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Making a difference
for women at Cummins
When Tina Vujovich was asked to sponsor
The result: More than 270 employees
Cummins’ first Women’s Affinity Group in
showed up for the first meeting.
2001, she wasn’t quite sure what to expect.
Today, the Women’s Affinity Group (WAG)
EMPLOYEE RELATIONS
Jill Cook, Vice President –
Human Resources and
sponsor of the Women’s
Affinity Group of Southern
Indiana speaks at the
group’s 10th anniversary
celebration in 2011.
“I found several women who were
dedicated to helping one another,” said
Vujovich, retired Vice President of Marketing
and Environmental Policy at the Company.
“We put together a team that instinctively
set about surveying the broad population
of women at Cummins to learn what it
was that they were looking for from the
affinity group. Suddenly, we knew what
we needed to do.”
of Southern Indiana is one of Cummins’
oldest affinity groups, closely tied to the
needs of its target audience and providing
assistance in key areas such as career
development, business enhancement,
recruiting and retention.
The WAG, which celebrated its
10th anniversary in 2011, is one of more
than 40 affinity groups at Cummins located
across the world. These groups are
organized around a variety of dimensions
of diversity: gender, race, ethnicity, special
needs, veteran status and country of origin.
“The inner workings are left to each circle
to decide what will work best for their
group,” said Jessica Kuehner, Co-Leader
of the affinity group now. “WAG provides
guidelines to the circles on how to decide
their topics, meeting agendas for the first
few meetings to get the circles started and
feedback gathered from past sessions on
what works well and is popular.”
Mentoring circles, however, are just one
of many projects undertaken by the group.
The WAG’s Executive Speakers Series
The WAG has also successfully
campaigned for rooms in many
Cummins facilities for nursing mothers.
Finally, the group frequently works
with women’s groups at other Cummins
facilities around the world to help them
launch their own affinity group and
share ideas for programs.
Now, the affinity group’s Co-Leaders
Jamie Freeman and Kuehner are planning
for the future and the issues the WAG
will champion for the next 10 years.
Members of the Women’s
Affinity Group Leadership
Team in Columbus, Ind.
EMPLOYEE RELATIONS
“Career development and networking
have been long-standing initiatives
throughout our existence,” said Amy
Liimatta, a member of the group since
its inception who also served a stint as its
leader. “It’s something women very clearly
wanted from the group.”
Mentoring circles, for example, have
been a very successful initiative offered by
the group, bringing together successful
women at Cummins and newcomers to
the Company. In a mentoring circle, the
protégés are paired with one male and
one female mentor, allowing more women
to have access to company leaders than
enables top executives at Cummins to
share career advice with others. The WAG
also developed Discover Cummins, an
event to help new employees learn more
about the Company by visiting booths
sponsored by various functions within
Cummins. (Today, Discover Cummins is
hosted by LAUNCH – Leaders Advancing
Uniting and Networking Cummins Hires,
an affinity group that focuses on helping
employees who have been with Cummins
for less than five years.)
“With strong leadership in place, and
a large, active membership,” they say,
“the Southern Indiana WAG will continue
to champion women for years to come.”
“Career development and
networking have been long-standing
initiatives throughout our existence.
It’s something women very clearly
wanted from the group.”
Amy Liimatta
Service Functional Excellence Leader and past Leader
of the Women’s Affinity Group of Southern Indiana
with one-on-one mentoring.
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