Social
We succeed when people flourish.
Social Priorities
To succeed in today’s world of rapid change, we must have a heightened sense of urgency and the commitment to continually transform our performance. Our Principle Based Management® philosophy encourages and equips individuals to practice lifelong learning, drive innovation, embrace transformation and achieve self-actualization. Unleashing the true potential of every employee is key to their success, the success of our organization and society at large.
The safety and well-being of our employees and communities is our first priority. We build capability in our employees and resilience in our systems to prevent serious incidents.
We believe everyone can discover and develop their innate abilities and apply them to contribute and succeed when empowered to do so. We seek to create opportunities based on each individual’s unique gifts and potential to contribute. A supervisor’s primary role is to support employee development by designing roles that fit, coaching and mentoring to help them thrive, seeking and using their knowledge and ideas, removing barriers, and encouraging role changes (anywhere across the Koch companies) that enable them to more fully realize their potential.
We aim to motivate and reward employees for their contribution to the long-term success of Koch consistent with Our Values. We continually look for mutually beneficial outcomes by providing employees with benefit choices aligned with their values and personal situations.
We strive to treat every person with dignity and respect, encourage and foster networking, and sponsor activities that are inclusive and focus on shared interests. We celebrate the uniqueness of each individual and believe it is disrespectful to judge a person — positively or negatively — based on group identity. Characteristics such as heritage, gender, and many others often inform an individual’s experiences and perspectives and can help them create value, but no single characteristic should be used to define another person.
We continually expand our outreach to hire and retain contribution-motivated employees. Koch selects and empowers employees, including leaders, who have a variety of aptitudes, skills, knowledge, experiences, and backgrounds. This diversity enables us to work together to identify opportunities, solve problems, and create greater value for others. We solicit challenge consistently and respectfully from employees at all levels of the organization.
Through our businesses and philanthropic endeavors, we seek to make society better through mutual benefit. We contribute to creating the best possible environment where all people have the opportunity to develop their unique talents and abilities. We provide employee engagement opportunities that enable them to build relationships, have meaningful and fulfilling experiences, and make a positive difference in their communities based on what is important to them.
Health and Safety
Passion to Protect
This isn't just a workplace — it's our home, our environment and our community. We strive to go beyond standard industry practice on safety and expect all employees to comply with all laws and regulations.
Our employees live out our Passion to Protect vision and pledge every day. They work diligently to ensure the mechanical integrity of our equipment and reliability of our plants, while adhering to safe work practices and wearing the proper personal protective equipment (PPE).
Each employee receives extensive on-going environmental, health and safety (EHS) training based on their role.
In our plants and terminals, employees take a variety of EHS courses such as fire prevention, electrical safety, fall protection, power tool usage, confined workspaces, hazard materials and much more.
Additionally, all terminal employees and many other operations personnel are Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response (HAZWOPER) certified, which includes a combination of training courses and field exercises. The HAZWOPER program establishes guidelines and requirements for individuals responding to releases of hazardous material. We also require respiratory fit tests and medical screening for all our HAZWOPER personnel.
Along with on-site safety training, our teams conduct joint training with local emergency response services. Our terminal teams complete yearly emergency preparedness tabletop exercises and rotate Level 1 and Level 2 live drills. A Level 1 drill simulates an actual emergency scenario. During a Level 1 drill, local emergency services respond to the incident and coordinate with staff on-site and local medical facilities. For a Level 2 drill, teams train on a specific element of the Level 1 drill to enhance their skills in a particular area. Following the drills, responders receive a tour of our terminals to understand the equipment on site, potential risks, etc.
Learn more about our employees who go above and beyond to ensure safety in the workplace and that everyone goes home safely.
Transportation Safety
Koch Fertilizer is committed to safely handling nitrogen fertilizers to protect the health of our employees, our community and our shared environment. Our logistics team has earned eight Union Pacific Pinnacle Awards and six Kansas City Southern Hazardous Material Shipper Safety Awards for having zero non-accident releases of regulated hazardous materials shipments. Additionally, every year our plants and terminals each recognize a truck driver who has embodied the commitment to safe handling and transportation of our products.
