Talent Attraction and Development

Our ability to deliver high quality and innovative products and solutions for our customers is only achievable through the talent, expertise, and dedication of our global team of approximately 25,000 employees. Our approach to talent attraction and development is centered on our commitment to ensuring we are continuously attracting the most qualified talent and then nurturing and cultivating their skills and leadership capabilities to support their career growth and the global growth of our businesses.

EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT SURVEY

We completed our first annual global employee engagement survey in 2022, which yielded a 77% participation rate. More than 50% of participating employees also shared comments on what they would like senior leadership to know regarding engagement and inclusion at Dover. The survey results revealed our employee engagement of 73% is two points above the manufacturing industry benchmark average, with responses related to satisfaction, advocacy, and pride questions in particular positively exceeding industry benchmarks. Employees noted that a strong belief in our future, a feeling of belonging, and a sense of purpose from their work drove high pride for them. Our employees also noted that Dover feels like an inclusive place where they are comfortable voicing their own thoughts and ideas – see our Diversity and Inclusion webpage for more information on our inclusion index and training.

Following the survey, each of our operating companies established action plans to outline key focus areas to sustain and improve employee engagement. For example, one action plan was to help employees better receive feedback and feel recognized for their contributions. As a result, some of our operating companies implemented a global recognition platform called Dover Celebrates! Consequently, in 2022, our leaders and employees significantly increased the frequency of employee recognition. We expect this new platform to be operationalized enterprise-wide in the future.

Talent Attraction

Our talent attraction strategy is led by the Dover corporate center in coordination with operating company leadership and teams. We focus on attracting and recruiting skilled talent to meet the current and future needs of our global portfolio of businesses. We seek people who are proactive and dedicated and share our commitment to the pursuit of operational excellence. Our entrepreneurial culture attracts people that seek agency in their work and make thoughtful decisions that benefit our customers, leveraging our scale, tools, and expertise.

Employees who come to Dover have the opportunity to develop innovative solutions for our customers around the world that help the clean energy transition, reduce waste, and enable the circular economy—see our Innovation for Sustainable Products page for more information. This global reach affords our employees opportunities to have an impact on critical global challenges and grow their skill sets in innovation, as well as product and solution delivery.

As part of our talent attraction strategy, we partner with universities to support internship programs and pursue academic collaborations. Collaboration with students and interns complements the expertise of our workforce and helps us identify early career talent. We aim to attract not just early talent but also diverse talent. Our operating company outreach efforts have been fundamental to helping Dover attract diverse talent. For example, our operating companies support employee resource groups (ERGs) that are active in their communities to recruit individuals from a variety of backgrounds. For more information on our work towards a more diverse and inclusive workforce, please see our Diversity and Inclusion webpage.

Beyond attracting university talent, we are investing in apprenticeship and cooperative education (“co-op”) programs. By establishing relationships with local partners, we introduce to Dover the skilled workers for tomorrow.


University Partnerships Spur Innovation

Dover Fueling Solutions serves on the Advisory Council for the Masters of Science in Information Technology Management within the McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas at Austin. Dover Fueling Solutions helps shape the program and participates in coaching and mentoring activities such as mock interviews, educational presentations, hackathons, and capstone projects. At events like the Dover Fueling Solutions Hackathon, where students compete to develop the best solution for real world convenience and fueling technology challenges, emerging talent works with senior engineers to identify opportunities for Dover Fueling Solutions product leadership and innovation.


Dover also provides a wide array of health, wellness and support programs that address the full employee life cycle, from early career to retirement. Collectively, our entrepreneurial culture, competitive compensation, and benefits programs support attracting and retaining our talented employees.

Dover Digital Labs

Our Boston-based Dover Digital Labs serves as the company-wide hub for our digital initiative. The hub is designed to facilitate cross-functional teamwork to upgrade the services we offer to our customers. The resources available at Dover Digital Labs allow our employees to experiment, innovate, and develop new skills. The Dover Digital Labs team is driving digital transformation across our businesses:

  • E-commerce – offering more efficient and streamlined digital customer interfaces that make it easy to do business with Dover companies
  • Connected Products – developing value-add connected, sensorized, and software-augmented solutions built on top of our core equipment and component offerings
  • Digital Manufacturing – driving increased efficiency, safety, and quality in our manufacturing operations by employing cutting-edge automation and “digital factory” solutions

Workforce Development

We invest in our people and set our employees up for success with resources to build skills and improve performance. Our workforce development strategy advances our goal of cultivating the diverse, entrepreneurial talent inside our global businesses to fill key positions and deliver value for our investors and customers long term. We continue to make significant investments in workforce development, including in the areas of digital applications, operational management, and training via our Learning Management System.

We encourage our employees to take ownership of their career development by creating a system and structure that promotes career growth. Managers and organizational leaders provide ongoing support and guidance to help employees actively build their skills and engage in strategic development discussions. Resources to support the annual talent cycle include a goal setting and performance review process, as well as the opportunity to complete a personal development plan to guide employees in their career. Our Dover Leadership Competencies are a guidepost for our employees as they seek to develop themselves and their teams.

As we seek to develop talent, including both leadership and manufacturing talent, we have developed programs to support meeting our talent needs now and in the future. Programs range from internship and rotational programs to technical development and executive leadership programs, including our:

  • IT Leadership Development Program for interns focused on business intelligence, application development, and cybersecurity
  • Supply Chain Development Program for new graduates focused on sourcing and procurement, materials and inventory management, and warehouse and logistics planning, and which features a two-year rotational leadership program consisting of three assignments across Dover
  • Dover Consulting Program that allows early career talent to serve as internal consultants on 3-6 month operational and commercial projects
  • Dover Executive Leadership Academy where current and potential future senior level leaders participate in a program that includes a mix of practical classroom training and a business-related capstone project
  • Foundations of Leadership program where leaders across all functions, most commonly manufacturing frontline leaders and managers, engage in a three-day, highly interactive experiential leadership training exercise

Building technical talent: PSG Grand Rapids

To address anticipated needs for specific technical talent like computer numeric controlled (CNC) machinists and machine repairers, PSG Grand Rapids, part of our Pump Solutions Group (PSG), manufactures Blackmer® pumps and compressors, and partners with a local community college to design classes specifically for its machinists and participates in an apprenticeship program. PSG Grand Rapids’ approach allows it to provide opportunities locally and ensures continuity of technical talent.

Dover Consulting Program

Dover's internal Consulting Program is a two-year rotational program designed for ambitious, early career talent looking to realize their leadership potential working across our 16 global Operating Companies. Participants collaborate with senior leaders on real-life, business-critical projects and take on exciting challenges – all suited to equip them with the tools and leadership skills needed for future roles in our businesses. In 2022, the program attracted 60% ethnically or gender diverse participants and benefitted from 100% post-program placement.

We believe that our employees take pride in the range of products we make, the varied markets we serve, and the opportunities and rewards we offer our people. They also take pride in our culture. Our values of accountability, rigor, trust, respect and open communications promote individual growth and operational effectiveness. As a strong and unified family of diverse operating companies committed to taking care of our people, our communities, and our environment, Dover presents a unique opportunity for our employees to develop and have an impact.