Advance Auto Parts 2022 Corporate Sustainability & Social Report
2022 CORPORATE SUSTAINABILITY AND SOCIAL REPORT
TABLE OF CONTENTS FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS Certain statements herein are “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are usually identifiable by words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “forecast,” “guidance,” “intend,” “likely,” “may,” “plan,” “position,” “possible,” “potential,” “probable,” “project,” “should,” “strategy,” “will,” or similar language. All statements other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, statements about the company’s strategic initiatives, operational plans and objectives, future goals or aspirations, expectations for economic conditions, future performance, as well as statements regarding underly assumptions related thereto. Forward-looking statements reflect the company’s views based on historical results, current information and assumptions related to future developments. Except as may be required by law, the company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements made herein. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected or implied by the forward-looking statements. They include, among others, factors related to the company’s leadership transition, the timing and implementation of strategic initiatives, the completion of new store openings, the highly competitive nature of the company’s industry, the ability to attract and retain talent, demand for the company’s products and services, complexities in its inventory and supply chain, and challenges with transforming and growing the company’s business. Please refer to “Item 1A. Risk Factors.” of the company’s most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K, and other filings made by the company with the Securities and Exchange Commission, for a description of these and other risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected or implied by the forward-looking statements.
03 LETTER FROM OUR CEO 06 ABOUT ADVANCE
11 IDENTIFYING & PRIORITIZING ESG TOPICS
12 PEOPLE 39 PLANET
46 COMMUNITY 55 GOVERNANCE
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LETTER FROM OUR CEO
LETTER FROM OUR CEO TOM GRECO At Advance, our mission is Passion for Customers…Passion for YES! , meaning we help motorists solve challenges and get back on the road as quickly and safely as possible. In 2022, our mission did not change, even as the world around us continued to evolve, whether it be socially, economically or environmentally. Record high inflation, global supply chain constraints and labor market shifts marked a challenging year for many around the world, including us. Our longstanding commitment to corporate sustainability helped us to adapt to the rapid pace of change as we continued to care for our team members, planet and communities. Throughout the year, we stayed focused on the environmental, social and governance (ESG) priorities that emerged from our 2021 materiality assessment. We know that our shareholders, team members, customers and other stakeholders have valuable perspective on what is important for the success of our business over the long-term. We believe that listening to their input and prioritizing those areas of ESG that matter most to our business will help us improve shareholder value over the long-term. In this report, I’m pleased to share a brief snapshot of our progress against our ESG agenda. In 2022, care for our team members took on new meaning as employee wants and needs rapidly changed. Strengthening our company culture was a priority throughout the year. This included contemporizing our Cultural Beliefs, which are the foundation of our culture and the hallmark of what it means to be a team member at Advance. Though awareness of our Cultural Beliefs was over 80% in 2020, we more clearly defined the behaviors we value and helped team members better understand how to bring them to life. We similarly refreshed our Code of Ethics with meaningful examples to help our team members apply the Code in their day-to-day work.
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LETTER FROM OUR CEO
We continued to build on our Champion Inclusion Cultural Belief by expanding our diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) agenda throughout the year. DEI has long been an area of focus in our ESG agenda, and it was identified as a top-five priorty in our ESG Materiality Assessment in 2021. We know it is important that our workforce reflect the diversity of the customers and communities we serve, and this year, across the company, we proudly increased our representation of women and people of color in VP-plus roles by 670 basis points and 110 basis points, respectively. We also hosted numerous cultural experiences to build inclusivity and educate on DEI-related topics. Throughout the year, we leveraged data to hold ourselves accountable and measure our progress, but the feedback from team members was what I found most gratifying. Alton Walker, National Chair of our African Americans Leading Inclusion and Growth Network (ALIGN) recently shared the following: “Whether telling personal stories, teaching educational seminars or sharing cultural experiences, the programming ALIGN created this past year shaped a culture of inclusivity, brought people together and allowed team members to be their whole selves at work.” At a time when the labor market remained incredibly tight, we also took important steps to grow talent this year. We streamlined work to enable team members to focus on the job at hand, took steps to increase collaboration among teams and put greater focus on career advancement and continued learning and development. This helped us not only in recruiting the best people in the business, but also increasing retention among those already working for us. In addition, we recognized team members who went above and beyond in their job performances through differentiated programs like Fuel the Frontline, which rewards outstanding frontline team members with an ownership stake in our company via stock grants. Since the inception of the program, we’ve granted over 26,000 stock awards to frontline team members, valued at nearly $75 million at the date of grant. Another priority area was the safety of our team members. Employee safety was also one of the top-five topics from our ESG Materiality Assessment in 2021, and we know that focusing on employee safety not only improves the lives of our team members but also makes us more productive and ultimately benefits our customers. Over the last several years our focus has been on creating tools to improve safety, driving adoption
WHETHER IT’S THE WAY WE CARE FOR OUR PEOPLE, PLANET OR COMMUNITY, WE KNOW WE MUST THINK DIFFERENTLY ABOUT HOW TO OPERATE IN SUCH A DYNAMIC AND UNCERTAIN ENVIRONMENT. THIS PAST YEAR, WE WORKED HARD TO SIMPLIFY PROCESSES, HOLD OURSELVES ACCOUNTABLE TO DELIVERING ON OUR ESG GOALS AND CLEARLY DEFINE OUR PATH FORWARD TO SUSTAIN OUR MOMENTUM AND SAFEGUARD OUR BUSINESS FOR YEARS TO COME.
