Employees

Employees

Self-Direct Program Details for Business Customers.

Energy conservation legislation enacted by the Michigan legislature allows DTE Electric customers to self-direct and implement their own energy optimization plan.

Engaged Employees

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.

Engagement

At DTE Energy, our employees are the foundation of our company and the energy behind our operations. Throughout our company, we strive to maintain a positive, collaborative workplace environment where everyone feels valued.

Employee engagement remains one of DTE's six priority areas and is the key enabler and driver to achieving our other priorities. To measure the success of our engagement efforts, we rely on the Gallup employee engagement survey. Gallup is a global research and polling company that helps private and public sector organizations boost organic growth through measurement tools, strategic advice and education.

In 2015, DTE Energy maintained a spot in the top 15th percentile of the Gallup engagement rankings. Our survey results showed an increase in engagement among our union employees, which was a key area of focus this past year. Overall, however, our ranking has remained flat and our scoring has plateaued at a relatively high level. We are strengthening our efforts at all levels to drive further improvements throughout the company.

In 2015, we enjoyed a "three-peat" celebration across our company to recognize receiving the Gallup Great Workplace Award for the third year in a row. We have now received a fourth consecutive award, and we remain the only utility company to be recognized with the Gallup award.

 

Safety

Every day, thousands of DTE employees face potentially dangerous and high-risk environments as part of their job. It is our core value that we act with vigilance and make safety a top priority. We want to ensure every employee goes home healthy and safe every day.

Performance Data

We aim for zero injuries and occupational illnesses – a goal that continually prompts leaders and employees to seek improvements in our safety programs and performance. As we work toward this, we set an ambitious goal to reach top decile safety performance by 2016, measured against industry peers. In 2015, we achieved the lowest OSHA recordable rate in our company’s history. We exceeded both our 2015 OSHA target rate of 0.78 and top decile benchmark of 0.81, and we saw a 23 percent decrease in recordable injuries year over year – 84 in 2015 versus 107 in 2014.

 

 

DTE Recognized for Safety Leadership in 2015

The American Gas Association (AGA) honored DTE Gas with the 2015 Safety Achievement Award in worker safety. This award is given to the AGA member company, in each size category, with no fatalities and the lowest rate of safety incidents resulting in workers' lost time or restricted duty.

 

We scored at the 97th percentile, or the top three percent of companies nationwide, on the National Safety Council Safety Barometer Survey in 2015. This performance shows remarkable strength in our safety management program, employee participation, safety support activities and organizational climate.

CEOs Who 'Get It' for Safety

DTE Energy CEO Gerry Anderson was recognized in early 2016 by the National Safety Council as one of seven leaders who demonstrate a personal commitment to worker safety and health. His leadership in the area of safety permeates throughout the business and DTE’s safety culture is embraced by all employees. Some of his contributions to DTE’s safety initiative include:

> The addition of safety as a standing agenda item and creation of a deeper and more vigorous discussion about the strategic direction of the organization’s safety system

> Engagement in routine dialogue with union leadership to create a robust partnership in advancing the safety culture

> Tri-Annual Labor-Management meetings with senior executives and labor leaders to discuss actions, challenges and progress within the safety system


"Gerry Anderson has a high degree of focus to assure we stay on track to become the safest energy company in North America. It’s not a slogan. It’s not a belief. It is purposeful action. It is the way Gerry leads our company, every single day."

 

– Lynette Dowler,
Director - Corporate Safety, DTE Energy

Life Critical Standards

Our Life Critical Standards drive heightened awareness on safety requirements when working in high-risk environments. While every job we do must be evaluated to identify hazards and risks, certain tasks have a higher risk for serious injury, illness or fatality. The standards were deployed and audited in 2015. Our River Rouge Power Plant and Trombly Service Center completed pilot training programs designed to increase adherence to the Life Critical Standards, and we are incorporating the learnings as we expand the program throughout DTE Energy.

 

Health and Wellness

Across our organization, DTE Energy promotes a healthy work environment and helps our employees pursue healthy lifestyles. Our company-wide wellness program, Energize Your Life (EYL), offers many avenues of support for employees seeking to maintain or improve their health. We encourage our employees, retirees and family members to get appropriate health screenings and to practice good behaviors for avoiding chronic disease. Through EYL, we offer a variety of innovative and informative programs and services to make it easier to be healthy, including:

> Opportunities to learn more about their health through annual physicals and a health assessment

> Health and wellness programs to help them manage stress, lose weight, get active, eat better, manage chronic conditions and more

> Rewards for completing healthy activities

To support a healthy and active culture, we have campaigns and offer incentives throughout the year to promote movement, good nutrition and making healthy lifestyle choices. Our cafeterias offer healthy food and nutritional information; many of our facilities include exercise rooms.

In January 2016, we opened a state-of-the-art health and wellness center at our headquarters complex. We partnered with two of the most highly respected and recognized performance and health teams in the country – EXOS and the Henry Ford Health System – to provide our employees industry-leading approaches to overall physical health and the best in medical care, along with the convenience of an on-site facility.

The Health Zone, our onsite medical center, offers basic primary care, occupational health services, first aid and emergency response, and on-site physical therapy. We also offer other services such as weight loss and smoking cessation programs, diabetes management and screening, flu shots, and prescriptions are also part of the on-site programs.

This investment in physical and mental well-being is grounded in our belief that healthy employees are more productive, engaged and energetic at work and at home.

 

Diversity and Inclusion

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.

 

Workforce Development

In the next five to seven years, approximately 41 percent of DTE Energy employees will be eligible for retirement. The future of the company will depend on our ability to transfer institutionalized knowledge to a younger generation through training programs and skills development. As the demographics of the energy sector changes, talented men and women will enjoy tremendous career opportunities in the coming years.

Training

DTE Energy is preparing for these changes by ensuring that our current workforce is ready for this transition. We have invested heavily in developing our people by establishing our Foundational Capabilities system, which defines the training, skills and development that employees need for success within the company. The Foundational Capabilities curriculum covers topics such as Safety Fundamentals, Engagement Skills, Customer Focus, Continuous Improvement, Project Management, Supplier Performance Management, Asset Maintenance, Strong Leadership and Business Acumen. In 2015, DTE employees completed more than 10,000 courses.

When our employees continue their education and become more skilled in their trade or profession, our business benefits. For these reasons, DTE also supports employees in their professional development by providing financial assistance through our education tuition reimbursement program.

We also partner with community organizations to strengthen career pathways in energy. For more information about this initiative, please see the Community section of this report.

Employee Benefits

To maintain our high-performing workforce now and into the future, we offer our employees a competitive compensation and benefits package.

Benefits packages for DTE Energy employees typically include the following items geared toward work-life balance and wellness.

  • > Career progressions
  • > Comprehensive wellness programs
  • > Medical, dental and vision coverage
  • > 401(k)
  • > Paid holidays, vacation and an absence bank
  • > Eligibility for flex time
  • > Training and development
  • > Life Insurance, Accidental Death and Dismemberment Insurance, Long-term
       Disability Coverage
  • > Flexible Spending Accounts
  • > Employee clubs and discount programs
  • > Employee Assistance Program
  • > Long-term Care Insurance
  • > Group Auto and Homeowners Insurance