South Africa – A Country Filled With Life, Love And Beauty
I would like to thank Celanese for selecting me to participate in the 2017 Celanese International Impact Program (CIIP) in South Africa! I appreciated being a part of this group and am grateful for each moment I experienced. I am sure that I made an impact in that community; and the people there have impacted me forever.
Before leaving for this trip, I was excited to do something for another community and knew we would put our dedication, patience and love into every detail. I was eager to live in another culture and reality. I was ready to meet my colleagues from the Celanese community and show the world…
A Perspective On Female Engineers At Celanese
Celanese’s University Recruiting Team recently attended the Society of Women Engineers Annual Conference in Austin, Texas. At this World’s Largest Conference for Women Engineers, our recruitment team sought out talented college students, recent graduates and female engineering professionals to introduce them to, and educate them on, the many benefits of working for Celanese. The opportunity to gain valuable engineering experience with a global Fortune 500 company; the culture of diversity and inclusion; and the opportunity to make a difference in the world through our many volunteer initiatives, differentiate Celanese from other companies in the chemicals and materials industry.
We interviewed a few of Celanese’s own talented engineers, including Sarah Abrego, Trinity Hale and Lauren Moore, to gain insight into why they chose Celanese as the place to begin their careers…
Collaborative Process Safety: How To Steal Shamelessly And Get Away With It!
I have the coolest job at Celanese. In process safety, we save lives, protect the environment and preserve all our jobs by keeping bad things from happening in our manufacturing plants. This may seem like a rather bold statement, but consider the toxic gas release that occurred in Bhopal, India in 1984. The company which had the incident no longer exist. The chemical industry was transformed in a positive way through regulations and voluntary improvements to the way we design, build, operate and maintain our manufacturing facilities…
Seeing Through Another Person’s Eyes At The Florence Facility
It was the middle of Summer. I had been leading the Florence Facility Pride Team for almost a year, and we had rolled out some great events and initiatives. This day, I was setting up the Town Hall room for a guest speaker through our ERG shared program called “Through One’s Eyes.” It is a way for WIN, Young Professionals and Pride to bring true stories of the community to share in our message of diversity and inclusion. This month, it was Paula Ison, and she was going to speak about her life being transgender.
Paula began her life story and invited anyone to ask whatever they wished. No holds barred. Many attendees asked some great questions, and then a man raised his hand. His question made me realize that my team and I are making a difference in sharing a perspective others may have previously been unfamiliar with…
CIIP Team Brings Company Values To Life In Real Time
In September I had an opportunity to participate in a networking event with the Budapest Shared Services Center (BSSC) in Hungary. This was not a traditional “job fair” event, but instead a relaxed, after-hours event where we invited people to come in and learn more about the BSSC, its people and culture. Instead of a booth and a line, we mixed with potential candidates and were able to have individual or small group conversations.
As a talent acquisition professional, listening to people is the most important thing I do. So, when I meet with potential candidates, my role isn’t to just start talking about all of the great reasons to work for Celanese; it’s to listen to what is important to them and then help guide them to the connection with Celanese…
Why Serving Others Is The Greatest Reward
“Teacher, Teacher, Teacher…” The kids’ voices still echo in my mind. One month ago, I jumped on the flight to South Africa for the Celanese International Impact Program (CIIP).
In Johannesburg Airport, an African lady gave a helping hand when I was totally lost in front of the complicated transfer process. She helped me to pass the migration office through the clerk channel and claim the luggage, then sent me to another terminal for the flight check in to Cape Town. Her warm-heartedness made me feel at home…
A Human Difference: The Chemistry Behind Our Culture Of Stewardship
As former vice president of stewardship and operational excellence, I’ve had the opportunity to experience stewardship from a unique perspective. Having been with Celanese for less than two years, I’m impressed by our extensive commitment to our stewardship culture: worker safety, environmental protection and the commitment to caring for precious natural resources. Among similar companies globally, Celanese rates in the top decile in the world for measured stewardship performance.