TOM GRECO PRESIDENT & CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
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LETTER FROM OUR CEO
of those tools, and in the last year or so, creating a culture where those tools were not only used, but where there was a collective ownership by all field and distribution center (DC) team members of our program. Of utmost importance was our leader-led coaching, which we expanded in 2022. This approach drove behavioral change and engagement with team members and reduced recordable incidents, increased cost savings and contributed to greater team member satisfaction. In fact, 19 DCs and over 4,000 stores and branches finished 2022 injury free. Beyond talent, in the past year, we built onto our already robust environmental sustainability program, continuing our efforts in energy conservation, recycling and the safe handling of hazardous materials. We delivered a new solar power agreement in New York. We also provided training to ensure safe handling of hazardous waste, and continued our longstanding partnership with the nonprofit, Good 360, to ensure unneeded products, including hazardous waste, stayed out of landfills and was instead put to good use to support educational training for aspiring automotive mechanics. From a community standpoint, we continued to leverage the work of our philanthropic foundation to ensure we are focused and diligent in giving back to the places where we live and serve. In the U.S., we experienced a worsening shortfall in auto technicians. In 2021 and 2022, the Advance Auto Parts Foundation (Foundation) and Advance gifted a total of $250,000 to Wake Technical Community College (NC) to fund diversity recruitment and scholarships for students in the school’s auto repair and collision degree programs. This year, we extended our support in this critical area to Broward College’s (FL) automotive technology program, gifting $300,000 over two years to fund recruitment, scholarships, staff development and much-needed tools and capital improvements. Our foundation also expanded its Community Giving Program, which enables team members to recommend nonprofits with which they are affiliated to receive gifts to continue their work. A total of 40 gifts were awarded to nonprofits in 20 states with many more to come. We unveiled a new portfolio of veteran nonprofits that received Foundation funds. Thanks to the generous contributions of our supplier partners, we raised more than $2 million to support our nation’s heroes in the areas of housing, employment and mental health services.
Whether it’s the way we care for our people, planet or community, we know we must think differently about how to best operate in such a dynamic and uncertain environment. This past year, we worked hard to simplify processes, hold ourselves accountable to delivering on our ESG goals and clearly define our path forward to sustain our momentum and safeguard our business for years to come. Simplification, accountability and future planning are three themes woven throughout this year’s corporate sustainability and social report. They are areas of great opportunity in helping us to adapt to the current environment and continue to deliver our corporate sustainability agenda. As the late American businessman Steve Jobs once said, “Great things in business are never done by one person. They are done by a team of people.” Our progress this year is the result of thousands of Advance team members who continue to make ESG a priority for our company. Together, we are building a better, more sustainable Advance, and I am proud of what we accomplished.
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ABOUT ADVANCE
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ABOUT ADVANCE
ABOUT ADVANCE
ADVANCE AUTO PARTS OVER THE YEARS
1932
Arthur Taubman buys three retail stores, named Advance Stores, in Virgina.
Advance is a leading automotive aftermarket parts provider that serves both professional installers and do-it-yourself customers. The company was founded in April 1932, when Arthur Taubman purchased three stores in Virginia. In 2014, Advance acquired General Parts International, Inc., a leading privately held distributor and supplier of original equipment and aftermarket replacement products for commercial markets operating under the Carquest and Worldpac brands. Since the acquisition, we have done the important work of integrating Advance, Carquest, Autopart International and Worldpac, which includes moving our headquarters to Raleigh, NC in 2018. In 2019, we acquired the DieHard ® brand. As of December 31, 2022, we employed approximately 67,000 team members, and we generated $11.2 billion in net sales in 2022. At year-end 2022, we operated 4,770 stores and 316 Worldpac branches primarily within the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. We also served 1,311 independently owned Carquest branded stores across these locations in addition to Mexico and various Caribbean islands. As a leader in the aftermarket automotive parts industry, all of us at Advance appreciate the important role we must play in finding solutions to the environmental and social challenges that our industry faces. We are committed to actively participating in leading trade organizations and working with our industry peers whenever possible to find innovative and responsible common solutions.
