A positive working environment is essential for employees to achieve their potential. It helps attract new employees to Merck and motivates them to stay.

Components of our working environment include numerous opportunities for employee development and professional growth, competitive compensation and benefits, our focus on health and safety, and our approach to diversity and inclusion. To be a leading healthcare company, we must make sure that our workforce operates at the best of its abilities. Recognizing this, we are striving to become a high-performance organization. Our efforts to build a positive working environment that promotes high performance are based upon the following principles:

1. We are a unified company, with all employees sharing in the mission of improving global health
2. We share a strong core of ethics and integrity
3. We put patients and customers first
4. We value diversity and inclusion as essential, integrated elements of our culture and leadership
5. We demonstrate scientific, business and operational excellence
6. We are results driven and highly competitive
7. We are empowered to make decisions and hold ourselves accountable for the outcomes
8. We innovate and take appropriate risks
9. We value feedback and learn from our successes and our mistakes
10. We encourage debate and communicate candidly and respectfully
11. We are efficient, agile and responsive to change

Leadership Behaviors, Employee Development and Professional Growth

In 2010, Merck introduced new employee behavior standards closely aligned with the company's business strategy and Code of Conduct. These seven Leadership Behaviors apply to every Merck colleague and support us in our efforts to consistently perform at a level of excellence, achieve our strategic goals and help us create and sustain our high-performance culture.

Merck conducts a rigorous and transparent annual performance review of all employees at all levels globally to guide company decisions relating to compensation and rewards. Employee performance is measured, in part, by how well employees demonstrate Merck's Leadership Behaviors. In this way, we seek to emphasize not just what an employee achieves, but also how he or she achieves it. This is so critical to the company that the annual incentive bonus of management-level employees is determined, in part, by demonstrated leadership that is consistent with the behaviors. This approach encourages managers throughout the company to model expected values and behaviors and more quickly embed them across Merck.

In addition, we conduct an annual employee development planning process in which managers discuss with each of their employees his or her strengths and development needs. The manager and employee then jointly create an action plan to strengthen development areas and build new leadership skills.

Diversity and Inclusion

We believe that our human and organizational differences, when managed successfully, will make us a more innovative, agile and profitable company. By leveraging our differences, we can build and sustain a workforce and culture in which people are engaged and motivated to work at the highest level of their individual and team capabilities. For more information, click here.

Work-life Integration

Merck takes a comprehensive and holistic view towards work-life integration. We focus on a broad array of programs to appeal to employees at all stages of life. Employees who manage multiple responsibilities in the home and in the workplace, employees who are caregivers to elderly parents, employees with visible or non-apparent disabilities, or employees who have religious obligations—indeed all employees benefit from greater work-life integration offered at Merck.
For more information, click here.

Wellness

A healthy and safe workforce is a more productive workforce. Merck provides employees with a wide variety of health programs in alignment with the highest standards of local medical care and regulatory requirements to enhance their health and well-being. Through our various wellness programs, we offer a range of confidential personal tools, programs and activities to support an individual's health choices and to build a work culture that reinforces healthy, safe behaviors. U.S.-based employees can also access our Employee Assistance Program, which provides free short-term counseling on health matters, legal consultations and financial counseling.

Worldwide, we make special disability accommodations available to all our employees with special needs. In addition, we are committed to providing a safe working environment by taking preventative actions as well as closely tracking accidents, injuries and illnesses, so that we can address problems promptly and work toward eliminating occupational injuries and illness. For more information, click here.

Employee Giving

Our employees want to contribute to their communities, which we encourage as a way for Merck to be an integral part of communities worldwide. For more information, click here.

Partnership for Giving: The Merck Company Foundation matches U.S. and Puerto Rico-based employee and retiree contributions, up to $30,000 per donor per year, to eligible U.S. nonprofit organizations. Our support for employee contributions to worthy causes not only assists thousands of organizations but also expresses Merck's engagement and support of our communities.

Employee Volunteering: In January 2009, a new Global Employee Volunteerism Policy was introduced to expand Merck's culture of volunteerism and to encourage employees worldwide to volunteer. Merck considers active employee volunteering as a way to engage with individuals and groups in our communities and hopes to expand opportunities for employee involvement in local communities.

Merck also has numerous local volunteer programs in place around the world addressing a variety of societal challenges, from "Love in Action" in Korea, "ARTZ (Artists for Alzheimers')" in France, "Roll Up Your Sleeves" in the Netherlands, and "Street Law" in New Jersey.

Merck Blood Drives: For employees who wish to give blood, Merck runs regular blood drives in partnership with the Red Cross or Red Crescent and other volunteer organizations.

For more information on these and other programs, click here.

Employee Communication & Engagement

Our employees use numerous mechanisms for questioning and commenting on Merck's mission, goals, business strategy, performance and work environment. For example, an employee opinion survey provides global feedback that management rigorously analyzes and uses to inform decisions.

In addition, the company conducts quarterly internal business briefings live via webcast, which are then archived. Merck's CEO and Executive Committee members also meet regularly with smaller groups of employees for informal breakfast and town hall discussions.

The company has a global enterprise portal, known as "Sync", through which employees have access to company news and videos, divisional and functional news channels, and organizational communities that allow them to share interests, messages and ideas online. In addition to the Sync portal, other employee communications vehicles include quarterly employee business briefings, town halls, and email communications from senior management, as necessary, to communicate more broadly with employees worldwide.

If our employees have any concerns or wish to report behaviors that seem at odds with Merck's Code of Conduct, they can contact the Merck Ombudsman and/or the Merck AdviceLine.