Employee Experience
We believe a business can only succeed long-term if it operates in a spirit of mutual benefit — a win-win philosophy. Of course, this mutual benefit must extend to employees and their efforts and abilities to create value.
We work to empower every individual to unleash their unique gifts and achieve their full potential to develop, contribute, self-actualize and create value for the world while supporting communities in which we live. We offer diverse learning and growth opportunities including Principle Based Management® principles, personalized career development, business knowledge and decision-making, supervisor development and much more.
Community Involvement & Philanthropy
We focus on helping people improve their lives through education, mentoring, job skills development and support of the communities where we live and operate. One community, one partnership, one person at a time.
We support an environment where students are able to discover, develop and apply their unique abilities, establishing a foundation for a life of contribution and fulfillment. We support a variety of programs from STEM and agricultural education to skilled trades and vocational technology schools.
For nearly a decade, Koch Fertilizer has supported local education programs focused on manufacturing, operations, maintenance and skilled trades careers. We provide scholarships and donate personal protective equipment (PPE) for classes, while our employees share their work experience with students and highlight career opportunities.
Since 2010, Koch Fertilizer Canada has sponsored scholarships for students attending Assiniboine Community College. In 2021, the team provided four scholarships for incoming students.
Our Koch Fertilizer Enid facility supports several agricultural education initiatives. Since 2019, they have sponsored Oklahoma FFA career development events for the northwest district including public speaking, parliamentary procedure and the quiz bowl. Koch Fertilizer Enid also sponsors the Oklahoma Youth Expo, including the ag mechanics and engineering contest. Employees served on the judging panel and evaluated more than 80 student-built projects.
For more than 10 years, Koch Fertilizer Dodge City has partnered with Empowered, formerly Youth Entrepreneurs, in Dodge City High School. Empowered is a classroom-curriculum program teaching students about business and entrepreneurship to help them professionally develop for their futures outside of high school. Additionally, our employees volunteer their time to share their experiences in manufacturing with Dodge City High School students.
Koch Fertilizer Fort Dodge has sponsored the Iowa Central Community College STEAMFest for several years. Employees teach students about careers in science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics through hands-on activities.
We value a strong partnership with our local emergency responders who protect our communities every day. Along with critical emergency services, they provide essential training for our employees and others in the community. It’s a privilege to provide financial support for new equipment — fire hose, rescue harnesses, first aid and CPR supplies, and more — and on-going training that will help benefit our communities.
Additionally, our teams conduct joint training and live drills with local emergency response services.
Koch Fertilizer and our employees invest in programs to support the social and economic well-being of our communities, such as Habitat for Humanity, local food and clothing assistance organizations, Big Brothers Big Sisters of America and many more.
For the past five years, the Koch Fertilizer Canada team has sponsored Brandon’s Food for Thought, a breakfast and snack program that helps ensure all school aged students have an opportunity to eat a nutritional healthy breakfast before starting school every day.
Our Enid team has been a long supporter of Loaves and Fishes of northwest Oklahoma. They host multiple donations drives throughout the year as well as volunteer in the garden and warehouse.
Our Beatrice team hosts donation drives to support the Beatrice Community Food Pantry and A Warmer Day. They collect pantry and canned foods, coats, hats, gloves and monetary donations.
Recently, our Koch Fertilizer logistics team began an annual Make a Difference event. The team donated and collected items for blessing bags — filled with toiletries, socks and snacks — and distributed to those in need in Wichita, Kansas and Brandon, Manitoba, Canada. In addition, they distributed coats, blankets and shoes.
Through the years, our teams have participated in Habitat for Humanity projects. We’ve helped build houses in the Enid, Oklahoma and Wichita, Kansas communities.
Our Dodge City team has been a long-time sponsor of Dodge City Days and the Dodge City Roundup Rodeo, which promote the area’s western heritage.
Many of our Wichita employees donate time, supplies and funds during Koch’s Season of Giving, which supports Salvation Army’s Angel Tree program and Giving the Basics’ hygiene products drive. Additionally, several employees are mentors through Kansas Big Brothers and Big Sisters and help raise donations for the organization each year. Employees also volunteer their time to support Hour of Code, which helps introduce students to computer science.
