Our PeopleArticle
Culture of Impact
September 04, 2024
Our Chief Human Resources Officer on how our culture of impact drives growth for our people, our company and our communities.
In my role at Trane Technologies, I’m dedicated to recruiting, retaining and developing talent for growth across our global workforce. Every day, my work is energized by our company’s purpose, to boldly challenge what’s possible for a sustainable world, and by the people who make it possible.
A purpose is only words until you make it real for yourself. We help employees find their own connection to our purpose, whether it’s innovating energy-efficient products, working with our customers to reduce the environmental impact of their business or finding ways to create inclusion and a sense of belonging in the workplace. Our global salaried employees also formalize their connection to our purpose each year by committing to a sustainability goal as part of their annual performance objectives.
Our uplifting, engaging and inclusive culture—a culture of impact that guides over 46,000 people who work in nearly 60 countries—is the foundation for our company and our purpose. It’s a way of being that differentiates us, connects us and helps us grow and advance our 2030 Sustainability Commitments.
Growth through expanded support
In June, I participated in an event with our PRIDE Employee Resource Group (ERG) and experienced our culture of impact firsthand.
Our PRIDE ERG group has been educating team members and supporting LGBTQ+ communities and their families for more than 10 years. Their advocacy recently inspired Trane Technologies to expand family benefits to include domestic partners, adoption services and surrogate and IVF support. This update opened up a whole new world of possibilities for our team members. As one individual shared: “My partner and I couldn’t afford IVF and didn’t think we would be able to have children … until now.”
Our team members challenged what was possible and asked leaders to explore and expand their understanding. As a result, they created new opportunities for their peers to thrive at work and at home.
Growth through innovation
In 2023 our Employee Resource Groups expanded globally, adding 800 new team members, delivered innovative content and engaged their members in a variety of heritage month celebrations, career development discussions, mentoring programs and recruiting and community involvement events.
Because our people share an authentic connection to our purpose, innovation also thrives here. In 2023, we launched 98 new products that are helping our customers dramatically reduce their carbon footprint. These innovative solutions also accelerate our progress toward our signature sustainability commitment, the Gigaton Challenge, the largest climate commitment of any global company related to product emission reductions within a single decade.
Earlier this summer, I participated in the opening festivities for the Trane Technologies Innovation Center in Oberhausen, Germany. The event celebrated the ingenuity of our team members in pioneering heating and cooling solutions for industrial and commercial buildings, advancing electrification and promoting new ideas in cold storage.
The Innovation Center itself shows how we lead by example. The facility runs on an innovative heating and cooling technology we developed that eliminates the need for fossil fuels while also reducing the site’s carbon emissions—the equivalent of the emissions generated by powering 100 homes for one year. This is the kind of people-powered solution that makes a powerful impact on our communities and planet.
The Gigaton Challenge is our pledge to reduce one billion metric tons (one gigaton) of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions from our customers' footprint by 2030, the equivalent of 2% of the world's annual emissions. As of 2023, we’ve reduced 157 million metric tons of carbon emissions from our customers' footprint.
Hiring and keeping the best talent in our industry isn’t just a nice idea; it’s critical for us to continue to grow and innovate for the future.
Growth through creating opportunity
We need talented people to solve the world’s most pressing challenges, grow our company and increase our impact. We also believe that investing in a diverse workforce is an essential catalyst for growth. Diverse teams tap into a broader range of perspectives and solutions, leading to increased innovation—the force behind our continued success.
To broaden the field of candidates for our global workforce, we have to challenge some of our traditional assumptions. In the United States, for example, hiring practices that rely on prior, specific industry experience or a four-year degree automatically exclude a significant pool of skilled talent, including more than half of women, over 60% of Black talent and over 60% of rural workers.
By removing degree requirements where it makes sense and challenging the idea that industry experience is always required, Trane Technologies is increasing our access to talent and opening new pathways for people to advance their careers. To date, we have removed the four-year degree requirement for more than a dozen roles across the company, including in business-critical roles such as account managers, plant supervisors, maintenance managers and transportation planners.
Trane Technologies was also named the first manufacturing partner to join the Tear the Paper Ceiling coalition led by Opportunity@Work. Through this effort, we actively work to create more opportunities for workers who are Skilled Through Alternative Routes (STARs).
Listen to our Healthy Spaces podcast on Climate Talent with Opportunity @ Work CEO Byron Auguste and Trane Technologies VP of Talent Betsey Strobl.
To further address the skilled labor gap and build a diverse service technician workforce, we launched the Trane Technician Apprenticeship Program (TAP) in 2023. Registered through the U.S. Department of Labor, the TAP is a robust, nationwide, four-year paid program designed to attract and retain aspiring HVAC technicians, regardless of experience or education.
Our best is yet to come
Hiring and keeping the best talent in our industry isn’t just a nice idea; it’s critical for us to continue to grow and innovate for the future. My goal for current and future team members is to feel supported by our culture, connected to our purpose and inspired to make a difference every day.
One person, one team, one bold action at a time—this is how we create a culture of impact, and this is how we grow.
Since its launch, the TAP has supported more than 120 apprentices nationwide across three cohorts. The most recent cohort was the most diverse yet with 48% of the apprentices from underrepresented populations. Our fourth cohort begins in August 2024 and is the largest in the program’s history.
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