An Evaluation of John Deere’s Corporate Social Responsibility

Erin Reicks

Legal and Social Environment of Business, Noonan-Day

Section 4, 11:00am

January 23, 2017

An Evaluation of John Deere’s Corporate Social Responsibility

John Deere & Company is a globally recognized corporation known for its products and services. Around the Cedar Valley, John Deere is known as one of the largest employers in the area. Many students from the University of Northern Iowa apply for internships or full-time jobs at John Deere because it is known to be a well-run business. Many young adults looking for a job after graduating college want to go to work for a “good” company. While many people may want a good salary and a friendly workplace, other factors are also important. Other factors such as, technology, environmental responsibilities, customer service, and charitable giving are also important in order to find work fulfilling. John Deere has shown exceptional social responsibility in many of these ways, making their employees proud to work for them.

John Deere has shown considerable efforts in the improvement of technology. They are constantly improving their products in order to satisfy their customers needs. Today many of John Deere’s products offer support up to the first 5 years after purchasing (“Remote Support”, 2016). Connected support gives machines the ability to identify potential problems earlier. This can be a huge cost and time saver. It can also let John Deere or its dealer know right away in order to fix the issue as soon as possible. Another support, called remote support, allows people to connect remotely through products such as a cell phone or a computer. Remote support can also share diagnostics with other partners and dealers (“Remote Support”, 2016). This can save a lot of time for both John Deere and the customer. Lastly, as part of support, JDLink can be added for extra support anywhere. JDLink is helpful in many ways as it can show location of machines, fuel usage, and maintenance alerts (“JDLink”, 2016). These three forms of support are just a few ways John Deere pushes technology forward everyday.

The second way John Deere shows social responsibility is through environmental responsibilities. John Deere has proven to show their efforts in improving their products to be more environmentally friendly. Since 2012, John Deere has been trying to reduce waste. By 2018 they hope to be recycling 75% of total waste (“Eco-Efficiency Goals”, 2016). They also hope to reduce energy and water totals by 15% by 2018 (“Eco-Efficiency Goals”, 2016). Still, John Deere goes beyond reducing waste, energy, and water. John Deere puts the environment in mind when creating new products. For example, the F440R Fixed Chamber Baler creates a more environmentally friendly machine through improved fuel consumption, biodegradable grease, and it lessens compaction on the soil (“Products”, 2016). Other products include auto idle, reduction of cross-contamination, avoidable double spraying, and reduction of wear on the engine (“Products”, 2016). All of these greatly improve efforts to make machines more environmentally friendly.

Many of John Deere’s customers are and have been loyal customers through the years or even through generations. Customer service has always shown to be an important responsibility to John Deere in order to have loyal, returning customers. On John Deere’s corporate website, it  list six efforts they push towards exceptional customer service. These six efforts include; respecting deadlines, communication, encouraging questions, honesty, no assumptions, and teamwork (“Our Offerings”, 2016). Employees must be willing to work towards these as they must want to facilitate good changes for the company and its customers (Menon, 2011). Each of these efforts are instilled into each and every employee of John Deere in hopes of keeping their customers happy.