1985
The company changes its name to Advance Auto Parts, focusing on the sale of automotive aftermarket parts and accessories.
1998
Advance Auto Parts buys 550 Western Auto Supply Company/Parts America stores from Sears, Roebuck & Co., almost doubling the company’s size.
2001 Advance, which operates more than 1,700 stores in 38 states,
announces it is buying Discount Auto Parts, a publicly traded operator of 667 stores. The merger puts Advance on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: AAP) in early 2002.
2003
Advance debuts at No. 466 on the Fortune 500.
2005 Advance acquires Autopart International, Inc., a commercial wholesaler of automotive parts, increasing the company’s focus on both retail and professional customer sales.
2014
Advance acquires General Parts International, Inc., a leading privately held commercial supplier of automotive parts.
2018
Advance designates Raleigh, NC as its corporate headquarters, noting its increased focus on technology and omnichannel sales.
2019
Advance acquires the iconic DieHard® brand.
2021 2022
DieHard ® becomes a billion-dollar brand.
Advance’s DieHard AGM battery is the world’s first automotive battery to receive circular economy validation as validated by UL. Advance becomes the first auto parts retailer to sell 12-volt batteries
designed specifically for hybrid and electric vehicles. Autopart International fully integrated into WorldPac.
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ABOUT ADVANCE
AWARDS & RECOGNITION
WORLD 50 I&D IMPACT AWARDS
NEXT UP POWERING THE PEOPLE AWARD
2022 NASCAR MARKETING ACHIEVEMENT
LINKAGE EXECUTIVE IMPACT AWARD
AUTO CARE ASSOCIATION Auto Care Association’s Business-to-Business: Best Training Communications Award for the 2022 Supplier & Training Expo (STX) for Worldpac and Advance. Auto Care Association’s Business-to-Consumer: Best Repair Facility/ Store Customer Promotion Award for its annual “TechNet Brakes for Breasts” fundraiser for TechNet and Advance. Auto Care Association’s Business-to-Consumer: Best Consumer/ Community Event Award for its “Advancing Our Roads” gift card program for Advance.
NATIONAL DISABILITY EMPLOYMENT AWARENESS MONTH AWARD for our people with disabilities hiring program
DISABILITY:IN CONNECTICUT
COMMUNITY EMPLOYMENT AWARD COMMUNITY EMPLOYER AWARD COMMUNITY IMPACT AWARD
TEXAS WORKFORCE COMMISSION LEX FRIEDEN EMPLOYMENT AWARD for people with disabilities hiring program
HRO TODAY’S 2022 CRO TODAY LEADERSHIP AWARD
THE TRIANGLE BUSINESS JOURNAL 2022 CORPORATE PHILANTHROPY AWARD
KNOW NO BOUNDS PARTNERSHIP AWARD
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ABOUT ADVANCE ADVANCING A WORLD IN MOTION
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OUR PEOPLE Many years ago, Advance Auto Parts began using the tagline: “The Best part is our People.” Talent has long been a priority for our company and one of the top areas in our ESG Materiality Assessment. Focusing on team member engagement, training, learning and career enablement and talent acquisition, we are able to attract some of the best people in the business and can truly say that our people are our best part.
HAZARDOUS MATERIALS MANAGEMENT Our accountability for how we store and handle our products that may be considered hazardous was one of the top areas of our ESG Materiality Assessment. Safety and regulatory training are essential to protect team members from exposure to hazardous materials and to minimize environmental and public health risks. Our team members are required to regularly train on the proper storage, handling, disposal and shipping of hazardous materials. DIEHARD UL VALIDATION DieHard also contributes to Advance’s environmental sustainability programs, as evidenced by DieHard’s AGM batteries receiving circular economy validation by UL. During the validation process, UL determined that 94% of the materials in new batteries are from batteries collected at Advance and Carquest retail stores.
COMMUNITY GIVING Through the work of the Advance Auto Parts Foundation and Advance Auto Parts corporate, we continued to channel funds to nonprofits in three critical areas: military veterans, education/ job readiness and community health. Importantly, we sought to support meaningful programmatic work that not only fulfilled unmet needs but was measurable in its impact. Foundation Giving The Advance Auto Parts Foundation continued to build on its strategy by expanding its giving in key areas and adding new nonprofit partners. As a result, the Foundation more than tripled its giving this past year. Corporate Giving In addition to contributing to a variety of industry-related organizations and our continued fundraising campaign partnerships with several nonprofits, we also contributed to the communities where we live and work.
ESG OVERSIGHT We believe that strong ESG oversight enhances our ability to identify, develop and implement initiatives designed to make meaningful improvements to our long-term profitability and sustainability. Senior leaders from several functions meet regularly to discuss and address ESG topics. Representatives of that working group regularly provide updates to and engage in dialogue with both our executive committee and our Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee, which has oversight responsibility of our ESG programs. CYBER SECURITY We believe that the integrity of our technological infrastructure and our ability to mitigate threats to systems that power our operations and from vulnerabilities of third parties with whom we do business is a source of significant value to our business. We value the data and privacy of our team members, customers, our business and those with whom we do business.
