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Supporting Our Employees & Our Communities

Our approach

Taking care of our people and our communities means dedicating the time, energy and resources to contribute to their growth, success and well-being. Quad takes its responsibility to our employees and the communities in which we do business seriously, investing in programs, policies, practices and development efforts to ensure all feel safe, welcome, heard and supported inside and outside our walls.

“At Quad, our values are at the center of our unique and welcoming culture, driving us to act with urgency and purpose to create a place where everyone can thrive.”

Rob Quadracci
Chief Human Resources Officer

Aligning with third party frameworks

Led by our values and guided by these SDGs, Quad invests in our employees’ career growth, their health, their safety and their total well-being. Quad’s people create a strong competitive advantage — so we take our responsibility to our people very seriously.

United Nations Sustainable Development Goal for Good Health and Well-being icon
United Nations Sustainable Development Goal for Peace Justice and Strong Institutions icon

Supporting Employees & Communities

Quad commits to working diligently to create equity and inclusion within our own operations, our industry and our society overall.

DEI Goals

Quad has outlined three critical DEI goals to ensure we create meaningful change on our journey

Championing a Vibrant Workplace for All Employees

Our lasting values serve as the foundation for our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) work. Quad commits to working diligently to create equity and inclusion within our own operations, our industry and our society overall.

5 Focus Areas for Our DEI Journey

  1. Launched a DEI task force in December 2021 to build and execute a more comprehensive and sustainable strategy that includes metrics and accountability.
  2. Continuing to create an inclusive environment where employees feel seen and heard and bring their best selves to work each day.
  3. Creating a consistent and common language throughout the organization to increase understanding, belonging and empathy.
  4. Delivering results by removing inhibitors to true inclusion in areas such as workforce policies and procedures, procurement and how we serve our clients.
  5. Supporting employees who are leading and driving change through our employee BRGs.

Leading with intention

We continue to create a more open, inclusive culture through DEI learning sessions, beginning with our leaders.

1,600+

leaders participated in our People Leading People program, which is designed to help our managers and supervisors build skills for engaging and motivating employees and create a more positive, inclusive culture.

1,500+

leaders participated in “How to Be an Ally,” a program that offers insights and implementation tools to help foster equity and inclusion in the workplace.

1,500+

leaders completed the Intercultural Development Inventory®, which focuses on strengthening intercultural competencies.

I am. We are.

Our success depends on continual growth, rising from an inclusive, safe and equitable work environment.

To achieve this, we listen, learn and act together through our DEI education and communication platform called I am. We are.
The platform, accessible via our employee intranet, engages employees in our company’s DEI efforts by having them look inward at their own biases and outward at different worldviews.

I am. We are. currently explores a wide range of topics such as:

  • What is DEI?

  • How to navigate challenging DEI conversations.

  • How to spot your implicit bias.

  • How to be an ally to those who look or think differently, or who have had different life experiences.

Increasing Supplier Diversity

Quad is committed to growing a diverse supplier base. It is an important way we can share prosperity, be inclusive of the communities where we do business, and bring our clients the best innovation and overall value.

Our commitment to engaging diverse suppliers Quad’s goal is to increase our long-term spend with diverse suppliers by 10% annually through 2030 through our commitment to:

  • Grow a diverse supplier base reflective of the communities in which we do business.

  • Partner with suppliers who provide the best total value, which includes diversity.

Investing in the Power of Potential

  • To differentiate Quad as an employer of choice, we offer a flexible work model for office-based employees and continue to pilot work schedule options for manufacturing employees that promote work-life balance.
  • We provide an innovative, comprehensive Total Rewards package to be more competitive in each of the labor markets where we have operations. This includes resources for employees’ total wellness across physical, emotional, financial and social well-being.
  • We seek to engage our employees, listening to what matters to them, and then celebrating their accomplishments.
  • We promote career tracks with paths for accelerated responsibility, career growth and competitive earnings. These efforts include creating rich learning and development programs.
  • We remain committed to helping our employees pursue their retirement dreams or other financial goals through tax-advantaged retirement savings plans and free financial coaching.

Recruiting, Interviewing & Hiring

As we integrate our DEI goals into Quad’s recruiting and hiring processes, we are consciously working to improve the candidate experience, create an inclusive environment and reduce potential hiring biases. For example, our Agency Solutions group has been at the forefront of reimagining how we discover, interview and hire employees by:

  • Expanding recruiting resources to reach more candidates.

  • Instituting interview panels and structured questions to reduce bias and eliminate variability.

  • Beginning to use interview scorecards and team reviews to promote objective hiring decisions.

Also, in fall 2022, Quad launched a new recruiting and training hub in Milwaukee’s Central City to build and strengthen relationships within the community while also serving as our new Wisconsin recruiting and training hub.

Competitive Pay & Benefits

Part of Quad’s ongoing legacy is rooted in creating jobs with competitive pay and innovative benefits that support families, strengthen communities and provide long-term career growth opportunities.

