MANSFIELD — TE Connectivity was honored with a global award on July 11 for its commitment to sustaining excellence and upholding a creative company culture.
The manufacturing company is based in Schaffhausen, Switzerland with more than 150 employees in Mansfield. TE specializes in power connectors and sensors used in aerospace, transportation, medical and defense equipment.
“Really anywhere that you need power sent, it’s likely that a TE product is there,” said Jeff Cronin, TE communications manager. “Our products are so integral to people’s daily lives that we really hold ourselves to a higher quality.”
TE Connectivity earned 8th place on the Best Workplaces for Innovators list among nearly 1,000 submissions worldwide. Fast Company editors and Accenture researchers scored applications based on how innovation is encouraged throughout the company culture and details about its innovation goals.
TE Connectivity is one of five international companies on the Top 10 list, and the celebrations made their way to the Mansfield plant on North Diamond Street.
Plant Manager Fern Skelhorne said the leadership team always shares how each employee contributes to corporate success.
“Our team is innovating every day and we’re all a part of this award,” she said. “It’s such a great springboard and inspiration to other things that we’ll work on going forward.”
Skelhorne said Mansfield’s TE plant has a photo of the product that their work will be used in at each work station. The company also has an employee suggestion program in which workers can earn an hour of vacation time for suggestions to improve safety or the product design process.
“We’re not driven by automation, so we rely on the craftsmanship of our employees,” Skelhorne said. “Because it’s very hands-on, a lot of them come up with ways to improve what they’re doing or make the products better.”
Cronin said TE has earned multiple other national and global awards including ranking on the top 100 workplaces for innovators in 2020, placing on Ethisphere’s World’s Most Ethical Companies list each year since 2015, and ranking among Fortune’s World’s Most Admired Companies and the Dow Jones Sustainability Index.
“We tend to think of innovation at the engineering level, but it’s really something that we have at TE at all levels from the HR offices to the factory floor and everything in between,” Cronin said.
Quality Manager Michael Stupca said TE leadership tries to communicate not just how their products will work, but also how they will interact with the machines they’re supporting.
“We’re working on sometimes small relays and connectors, and other times much larger ones, so they go in a variety of machines,” he said. “If that’s not working in an airplane, then it’s not leaving the ground and people can’t get to the airport to see their families.
“Our products have to be reliable and function in extreme situations. I’m constantly talking about how you won’t find any other products like ours in Mansfield.”
TE Connectivity is an industrial technology leader with more than 85,000 employees in approximately 140 countries.
“The innovation that we do alongside our customers is helping to impact our world in important ways,” said TE Connectivity CEO Terrence Curtin. “Our products are enabling electrification and renewable energy to reduce the consumption of fossil fuels.
“We’re also supporting faster, more stable connections to advance autonomous technology and artificial intelligence. To achieve these goals, it is vital that we create a work environment that supports our 8,000 engineers to ensure we continue to create a safer, sustainable, productive and connected future.”
To learn more about the innovation culture at TE and to explore open job opportunities, visit te.com/innovators. Visit Fast Company to see the full list of best workplaces for innovators recipients.
TE can be reached at www.te.com, LinkedIn, Facebook, WeChat and Twitter.