DEI Embracing the diversity of people,
thoughts, skills and experiences fuels our success. From hiring initiatives and training programs, to the support and celebration of our diverse workforce, we have worked hard to ensure that our team members feel supported, valued and equal. SAFETY Our safety culture is owned by all team members and helps prevent workplace injuries and illnesses. As a result, we have seen a significant reduction in our claims and have helped improve team member job satisfaction.
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ESG MATERIALITY ASSESSMENT
IDENTIFYING & PRIORITIZING ESG TOPICS
Throughout our business, we believe it is important to prioritize with purpose. As we continue to mature our ESG work, we intend to focus our efforts and communications on the areas that are most important to our stakeholders and that we believe can add the most value to our business. In 2021, we conducted our first formal assessment to help us prioritize those ESG topics that are most relevant for our long-term success. We undertook a disciplined, thorough process to identify the ESG topics relevant to our business and industry and then solicit input from a broad range of both external and internal stakeholders with respect to their relative importance to Advance’s long-term success. With that stakeholder input, we followed an objective process to internally assess the potential that we believed highly rated topics had to value creation for our organization. A more fulsome description
of our process and results can be found in our 2021 Corporate Social and Sustainability Report under the caption “ESG Materiality Assessment.” (1) Our work identified five key areas of focus for ESG at Advance, and during 2022, we examined each of the top-five topics from our assessment more closely. On the following page, you will find a brief description of each of these topics, why it is important to our business and a cross-reference to where you can find additional information. 1.In our Corporate Social and Sustainability Report, we report on topics that we believe may be of importance to our business and our stakeholders. For purposes of those disclosures in the Corporate Social and Sustainability Report and on our website, we use the standards published by the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board, now maintained by the International
Sustainability Standards Board, to help identify material topics for disclosure. These standards differ from those used for filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Topics deemed material for purposes of our Corporate Social and Sustainability Report and our website and other ESG disclosures may not be considered material for SEC reporting purposes.
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ESG MATERIALITY ASSESSMENT
HIGHEST PRIORITY TOPICS FOR OUR BUSINESS
ENVIRONMENTAL
Hazardous Materials Management
We sell an incredibly broad range of products, and some of the products we sell contain oil, paint or other substances that call for special care. Our accountability for how we store and handle those products, including how we handle product components brought back to us at the end of the product’s lifecycle, impacts the planet and our business.
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SOCIAL
Employee Safety
Our stakeholders validated our perception that the health, wellbeing and safety of our team members is of paramount importance. We believe that building and sustaining a safety culture not only provides protection for our team, but also directly increases our productivity and the efficiency of our operations. We have made tremendous progress in safety at Advance over the past several years.
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Talent
The success of our business depends on our relationships with our customers and ability to exceptionally serve their needs. Attracting, retaining and developing the people best positioned to help us say “yes” to our customers is a key component of our strategy.
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Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
“Champion Inclusion” is a core value at Advance, and our ESG Materiality Assessment indicated that it is also a top priority for our business among our stakeholders. An engaged, collaborative workforce in which all team members bring the entirety of their authentic selves to work every day can leverage variation in background, thought and experience into better solutions for our customers, can help us provide a differentiated value proposition for team members and facilitates achievement of our long-term business goals.
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GOVERNANCE
Cybersecurity
In addition to selling products in stores, we conduct a significant amount of business online and use many network-connected tools in our operations. The integrity of our technological infrastructure and our ability to mitigate threats to systems that power our operations is a source of significant value to our business.
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At Advance, our team members are motivated by a passion to serve our customers and address their needs. Ensuring we attract, retain and develop great talent is one way we can say “yes” to our customers more often. Talent has long been a priority for our company and it was a top-five topic in our ESG Materiality Assessment in 2021. Within the talent category, there are three areas we have identified that we believe are particularly most impactful to our business: • team member engagement; • training, learning and career enablement; and • talent acquisition. These areas of focus are supported through our well- defined company culture, which we continued to build on in 2022, and via our strong commitments to DEI, team member safety and meaningful recognition.
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CULTURE
COMPANY CULTURE A strong company culture helps attract talent, supports the growth and development of existing team members and helps drive business results. At Advance, we recognize that an organization can’t thrive when culture is left undefined, which is why we have taken so many steps to clearly communicate our core beliefs and ways that all our team members can meaningfully exhibit those beliefs, regardless of level or title. 2022 was a year in which we evolved our company culture. With various labor trends dominating headlines, we needed to do more to address the needs and wants of our
existing team members and those who considered joining our ranks, and we aimed to set the cultural course for the company as we exited the pandemic. We started by refreshing our Cultural Beliefs, the six beliefs that represent the foundation of our culture and the hallmark of what it means to be a team member at Advance. Our Cultural Beliefs guide how we get things done and how we interact with one another, our customers and business partners.
