manage teams that have
employees from similar backgrounds than those that have employees from different
backgrounds. Thus, in some organizations, diversity has made it hard to have effective
teamwork. This issue can be addressed through having diversity training so that every
employee becomes familiar with the background of their colleagues and learns how to act in
a culturally-sensitive manner that supports effective workplace cooperation.

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Conclusion

Sherwin-Williams has had a long streak at the top. However, increased global
competition and changing consumer behaviors have in the recent past threatened to reduce its
dominance. The company’s strategy to remain at the top has been to attract the best talent in
the job market by making itself one of the best employers in the U.S.

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Source List

1. Rita Meyerson. 2019. “Historically Speaking: A Case Study of the Organizational
   Identity Dynamics of an Iconic American Brand after Acquisition.” PhD diss.
   https://media.proquest.com/media/hms/PFT/2/gsfBB?_s=EHml0Ka%2FzzjzDIF%2F
   6nNmsEF0sZM%3D
2. Sherwin-Williams. 2019. Corporate Social Responsibility Report: 2019
   https://sustainability.sherwin-
   williams.com/doc/Corporate_Social_Responsibility_Report.
3. Colton West, Jessica Ricks, Caroline Strachan, John Iacono, and Carly Shay. 2019.
   “Factors that Influence Recruitment and Retention.
   https://ideaexchange.uakron.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2011&context=honors_r
   esearch_projects