Stewardship often brings two things to mind: safety and environmental sustainability – and Celanese is well-known for handling both with diligence and care. But at Celanese, stewardship means more than just avoiding incidents at our facilities and it means more than just protecting the environment. It also means caring for our people, our community, our planet and our customers…
150,000 Hour Challenge – 45 Days To Go
As a senior in high school, my dad came home from work one night and asked me two questions about my day. The first was standard and straightforward … “How was your day?” The second, “What did you do to help someone today?” Recounting my day, as an arrogant and self-absorbed eighteen year-old, I had to shamefully respond with, “Nothing.” That moment sticks in mind. My father wasn’t angry, he never brought it up again and probably doesn’t even remember it. I do however. I remember thinking how easy it should have been to do ONE THING to make someone else’s day better.
What if everyone, before they went to bed at night, made a point to do one nice thing for someone else that day?
Being B.O.L.D.
In a Ted Talk video featured at the launch of the Dallas chapter of B.O.L.D. (Blacks Organized for Leadership Development), Verna Myers said,
“We can’t just decide not to see color. The problem was never that we saw color; it’s what we did when we saw color.” She went on to say, “While we’re busy pretending not to see, we are not being aware of the ways in which racial difference is changing people’s possibilities.”
I think we’d all like to believe we’re color-blind when it comes to racial diversity, but unfortunately, we’ve got a long way to go toward making equality the rule rather than the exception…
Keep Up The Momentum – Creating Change And Building Relationships
Every September Celanese is inspired by the collective efforts of our employees who make a difference during Global Impact Month. This year 36 sites participated, including 2,495 employees, who organized 3,503 projects and logged 32,102 volunteer hours. That brings our year to date total to 117,397 hours! Thanks to everyone who participated! It’s great to see our people in the community demonstrating our company value of Improving the World.
On our social media channels, Global Impact Month is where you saw how we’re making an impact and building relationships…
Behind The Scenes Of The Celanese BBSC Image Video
At the beginning of 2017, the Budapest team received an exciting email from Corporate Communications. They were looking for a handful of actors to star in an engaging short film about our office, our people and life at Celanese Hungary. Needless to say, I was in! Mere minutes after the first email, Petra Czugler, corporate communications manager Europe, and project owner, gathered her team of enthusiastic actors, and the preparations began…
Listening As An Ally Through Email
Every day we take in a lot of information, especially when it comes to our email. So how do you tackle active listening when reading and responding to email? Recently I received an email request that wasn’t clear to me. It could have been the note itself, or the fact that it was a Friday morning and my coffee hadn’t kicked in yet. I paused and reread it and it still wasn’t clear. There was something missing and I didn’t know what, so I reached out to my colleague…
How We Quit Smoking…Together
Our journey started in the fall of 2016 when my husband, Fred, and I were prompted to get annual physicals and there was a U.S. benefit decision to begin smoking surcharges in the near future.
The findings on our physicals brought me to the decision that something had to change with our current way of life.
“But how was I going to be able to stop smoking after 50 years,” kept ringing in my head.
A Brief History Of Our PartiCIIPiants
South America, Europe, Asia – and this year, Africa. Now that the Celanese International Impact Program (CIIP) has achieved a global reach, let’s celebrate what we’ve accomplished through this program.
I remember back in 2013, when CIIP was launched. The whole company was incredibly excited about the opportunity. One month in such an exotic country as Brazil – you could really make an impact! The application process took several weeks and included writing essays, personal interviews – and even creating your own project video in the final round!
Walking With Hope
The last 12 months have been the most challenging, emotional and enlightening time of my life. On January 18, 2017, my husband died of complications from heart failure one week before our thirteenth wedding anniversary. During the last several months of his life, we went from hospital to hospital on a roller coaster of medical and emotional ups and downs. During these months, I continued working and tried my best to continue to be self-sufficient. I have always been very independent and not one to ask for help. Once my friends and colleagues learned of our situation, the amount of support was overwhelming. From care packages, to the delivery of meals for the entire family at the hospital and gift cards, to support of my caffeine habit, I can’t express how meaningful it was to understand the extent of my support network and how much everyone wanted to help. I learned during this time that it is not weak to ask for help – in fact it makes people feel good to be able to help and do whatever they can during these challenging times.