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CULTURE
REFRESHED CULTURAL BELIEFS Cultural Beliefs proved incredibly important in adapting to the ways in which our business – and the world – have changed during the past several years. From a company perspective, we built new capabilities, optimized technology and integrated different parts of our business. From a global perspective, the emergence of COVID-19 taught us that we could work in dramatically different ways and adapt quickly to constantly changing circumstances to meet the evolving needs of our customers. It challenged us to think differently and to operate in a more dynamic and uncertain environment than ever before. In both cases, our Cultural Beliefs were our guiding light, helping us to stay the course in times of change and uncertainty. With team member awareness of our Cultural Beliefs over 80%, we knew we had a strong foundation from which to build. With this in mind, we kept the names of our six Cultural Beliefs intact but redefined some of them to better capture the behaviors that are critical in the post-COVID world. We also introduced hashtags and new visuals to make it simple and easy to remember what each Cultural Belief stands for
and the leadership competencies needed to bring them to life. We then created a suite of materials to explain the updated Cultural Beliefs and activities to help team members dive deeper and continue to learn. This included an onboarding course, discussion guides and other materials, as well as a launch party at our headquarters and virtual celebrations that reached across our various work locations. Importantly, we now measure individual performances not only on WHAT team members accomplish, but HOW they accomplish their various objectives. TEAM MEMBER ENGAGEMENT A highly engaged workforce helps drive better business outcomes. We believe that receiving regular feedback from team members provides important insights into workplace satisfaction and creates opportunities to demonstrate responsiveness to team member needs and priorities. We also believe that strong engagement and responsiveness ultimately contributes to lower rates of employee turnover and help us realize the benefits of retaining talent across the organization.
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CULTURE
BE ACCOUNTABLE #OwnAndOvercome We own results no matter the obstacles.
CHAMPION INCLUSION #WeAllBelong We embrace the diversity of people, thoughts, skills and styles to deliver results.
GROW TALENT #InspireServeGrow
We are inspired to learn, serve and grow together.
MOVE FORWARD #LeadBoldChange We lead and embrace bold change.
SPEAK UP #CourageToSolve We courageously communicate to solve problems.
TAKE ACTION #TogetherWithSpeed We work together to move with speed.
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CULLTURE
CAREERS SPOTLIGHT
Kristine Butler started working in retail at the age of 16. At the time, she had no idea her part-time job would lead her to become what she calls a “lifetime retailer,” someone who enthusiastically spends their days helping customers solve challenges. She worked her way up to district manager of a gaming retailer before joining Advance in a similar role. Kristine excelled immediately and spent time learning the business, networking and developing her team. While her obvious next step was operations management, Kristine had other plans. She decided it wasn’t necessarily just Advance customers she wanted to support, but the team members who were working with those customers in our stores every day. She approached her manager about transitioning to an HR role, and to her delight, her manager was supportive. In her current role as HR manager of Advance’s Midwest region, Kristine helps district managers navigate everything from recruiting to training to performance management, all with a goal of helping team members thrive. When asked how she prepared for such a major career shift, Kristine says, “It helped that my new manager believed in me. She was patient and invested heavily in my training.” Kristine encourages others to consider all their options and be willing to learn about new and different jobs that might fall outside their traditional career path and comfort zones. “Talk to your manager and other leaders to understand the options out there,” she shares, “and never limit your potential.”
KRISTINE BUTLER HR MANAGER YEARS AT ADVANCE: 3 | LOCATION: MIDWEST REGION
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CAREER ENABLEMENT
CAREER ENABLEMENT
TEAM MEMBER TRAINING, LEARNING, AND CAREER ENABLEMENT We know that when our team members are exposed to consistent training, it improves their skills on the job and makes them more effective at taking care of our customers. In addition, providing opportunities for continuous learning is essential in helping team members to acquire knowledge and competencies to expand their skills sets and support their future career growth. And when there’s a clear path to reaching career goals, our team members will find greater satisfaction in the company and their development. In 2022, we invested significantly in this area, knowing its importance to recruiting and retaining top talent.
IMPROVED NEW HIRE ORIENTATION FOR CORPORATE SUPPORT CENTER (CSC) TEAM MEMBERS New hire orientation is important because it lays a foundation for a team member’s career with the company. This year, we revamped new hire orientation for our CSC team members to ensure we provide clear, concise and accurate information about the company and culture, while providing a preview of what new team members can expect as they adapt to their new workplace. The now streamlined course takes team members through Advance’s strategic initiatives, so they can quickly get grounded on what is important to the business. In addition, we provide background on our industry, our stores, the distribution centers, our various banners (i.e., Carquest, Worldpac and Autopart International), as well as individual functions. We also discuss in-depth our company culture, commitment to DEI, benefits, performance management, and more. Importantly, this training experience is now consistent across the globe.
