People
Employee well-being
A good working environment is a safe and healthy working environment, and that is a top priority for Royal Unibrew. We focus on minimizing risks and raising awareness about health and safety for all our employees and take preventive measures to avoid employees being worn out and incurring work-related injuries – and we recognize that one accident is one to many. Ensuring well-being and promoting job satisfaction is a priority as well.
At most production sites near-misses are registered and followed up daily in order to establishing preventive measures as quickly as possible to avoid accidents. When accidents with or without lost time unfortunately occur, we conduct thorough root cause assessments and implement the necessary improvements.
At all production sites, occupational health and safety (OHS) activities are adapted to the local production site and work area. In Denmark, for example, joint OHS discussions, an OHS day as well as courses with focus on stress were carried out in 2019. At group level, project execution in operations includes an OHS assessment. In 2019 and 2020, expansion and capacity driven projects will reduce heavy lifting and improve access for safe operations, maintenance and cleaning further.
Local focus and initiatives have resulted in a continued reduction in Lost Time Incidents per 1 million working hours (LTI frequency) by 30% from 2015 to 2018 and has leveled out between 2018 and 2019. Root cause assessments indicate that behavior is the main reason for incidents. Therefore, we have planned to enhance our behavioral-based safety training and awareness across the Group to reduce the LTI frequency by 40% in 2022 compared to 2018.
Employee satisfaction
In 2019, Royal Unibrew conducted an Employee Satisfaction Survey, as we do every second year. Our overall engagement score was 4.0 (scale 1-5) or 80%. Generally, 72% is considered a market average. Employees see more opportunities to develop compared to previous surveys and they emphasize that their tasks are meaningful. They also rate their managers better than before, indicating that our focus on leadership and employee development has an effect.
Employee and organizational development
It is Royal Unibrew’s ambition to attract and retain competent and talented people who are result-oriented, adaptable, innovative, creative and having the right mindset. This is a prerequisite for realizing our ambitious business objectives. It is achieved by supporting and promoting diversity and inclusion and investing in our employees – both by way of learning and by upgrading of skills, and by empowering them to have influence on their jobs and by listening to their ideas and wishes for the future.
We believe that we need to foster an agile and flexible organization to adapt to the changing needs of our consumers and customers. We change, re-organize and fine-tune our internal structures and processes on an ongoing basis and expect our employees to adapt to new methods and tasks quickly. It puts demands on the individual employee and on our ability to collaborate across the organization while at the same time it offers opportunities for new assignments and/or responsibilities within or outside the business area. We believe that trust and responsibility foster great results.
In 2019, we continued a range of activities focusing on developing our talent pool and succession management. Various leadership competence development activities have been put in place focusing on developing the basic leadership skills, cross-organizational collaboration as well as building high performing leadership teams. Mentoring of young/inexperienced managers and key employees continued.
In Denmark, our production workers (blue collar) are being upgraded continuously. Since 2013, more than 10% have been through a train-the-trainer program for “Industrial instructors”, where they learn how to teach new colleagues in safety, quality and machine operations in a standardized way to ensure the right focus. In 2018, we added a training course for “Technical Operators” aiming at developing selected employees from filling and warehouse to master safe failure investigations and minor maintenance on filling lines and conveyors. In addition, appointed Line Coordinators have been trained in handover of status and challenges at white board meetings between shifts.
In addition, all our employees were offered a number of courses that give the individual concrete tools to handle a more complex and changeable workday, as well as on-the job training.
Diversity and inclusion
We want our organization to reflect the diversity of today’s society and we believe that diversity creates the best and most dynamic workplace climate – and supports long term value creation for all our stakeholders.
Continuous efforts are made to ensure workplace diversity and inclusion. Traditionally, the beverage industry is relatively male-dominated, but Royal Unibrew strives on an ongoing basis to ensure a more equal gender representation.
We measure gender diversity in international management teams and at the Board of Directors. In 2019, the number of women of the Board of Directors increased from 0 to having 2 out of 8 general assembly elected members. In our international management teams, we improve gender diversity year after year. We also work on promoting other diversity aspects such as initiatives to include people that for various reasons, struggle to maintain or get a foothold on the job market. For more information see “Promoting diversity and inclusion”.
Our target is a more balanced gender representation of at least 40% of each gender. When recruiting new executives, we prioritize identifying without discrimination and aim to encourage female candidates’ interest in taking on managerial tasks.
“It is our aim to reduce the LTI frequency by 40% in 2022 compared to 2018 – among other things through intensified behavioral-based safety training and awareness across the Group”
Targets for 2020
Health and safety:
- Training and awareness campaign established
- Reporting all LTI on a monthly basis
- 20% reduction in LTIF compared to 2018
Targets for 2022
Health and safety:
- Training and awareness campaigns repeated every year
- Reporting all LTI on a monthly basis
- 40% reduction in LTIF compared to 2018
Internation management team
| Gender % | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 |
| Women | 32 | 31 | 30 |
| Men | 68 | 69 | 70 |
Promoting diversity and inclusion
Being a regional based beverage company founded on strong local presence in the societies of typically rural areas, Royal Unibrew strives to be a responsible member of the community – not only from an environmental perspective but also and very importantly from a social perspective. Our employees, local business partners and suppliers, their families and close relatives often live close by.
Royal Unibrew needs access to skilled employees to develop. We value diversity and support inclusion. Therefore, we participate in local initiatives for various job provisions, including helping people to maintain or gain a foothold on the labor market, helping young people looking for internships, offering apprenticeships and other on-the-job training as well as integration of refugees.
As an example, our Lorina site in France currently directly employs people with mental challenges in special operations at our packing line. In addition, we employ indirectly through our supplier of outdoor services, who has several employees that need to get a foothold on the job market and where lawn moving, landscaping and other duties prospers by their commitment.
Inclusion is also about the way we articulate ourselves. Therefore, in Denmark we are going to launch a campaign with our Albani brand, where awareness of thoughtful wording and an appreciative approach is the focal point.