Sims Metal Management Receives Award

Scrap metal company honored by research firm for its employee engagement practices.

Sims Metal Management (SMM), New York City, has received an award from the global research firm ORC International, Princeton, N.J. SMM’s North American region received ORC’s top prize as part of its annual Employee Engagement Awards.

According to an ORC International news release, following a merger between Sims Group Ltd. and Metal Management Inc., the company sought to find out how engaged its employees were and embarked on its first employee engagement survey in 2011.

The organization received a response rate of 91 percent, exceeding industry and global norms. The results of the survey also were positive, with overall employee engagement at 77 percent, considerably above other global manufacturers, according to ORC International’s benchmarking database.

“A great deal of the company’s success in this area can be attributed to the commitment of our group CEO Daniel Dienst, and his support in the value of engaging our employees in this manner,” says Thomas Sansone, SMM chief human resources officer.

“In addition to our CEO’s commitment, we had a strong message around three commitments from senior management,” he continues, “the first being that responses would be kept totally confidential; secondly, that we would share all the results whether they were good or bad; and finally, that we would take the results seriously and take appropriate actions.

“We always say and truly believe that we have some of the best employees in the industry and possibly in any company,” adds Sansone. “I think the employees saw that this was an initiative that our CEO and the senior management team was really taking seriously and they saw it as an opportunity to provide constructive feedback on their company to help make it a better place.

“I want to thank ORC International for the role they played in helping to make this a success. We worked very closely together throughout the whole process and they were a great help and provided invaluable guidance every step of the way," Sansone says.