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CAREER ENABLEMENT
CAREERS SPOTLIGHT
Darrien Patterson joined Advance in 2017 as part of the strategy and transformation team. With a background in market research and corporate development, he quickly excelled by learning the business and the industry, while building strong working relationships with his colleagues. Though he enjoyed his work, he yearned to continue to grow his knowledge base, particularly in marketing. He knew that going back to school was an important first step and was waiting for the right moment. In 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic first hit, the right moment arrived for Darrien to pause his Advance career and pursue an MBA with a concentration in Marketing. He enrolled as a full-time student at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and quickly began broadening his skills, making sure to keep in touch with his many Advance contacts, so the door stayed open to return when he completed his studies. Prior to graduation, Darrien applied for the role that he had long coveted at Advance – senior brand manager for the DieHard business, and he was eagerly accepted. His new hire orientation – revamped since the first time he was hired – provided a great starting point for his re-entry into the company, as he met colleagues from across the business and was immersed in new information about Advance. Whether it was learning more about the company history, Advance’s competitors or the company’s culture, the experience prepared Darrien to hit the ground running. Darrien’s next dream is to become a senior leader within the company, and if the past few years are any indication, he’s already setting the wheels in motion.
DARRIEN PATTERSON SENIOR MARKETING MANAGER YEARS AT ADVANCE: 3 | LOCATION: RALEIGH, NC
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PEOPLE CAREER ENABLEMENT
ROLE CLARITY AND CAREER PATHING TO GROW TALENT To ensure long-term success, it is important that our team members have role clarity and a line of sight to their career paths. In our stores, we worked throughout the year to clearly define roles to ensure we align the right talent with the right responsibilities and have the right talent working directly with customers. This was the starting point to creating career paths in stores so team members know how to grow their skills and move within the store ranks. Our next step, which we aim to complete in 2023, is role certifications, a three-level process to accelerate skills and learning curves and give a clear path of development for the next career level. For our CSC team members, we piloted a new approach to career pathing called “Grow Talent Accelerators,” which are a suite of online tools that allow team members to share their skills and unlock suggestions for new skills and capabilities, internal opportunities that suit them the best and potential career paths based on actual team member growth at the company.
Following a pilot with our IT department, we plan to make this offering available to other CSC and field team members in 2023. Finally, we redesigned our annual talent planning process and assigned a scorecard focused on seven variables to identify team member potential in ways that matter most to our unique business. This new approach removes subjectivity and any potential sources of bias from the process, ensuring a fair evaluation of each team member’s contributions and a greater dedication of time to true development planning. In addition to making this a now tech-enabled process, our redesigned talent planning process will unlock future investments in our top talent.
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CAREER ENABLEMENT
CAREERS SPOTLIGHT
Christina Pishko is an operator, having spent several years working as a store team member and group sales leader for two big box retailers. When she joined Advance 15 years ago, Christina transitioned to HR, eventually becoming an HR business partner for the company’s Worldpac business. A passionate and invested leader, Christina credits her success in this role to the time she spent in the field, which helped cement her understanding of working in such an operations-focused role. The experience helps her better relate to the team members she supports and better understand the challenges they are facing. She describes her role as that of a problem solver, someone who can help team members get to the other side of a challenge, so they can put their best foot forward. Christina attributes her success in HR to feeling empowered to speak up and recommend changes. Her style is direct and she is willing to challenge the status quo to help create efficiency and effectiveness for the team. Early in her career, a colleague told Christina to always “be open to other perspectives, regardless of the situation you are in” as it will help her find the best solution. In other words, put preconceived notions aside and be willing to see the unique perspective of others, then work together to find common ground. Most of all, Christina believes wholeheartedly in being humble. Confidence with a side of humility always wins the day.
CHRISTINA PISHKO HR SENIOR MANAGER, WORLDPAC YEARS AT ADVANCE: 15 | LOCATION: FRISCO, TEXAS
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CAREER ENABLEMENT
ONGOING LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES One way we supported team member development is through the introduction of Udemy ® , a leading destination for learning and teaching online. With the availability of thousands of short courses on a range of topics, from leadership skills to software skills and technical training, team members can build their own learning paths to focus on areas of greatest need and opportunity. In fact, learning paths were created to support each of our Cultural Beliefs and the skills and behaviors we are targeting in our culture. Udemy is currently available to all CSC, district manager-plus and customer account manager-plus-level team members. Since the program’s introduction in February 2022, team members completed nearly 15,000 Udemy learning hours. FIELD TRAINING TO IMPROVE THE WAY WE SERVE CUSTOMERS We believe part of what distinguishes Advance from other auto parts suppliers is the way we care for our customers, and this year, we took steps to further
DISTRIBUTION CENTER TRAINING Our focus in our distribution centers was refining the new hire onboarding process, upskilling talent to improve operations and growing careers within our facilities. We established a role qualification process that aligns new distribution center team members with subject matter experts in their jobs who are responsible for training and ensuring the basic skills required to perform a particular function are attained. This model is designed to help improve retention and quality. We also held leadership classes, both for emerging distribution center leaders (those hourly workers who are working to become first-time supervisors) and existing leadership team all the way up through the general manager role.
