People

Our focus on People is advancing our commitment to diversity and inclusion and the important benefits that result. We recognize that in corporations around the world, women and minorities fall behind early and continue to lose ground along their career journeys. At Avient we’re working to change that, and we’re making progress. At the core of our improvement is our management commitment, which has fostered multiple Employee Resource Groups that are driving improvements —and opening opportunities—throughout our organization.

The vision that guides our collective efforts is consistent and unwavering: To be the company of choice for all. It is from this vision our Employee Resource Groups were born and now flourish today. Each with their own mission and supporting activities, their efforts coalesce to help educate and inspire our global workforce and fortify sustainable business practices.

Avient's LEAD by Women Employee Resource Group promotes inclusion and diversity by increasing access to the tools and resources necessary to build leadership skills and accelerate careers. While led by women, the initiative is all-inclusive—everyone is encouraged to participate, learn, improve skills sets, and advance our mission. In 2018 the group led numerous leadership development training sessions, covering topics such as unconscious bias, building trust and impactful communication.

Since 2018, more than 4,500 associates have participated in at least one of the 60+ LEAD by Women events. Each global region has its own, rotating leadership structure that tailors programming and information to localized needs. This decentralized approach ensures sensitivity to local customs and norms, while still advancing Avient’s overarching objectives.

In 2018, we were excited to launch PRIDE at Avient. This Employee Resource Group works to create a safe and accepting environment that enables LGBTQ associates to perform to their fullest potential and contribute to the success of our company. Through a combination of seminar participation and peer company benchmarking, our team quickly began offering educational programming and awareness—for both LGBTQ associates and supporters.

This year we were proud to achieve an important milestone in this regard: receiving a score of 100/100 on the 2020 Corporate Equality Index (CEI). The CEI is the United States’ premier report on corporate policies and practices relating to LGBTQ workplace equality, administered by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation. Our score reflects Avient’s clear commitment to workplace equality, with respect to policies, benefits and practices. 

We also launched HYPE (Harnessing Young Professional Energy) in 2018, which is building a collaborative network of Avient’s young professionals, eager to innovate and impact our customers with the support of cross-generational expertise.

Beginning a career in any field is exciting, but it can also be daunting and overwhelming.  Not only are young professionals learning their jobs, technical skills and organizational savvy, many are also experiencing how to navigate personal finances, independent lifestyles and general life skills—all at the same time.

HYPE was formed to help our associates with this transition.  Networking events bring together Avient’s Young Professionals in forums to build their networks among peers, so they learn, support and grow together during this time. Special “life skills” training sessions help HYPE participants in areas like benefits enrollment and filing a personal tax return.  Looking ahead, HYPE will be addressing early awareness on career mapping and establishing mentoring relationships with more tenured Avient associates eager to share their experiences.

Racial diversity brings about new ways of thinking, and improves idea generation and innovation. Increasing racial representation is an important part of Avient’s journey. EMBRACE aims to expand our ability to attract, develop and retain racially diverse talent. We do this by supporting recruiting and onboarding programs and by engaging with our existing associates to build on a culture of inclusion. As with all of Avient’s ERGs, EMBRACE is all-inclusive and open to any associate who wants to get involved.