All Sherwin-Williams CBG Europe employees were given an individual sustainability objective within their Annual Performance goal plan. The total target for actions completed by all employees was 600 actions.

Each employee had the objective of leading or contributing to two actions or projects that would have a positive impact on the company’s sustainability. However, there was no clear way to measure employees’ collective impact, which made it difficult to share success and build momentum. 

Employees were keen to get involved but struggled with ideas and with understanding the impact they were making with their actions. On top of this, collective action was difficult to co-ordinate across teams, with no clear understanding of the overall impact created by all employees.

Sherwin-Williams’ goals included:

• Making it easier for employees to find actions and get involved

• Building a collective approach to inspire group impact

• Finding ways to celebrate impact as an organisation 

• Moving the annual target of 600 total actions to 7,500 total actions

Sherwin-Williams’ employee engagement approach can be split into 4 pillars.

1. Introducing OnHand to all employees

By launching OnHand at their annual sales conference, Sherwin-Williams had the opportunity to share the message across a large number of employees at once. 

This launch was supported by a pre-launch teaser in a monthly all-employees call, and launch messaging as integrated into bite-sized recaps for all non-attendees.

Sherwin-Williams got their employees to immediately make an impact: they split employees into teams for a race in partnership with Re-Cycle. Teams had to complete challenges to win parts to build a bicycle, which Re-Cycle then re-distributed through Africa.

By launching with such an impactful activity, Sherwin-Williams ensured their partnership with OnHand would be memorable.

2. Building sustainability activity into all employee annual performance goals 

All employees were given the objective of signing up to OnHand and completing 25 actions within the first year.

Employees also had a collective goal of contributing 2,000 trees to the Sherwin-Williams forest. 

3. Leading from the top

Sherwin-Williams’ leadership team was key to launch activity, building and maintaining momentum, and integrating OnHand into employee annual goals. Leaders also used annual awards to reward top performers and incentivise employee impact.

4. Including employee across all regions, including non-English speaking areas

The OnHand launch was supported with live translations for attendees from France and Poland. All OnHand content post-launch was also translated into both languages to provide regular progress and news updates.

Before Sherwin-Williams implemented new engagement strategies, employees completed 600 sustainability actions in a year. The organisation aimed to increase this to 7,500 tasks completed within a year of launching with OnHand (Feb 2024 to Feb 2025). 

With their OnHand strategy, Sherwin-Williams exceeded their target by more than 1,000%, completing 90,471 tasks within the first year of launching.

Furthermore: 

• 80% of EMEAI employees had signed up to the OnHand platform within 2 months of launching 

• All French and Polish employees signed up, and featured prominently among the most engaged employees (6 out of the 10 employees who completed the most actions in a year were French or Polish)

• All employees signed up to OnHand within the first year

• 96% of employees completed at least one action within the first 12 months

• Only 12% of employees didn’t hit their personal target of completing 25 or more actions during the first year

Sherwin-Williams’ success can be tied to their methodical, step-by-step approach. Leaders also ensured they made launching OnHand accessible, and used consistent engagement methods to keep employees interested.

• The Sherwin-Williams annual sales conference established a strong launch and engaged all employees immediately through a team volunteering activity 

• Leaders established regular sustainability slots within monthly all-employee meetings to reward their most engaged employees and make impact relevant

• Personal sustainability goals for employees ensured OnHand was front of mind and that employees were rewarded for doing good

• End-of-year awards encouraged employee engagement and incentivised top-performing OnHand users 

• Sherwin-Williams team events (such as painting schools during the summer holidays) boosted morale and team synergy

Sherwin-Williams are continuing to uphold their engagement strategy to this day, with employees consistently making up a significant portion of most engaged OnHand users across all organisations.