refine how we deliver in this area. This included the launch of a new customer interaction model that teaches our team members to serve customers in a more natural, solutions-focused way that
will drive sales. In addition, we launched a step-by-step software guidance tool specifically tied to the product catalog that provides team members information about products, complementary products to complete a job, when to ask for Speed Perks memberships and more. The program eliminates extra steps to help deliver a more efficient and consistent
sales experience that ultimately benefits the customer. In addition, the technology included guidance and automation specifically tied to business processes for recruiting to help general managers and district managers simplify the hiring process.
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CAREER ENABLEMENT
CAREERS SPOTLIGHT
American author Mark Twain famously said, “Find a job you enjoy doing, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” For Advance’s District Manager Axel Guzman, these are words to live by. Axel joined Advance in 2010 as a part-time team member while in college studying business. As a frequent customer, he was invited to a career fair by the GM of his local Advance store and was hired on the spot. Though he continued his classroom studies while working in the store, he quickly found that time spent “on the job” was his greatest teacher and made working at Advance a full-time endeavor. He advanced to the role of general manager, and in 2021, was promoted to district manager with responsibilities over 16 stores. Axel credits the diversity of his team for much of his success. For his part, he inspires his group to bring their unique backgrounds and experiences to their jobs every day and enables them to own projects to continue developing their skills. In fact, Axel regularly invites his GMs to own challenges and then share back with the others how they overcame those challenges to help the business move forward. Continuous learning, accountability and hard work are descriptions that quickly come to mind when describing Axel’s leadership style. But most important of all, he pushes his team members to have fun at work and find joy in doing what they do every day. “I want the level of fun to be contagious,” Axel shares. “We succeed when we bring joy to what we do every day – from the interactions we have with our customers to the way we work together as a team.”
AXEL GUZMAN DISTRICT MANAGER YEARS AT ADVANCE: 12 | LOCATION: FLORIDA
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CAREER ENABLEMENT
CAREERS SPOTLIGHT
Mithra Sagar was in search of an internship while completing his bachelor’s degree in business analytics and information systems at the University of South Florida. A self-proclaimed car enthusiast, Mithra heard Advance Auto Parts was hiring summer interns and submitted his credentials, albeit for a role on a team he knew little about – supply chain. A 10-week internship quickly turned into a promising career when Mithra accepted a full-time supervisor role at the end of the summer. Fast forward a few years and Mithra is now the operations manager at Advance’s largest distribution center located in Lakeland, Florida, and plans to continue his career in supply chain leadership. Mithra credits his manager and mentor, as well as Advance’s training program, with developing him into the leader he is today. “The training that Advance offers helped me solidify my understanding of topics I use every day,” Mithra shares. Just this year, supply chain team members were offered enrichment/ developmental courses to improve financial acumen and business productivity, and Mithra jumped at the opportunity to keep learning. He encourages his team to do the same. “Seeing my team members learn new skills and apply them in their daily work is what excites me most,” according to Mithra. It excited them, too, as Mithra credits training as an important piece of recruitment and retention of top talent.
MITHRA SAGAR DC OPERATIONS MANAGER YEARS AT ADVANCE: 4 | LOCATION: LAKELAND, FL
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HIRING INITIATIVES
HIRING INITIATIVES An integral part of any cohesive talent strategy is talent acquisition. At Advance, we continue to refine our hiring practices to broaden our access to the individuals with the characteristics, skills and experiences that will enable us to serve our customers better than anyone else and increase our overall success in hiring those individuals to join our team. That said, in a competitive labor market similar to the one experienced in 2022, it can be challenging to source well-qualified candidates and ensure those candidates translate to successful hires. This past year, Advance’s talent acquisition team took steps to achieve greater accountability to hiring goals, including speed- to-hire and diversity recruiting. In addition, we added resources in certain markets, simplified the hiring process in areas where turnover was greatest and partnered cross-functionally to support diversity recruitment efforts.
with local universities, which focus on teaching skills in technology, operations, data, analytics and more. These include Vardhman College of Engineering, the VNR Institute of Engineering & Technology and Institute of Management Technology, Hyderabad. These three prestigious engineering colleges will help our team to address future hiring needs and continue to build the Advance brand in this important market.
