Joe Laymon never planned on moving to Michigan. He was a rising star at Kodak Co. in Rochester, N.Y., where his family had built a comfortable life.
But Laymon never forgot a promise he made to his sister, Nancy Pearl Laymon, who suffered a fatal heart attack at age 50 while working on the assembly line at a Jeep plant in Toledo, Ohio. She had prodded him to pursue success at a company with integrity, one that valued union workers and encouraged social responsibility.
"I told her I would join this industry one day," Laymon said. Ford had a reputation, he said, for providing a comfortable work environment for employees and leaders alike and for encouraging both "to give something back to the community."
So five years ago, Laymon moved his wife and three children to Metro Detroit to take a job at Ford, where he has ascended the corporate ladder to become group vice president of human resources and labor affairs.
But this sharecropper's son raised in the Deep South has never lost sight of his mission to help those who do the heavy lifting.
The first African-American to become a group vice president at Ford, Laymon has led Chairman and CEO Bill Ford Jr.'s effort to restore the familial pride and teamwork that has set the venerable automaker apart from other Fortune 500 companies.
Laymon scrapped a controversial employee evaluation policy that spawned class-action lawsuits against Ford and shattered employee morale. The policy had forced managers to give 10 percent of their employees C grades, which stripped affected workers of raises and bonuses while placing their jobs in jeopardy.
He also has been instrumental in a progressive program to reward engineers and designers who remain in their jobs for years, mastering their craft. In the past, many of Ford's most talented engineers were forced to seek management positions if they wanted career advancement and more money.
Last year, Laymon was named the first American Society of Employers Michigan Human Resources Executive of the Year for being a tireless advocate for Ford employees at all levels.
Outside Ford, Laymon has championed efforts to give uninsured workers access to quality health care.
"I don't think there is appetite right now in Washington for a legislative solution," Laymon said. "As a result of that, I don't think we can sit here and wait for a national solution. There are things we can do ourselves."
He also remains dedicated to the Migrant Literacy Project, where he and other volunteers tutor migrant farm workers to improve their reading and writing skills, assist them with job searches and help them acquire GEDs.
The Migrant Literary Project resonates with Laymon because he and his family spent their summers following the growing seasons in Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama and the Carolinas. They picked citrus fruit, tobacco, corn and cotton.
"We'd always miss a month of school and my father would always say, 'You just have to work harder to catch up,' " Laymon said. "And we'd always catch up."
But Tom Laymon grew frustrated watching his children try to learn from tattered, outdated books. So he spoke out and asked that black schools be given new books, which made him an object of scorn in the white community.
"It was ugly," Joe Laymon said. "That's when he stopped being a migrant worker and began to focus on making a few changes. All he wanted was new books for us. That's all."
Tom Laymon became active in the Civil Rights movement. Joe Laymon went on to earn a bachelor's degree from Jackson State University and a master's degree from the University of Wisconsin.
In a town where organized labor is often blamed for the financial ills of the domestic auto industry, Laymon speaks often of his deep appreciation for the United Auto Workers.
UAW members, he said, helped his family financially after his father fell on hard times.
"Organized employees are just awesome folks," Laymon said. "So I am not an unbiased person when it comes to organized labor. You can build product in America with organized labor and make a decent margin and deliver products and services to consumers that will delight and satisfy. I just believe that."
This can-do attitude is not lost on Bill Ford.
"He knows how to lead people and leverage their strengths to drive success," Bill Ford said. "He also believes passionately in giving back and helping others. When he gets involved great things happen."
UAW president Ron Gettelfinger often sits across the negotiating table from Laymon, but doesn't consider him an adversary.
"I have great respect for Joe Laymon because he respects the contribution our members make every day at Ford Motor Co.," Gettelfinger said. "He has always lived up to the commitments he has made."
Eric Mayne
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