From Kimball's inception, the company's philosophy has focused on sharing success with its employees, providing incentives and opportunities for growth and personal success.

Kimball's own success, as proven by its history, has been as much about the capabilities of its people as its products. Over the years, Kimball has added and dropped products, and changed markets, but maintained its workforce of experienced and committed individuals.

We are committed to retaining our core of talent, capability and enthusiasm. We are focused on offering competitive benefits that attract and retain top talent. We benchmark our U.S. benefits annually by participating in the Mercer Employer Survey. We also compare competitively to other global manufacturers and develop benefits that vary by country but which are in keeping with best practices and offerings as well as local customs and governmental or legal requirements. Employment laws and customs differ greatly from one country to the next. Kimball International takes a hybrid approach that combines high-level policy development and coordination with local interpretation and implementation. Kimball can understand and adapt to the context of each country in which we operate.

We have built our non-U.S. organizations the same way as our U.S. locations; the foundation of our practices comes from Our Vision and Guiding Principles. We train our organization to understand what is meant by our GP's and they embody the principles into their practices while following country specific laws, regulations and cultural practices.

We value what is appropriate in each of our work locations. Doing so makes us competitive as an employer and affordable as a supplier for our customers in those markets. Our approach and practices also make us competitive and beneficial for our employees, as we localize our compensation benefits and employee relations practices across the world.

Kimball Policies & Practices -- Flextime, Job Sharing & Telecommuting:

Our business units utilize a broad range of schedule options, such as Compressed Work Weeks, Work At Home, or traditional Part Time schedules. Telecommuting is another option available to Kimball business units to use where they deem applicable. Employees are free to bring requests for alternative schedules to their supervisors for open, two-way communication and resolution. Company-wide scheduling flexibility for personal vacations benefits employees and company alike.

Healthcare Plans

Kimball employees are educated in wise healthcare consumerism and exercise their authority as consumers regarding their choice of benefit coverage and where and how to spend their cash.

Kimball offers healthcare coverage to assist employees and their families in protecting their health and well-being. Plan options vary by work location, and not all healthcare alternatives are available in all areas of the country. However, all Kimball plans are based on the Consumer Driven Health Plan model, with a Health Savings Account (HSA) and 100% Preventative Care coverage. In addition to the choices of plans, Kimball provides five healthcare coverage level options: employee only; employee and spouse; employee and child(ren); employee and family; and no coverage.

Kimball designs its benefits to provide employees with flexibility. Each element of our company benefits and total compensation package allows for mature, educated choices, so employees can custom-design a major part of their benefits package.

Sharing In Our Company's Success - Profit Sharing, Retirement Plans and Bonus:

As stated in our Guiding Principles, at Kimball "We want employees to share in their company's success, both financially and through personal growth and fulfillment." This philosophy, put forth by our Company Founder, has influenced the development of our benefits program.

Kimball's Compensation philosophy is focused on a "total compensation" concept which encompasses cash compensation, incentives, flexible benefits (based on employee choices), retirement, opportunities for personal development and growth, and a sense of family benefits.

Compensation practices are flexible to support local requirements and global cultural differences, yet share a common guiding philosophy.

Perhaps the most obvious example of this is Kimball's policy of making contributions to each employee's 401K account, even if the employee doesn't. Employees can contribute up to 15% of their pre-tax income into their own self-directed 401K, after meeting an eligibility requirement of six months of employment. Kimball has partnered with Vanguard, a leading financial services and investment company, to manage the program and to provide employees with financial advice.

An important distinction of Kimball's retirement plan is that it is - and always has been - funded with actual cash contributions, does not require company stock holdings, and funds are held in a separate trust.

Another element in Kimball's "Total Compensation" package is the profit sharing bonus plan, which provides performance incentive to increase earnings: the more profits the company makes, the more each indirect employee earns. Every Kimball employee is linked to some kind of incentive pay, either through profit sharing or the retirement plan, to help enable both their own and the company's financial success.

Opportunities: Training and Personal Development

At Kimball International, our employee training and development programs are tailored to individual employees. A ‘one size fits all’ solution simply does not meet the needs of a diverse, worldwide organization. Employees are encouraged to take responsibility of their own growth and development utilizing our performance feedback and personal development processes.

The result is an individualized training/development plan - a personal development roadmap. Managers are expected to provide opportunities, ranging from formal training, to interactive workshops, professional certifications or continued education, to challenging assignments, in order to enable continuous learning and growth.

Mentoring and peer networking are informal opportunities for employees to obtain support and guidance on professional challenges, best practices, and new ideas. These programs have been particularly valuable in acclimating people to Kimball's culture and ‘low rules’ organization.

Kimball's Leadership Development Model is designed to grow critical leadership skills for supervisors, managers, leaders of leaders, and executives. Values-based Workshops are required training for all levels of leadership. Other workshops are aligned specifically to the various leadership roles. In the past year, those workshops focused on disciplined execution, problem solving, project planning, change management, and incentive-based compensation. All employees are given the opportunity to participate in these workshops to develop their personal skills and to prepare them for additional responsibilities. During fiscal year 2009, 928 employees participated in Leadership Development workshops, an increase of 35% over the prior fiscal year. Each business unit provided training specific to their markets. Despite the downturn in the economy, Kimball did not reduce training and development opportunities.

Education - Key to Personal, Professional Development:

From the shop floor to the office hallways, Kimball emphasizes personal and professional development. Initiative is rewarded and encouraged, building upon the company's entrepreneurial spirit and conviction that growth and continuous improvement is everyone's job.

Kimball programs in support of personal and professional development are extensive, yet they are based more on individual need than a formalized program. Seminar and training attendance is linked to a two-way (employee/supervisor) process of performance feedback, facilitating growth. This dialogue allows employees to play an active role in their own individual "career path" development. Every employee also has access to the on-line "Kimball Opportunities Program" (KOP) which posts numerous available job openings across the company. The KOP program also facilitates career development opportunities via manager to manager referrals, as Kimball seeks to retain good employees by providing new challenges and growth opportunities.

Kimball offers a number of internal training opportunities via classes and seminars designed to develop work-related skill sets and leadership. The company advocates that employees pursue relevant professional certifications and CEU's in their particular fields, and provides reimbursement and/or assistance in taking such courses that may enhance their business skills, advancement potential or productivity.