ADDITIONAL TALENT ACQUISITION CAPABILITIES AT THE AIIC Advance’s Global Capability Center, located in Hyderabad, India, recently celebrated its third anniversary and rebranded to become Advance India Innovation Center (AIIC). The new name reflects Advance’s vision of increasing innovation across the company and came at the recommendation of local team members in collaboration with students from one of its NGO partners, Ashraya Aakruti. The AIIC, a tremendous asset to our business, opened in 2019 and employs more than 400 team members in the areas of IT, finance and HR. By having team members based in another part of the world, we can better address business needs on a 24/7 basis. From processing invoices and helping ensure our IT systems run smoothly to contributing to our top tier strategic projects, the AIIC team is helping the company focus on serving our customers. As a relative newcomer in Hyderabad, Advance competes with several large international companies that are well established in the area. This makes competing for talent more challenging. In 2022, we hired additional talent acquisition team members in this important market to help grow talent locally. Among the many ways these team members are building a future workforce is through relationships
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HIRING INITIATIVES
CAREERS SPOTLIGHT
Preeti Trivedi was working for a global company in Bengaluru, India, when she was recruited to join the AIIC. She quickly accepted and her family made the nearly 350-mile move to live closer to her new office. As the AIIC’s first talent acquisition team member, Preeti had the awesome responsibility of recruiting talent for a growing office in a part of the world where Advance was a relative unknown and competed with much larger companies that had been in the region for years. A seasoned athlete, Preeti didn’t let the competition phase her – she got right to work. She immediately learned all she could about the company and focused on what differentiates Advance – a strong company culture and its unwavering commitment to ensuring all team members live our six Cultural Beliefs. She leveraged the voices of existing team members to share stories about the Cultural Beliefs in action, knowing word-of-mouth recruiting was highly effective in the region. She also leaned in on Advance’s 90-year history, which she believed demonstrated stability to those less familiar with the company. Social media, especially LinkedIn, became a key driver for recruitment, as it allowed Preeti to not only post about the company, the culture and its people, but also interact one-on-one with potential candidates. Preeti steadily increased the page’s follower count and engagement levels. Since Preeti’s arrival at Advance, the AIIC has continued to steadily grow.
PREETI TRIVEDI SENIOR RECRUITER, AIIC YEARS AT ADVANCE: 1.5 | LOCATION: HYDERABAD, INDIA
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HIRING INITIATIVES
STREAMLINED THE FIELD CANDIDATE EXPERIENCE
DIVERSITY HIRING INITIATIVES Now more than ever, strengthening the diversity of our workplace is a focus. One of the ways we accomplish this goal is by engaging with a diverse set of candidates – those with differences in thoughts, skills, styles, backgrounds, genders and ethnicities, when filling positions. Our talent acquisition team in partnership with our DEI team continued to find opportunities to increase diversity hiring among a variety of cohorts this year. Following are some examples: • As part of our Advancing Diverse Pathways initiative, we kept diversity in mind as we sourced participants for our summer internship program and worked with teams to design effective programming. For example, we launched a “rising junior program,” which included 17 diverse students who were invited to intern with us for two consecutive years. We trained our interns on resume writing, professional presence and interview skills. We also recruited interns from several Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Hispanic-Serving Institutions. Among them were Florida International University, Clark Atlanta University (GA), Spelman College (GA), Bennett College (NC), North Carolina A&T State University. • We participated in a recruiting event in Minneapolis, MN, through Out for Undergrad, a nonprofit whose mission is to inspire high-achieving LGBTQ+ students to pursue ambitious careers in a variety of industries once they complete their studies. Through the event, we met with hundreds of LGBTQ+ undergrads interested in engineering positions and shared the many benefits of working at Advance, including the inclusive culture we strive to create. • In 2022, we reached our 500th hire through the People with Different Abilities hiring program and celebrated this milestone by making a product donation to the automotive school the team member attended. Through the People with Different Abilities hiring program, which began in 2020, Advance identifies, hires and trains motivated and qualified job seekers with disabilities to fill open positions in our stores and distribution centers. The program is live in 23 distribution centers and 25 store markets across the country and helps to increase the talent pool for critical roles with qualified job seekers.
Many candidates, particularly those who work in customer-facing retail jobs, work non-traditional schedules that make interviewing on a set schedule a challenge. Just as we did for distribution center team members in 2021, we took steps this year to streamline the hiring process for prospective store team members. This included the use of technology to help candidates progress through different interview stages in an accelerated time frame – including initial online screenings, virtual job tryouts and realistic job previews to support the candidate’s decision making. In addition, we provided regular communication via SMS text messages to ensure candidates were informed about their hiring status. The use of technology not only improved the process for the candidate, but it also gave much-
needed time back to recruiters and hiring managers, which supported increased productivity across the team.
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