2012 in Review (Con't)

President's Exceptional Value Awards Program
Recognizing and celebrating outstanding achievement is an important part of our culture. The refreshed awards program encourages employees to nominate peers who have made an outstanding contribution to Brady's business in one of five categories. Each site has the flexibility to design their own local award program, local winners then move on to the regional competition, and regional winners move on to compete globally for the President's Exceptional Value Awards, where just one nomination from each region and one from the combined corporate functions is selected. The escalating nature of the new program not only ensures that achievements are well recognized throughout the year and throughout the organization, but also makes the President's award the most prestigious in the company, honoring the "winners among winners."

Voice of the Employee (VOE)
Modeled after Brady's Voice of the Customer program, VOE aims to enhance the quality engagement of our employees, gauge employee satisfaction levels and collect specific employee feedback on what Brady is doing well and where we need to improve. In 2011 Brady's management team held approximately 30 VOE sessions for employees covering four focus areas: Team Building, Enhancing Communications, Career Development and Leadership and Culture. Each focus area has a member of the management team who leads a focus team in creating actions plans and executing activities. Examples of activities resulting from VOE in the Americas in 2011 included:

Brady employees enjoy "Family Night at the Ballpark"

• a Brady family picnic in conjunction with the Brady Walk for Community and a Brady Night at the Ballpark in conjunction with Brady's partnership with the Milwaukee Brewers Baseball Club
• a new Brady Americas e-newsletter ("The Blue Streak Release" named after one of Brady's first label products with a blue streak for easy liner removal)
• internal product "trade shows" to introduce new Brady products to employees
• a new Brady Facebook page
• new training modules to help supervisors better manage their people
• a 360-degree review program for VP and director-level employees
• quarterly global video-casts of the CEO to improve visibility on top-level business decisions and help engage employees in business strategies

Organizational Talent Review
To better understand what specific talent is needed in our organization, Brady Human Resources works in partnership with leadership teams through out the company to evaluate if we have the right people, whether or not they have the right skills, and are we developing them appropriately in order for them to grow and the business to grow. This talent review identifies employees that are top candidates for senior management positions, creates personal development plans that are tied to employee aspirations, and identifies potential gaps and development needs. This program not only ensures that Brady will have the talent it needs for the future, but also plays a key role in employee retention by helping employees see their career path in the organization and envision their future success at Brady.

To complement this talent review and help develop leadership skills and the potential of our people, we instituted 3 new training courses in 2011, focusing on Strategic Thinking, Change Management and Managing Productivity. These were rolled out across our global operations in 237 training sessions representing 3834 total training hours.

Promoting Gender Diversity – Women's Leadership Alliance
While Brady is a globally diverse company, we recognize that improvement is needed in gender and ethnic diversity at most levels of the organization. In 2011, a group of female employees approached Brady leadership about sponsoring a Women's Leadership Alliance (WLA). We welcomed this opportunity to support the preparation of women for leadership and growth within the company, and the Women's Leadership Alliance at Brady was formed in the fall of 2011. The group researches best practices in diversity at other organizations and helps to identify key diversity priorities for Brady. Active committees were formed to develop strategies and work plans in the following priority areas:

Brady's Women's Leadership Alliance

• increasing the number of women in succession planning
• building the number of participants in the Alliance
• providing networking opportunities for women
• developing programming focused on leadership challenges
• enhancing Brady's community involvement where there are specific opportunities to develop female leaders

By the end of 2011, the Alliance had been rolled out in North America where membership reach 140 members and a number of initiatives were started including a speaker series (open to both women and men), a partnership with the Girl Scouts of America and the development of metrics to measure success of the overall Alliance mission. Feedback from members and other participants about the value and impact of the WLA at Brady has been extremely positive.