  • Our pay processes ensure that Quad is externally competitive for the markets where we compete, and internally equitable based upon employees’ experience, job responsibilities, performance and business results.
  • We regularly evaluate our pay practices and structures, and work toward continued pay equity regardless of gender, race or ethnicity.
  • Based on our belief in fair and competitive pay as a reflection of our Values, Quad will complete its commitment to increase the base hourly rate for all U.S. employees to at least $15/hour by the end of 2022.

Performance Management

100% of our U.S. employees receive annual reviews. We use a holistic approach to listen to employees, evaluate their performance, discuss individual career development, celebrate accomplishments, and set individual and team goals.

  • All employees are reviewed annually against core competencies. The process is a two-way conversation: employees can submit a self-evaluation, giving them a voice.
  • Managers and supervisors take our employees’ input into consideration when preparing evaluations, using it to open up more helpful conversations.
  • Fairness and objectivity are important. We can solicit 360-degree feedback on an employee’s performance from people who have worked closely with the employee, offering new and different viewpoints, and helping to identify an employee’s strengths.
  • Employees can provide written feedback for their review, too. Grounded in our Values, our evaluation process is transparent and ongoing.
  • Evaluations are shared directly with the employee, digitally stored and available to employees year-round.

Employee Engagement & Job Satisfaction

Becoming an employer of choice begins with listening to our employees. In recent years, we have begun using engagement surveys to help us better understand what our employees like about working for Quad, what we can improve, and what could drive greater job satisfaction. These surveys are critical to maintaining our culture and values, including creating a welcoming, inclusive environment.

  • We administer our surveys online using a third-party experience management company to protect our employees’ anonymity and encourage candid feedback.
  • We include standard questions on engagement, communications, leadership and DEI together with questions customized to department and location.
  • Survey results are taken seriously. They are aggregated and shared with both local and corporate leadership.
  • Our internal engagement specialists help interpret the results and lead discussions about what the data means, including what may be happening in various locations or among different demographics, what events may be impacting engagement, and what trends to pay attention to moving forward.
  • Leaders incorporate feedback into their plans to address areas of impact or concern, while inviting employees into continued, productive conversation.

People & Career Development

Quad’s programs help employees not only build new skills, but discover personal strengths and instill confidence as they grow at our company.

Manufacturing Apprenticeships

The ability to develop and retain talent, especially during a skilled worker shortage, has become a critical factor in our success. Our hands-on, mentor-led apprenticeship programs are effective at creating an employee pipeline in key trades.

Retirement Planning

At Quad, we encourage financial planning and retirement readiness through several free services, including one-on-one financial coaching, access to online financial and retirement modeling resources, and live virtual webinars.

As of December 31, 2022, 94.5% of eligible U.S. Quad employees participated in our tax deferred 401(k) retirement savings plan, with an average annual deferral rate of 8.5%. Offered as part of our overall financial wellness program, Quad’s 401(k) plan makes it simple for our employees to fund their retirement savings through:

Quick facts – Quad employment representation

As of December 31, 2022, Quad has the following employee representation:

8%

of Quad U.S. Management identifies as people of color

29%

of Quad U.S. employees identify as people of color

36%

of Quad U.S. Management identifies as women

32%

of Quad U.S. employees identify as women

Employment Representation – Agency Solutions

As of December 31, 2022, Quad’s Agency Solutions group has the following employee representation:

11%

of QAS director and above positions are held by people of color

20%

of QAS employees identify as people of color

43%

of QAS director and above positions are held by women

59%

of QAS employees identify as women

Retention

When an employee reaches one year of service, we know they are more likely to have a long-term career at Quad. We are focused on improving the number of employees who reach that important one-year milestone. As of December 31, 2022:

35%

of new-hires reached one year of service

41%

of newly hired women reaching one year of service

29%

of newly hired people of color reaching one year of service

Our business resource groups

BRGs assist the company in engaging, developing and retaining employees throughout the organization, and provide executive leadership with feedback on company policies, community issues and the unique needs of their community.

1,600

The number of Quad employees who have engaged in our BRG program as of mid-year 2023.

QuadMed

QuadMed is one of the nation’s most successful worksite health and wellness providers, offering a whole-person clinical care model to forward-thinking employers who, like Quad, desire higher-value health care experiences for their workforces.

Our employees and their dependents on Quad’s health plan have access to a wide array of QuadMed programs and resources to manage their health and wellness — all at no cost. These programs include:

QLife Wellness

When we talk about wellness at Quad, we mean full-circle support for our employees’ physical, emotional, financial and social well-being. Launched in 2020, QLife Wellness is a game-changing approach to helping our employees manage their total wellness.

  • Staying physically active

  • Information about medical plan benefits

  • Stress management resources

  • Substance abuse counseling

  • Mental health counseling resources

  • Budgeting and financial counseling services

  • Retirement planning resources

  • Family care resources

  • Financial emergency relief

Community partnerships

We support these organizations and others by sharing our financial resources, offering in-kind services, working as volunteers, or partnering to imagine and create new opportunities. Learn more about the organizations we support to build a strong sense of community both inside and outside of Quad.