IN THIS SECTION WE DESCRIBE THE STRUCTURE AND RESOURCES WE HAVE IN PLACE IN ORDER TO MANAGE OUR PRIORITY FOCUS AREAS EFFECTIVELY.

We also share our Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and our progress against them.

OUR APPROACH

Our overall CSR approach ensures compliance with legislation relevant to our global operations. Where appropriate for our business, we look for opportunities within our CSR framework to create competitive advantage.

Our established management systems help us to concentrate on our identified priority focus areas. Within these, we concentrate our actions where we have direct control and where we can make the most positive impact.

We take a continuous improvement approach to the development and sharing of good practice across the business through specialist project teams, conferences, workshops and our Group Employee Forum (GEF).

The systems we have in place are supported by our values to ensure we do things the right way, and we recognise and reward our people for their action and engagement in CSR initiatives at our annual Group Responsibility Awards. The awards focus on seven categories:

  • Good Neighbour
  • Environment
  • Health & Safety Innovation
  • Health & Safety Culture
  • Health & Safety Star
  • Site Employee Forum (SEF) of the Year
  • GEF Representative of the Year

Our Group Technical Director, Ann Savage, is supported by the Central Technical team who provide specialist expertise in the key areas of food safety, food science and microbiology, health and safety, technical innovation and agronomy. The team's role is to embed and monitor sound CSR practices and standards across the business.

FOOD SAFETY

Millions of people eat our products every day. We have a duty to make food that is safe for people to eat and, as we are entrusted to make products under our customers' private labels, we have a duty to respect and protect the integrity of these brands. We have policies and standards in place which recognise legal and customer requirements.

Measures and performance
We use quality management systems and tested procedures to guide our businesses on the high standards we expect. We utilise several verification processes including scientific testing in our own laboratories, announced and unannounced audits, and management reviews to ensure that we do what we say we do. Information from our verification processes is fed back into our quality management systems and we take corrective and preventative action when required.

The Bakkavor Management Board is accountable for the effective implementation of our Food Safety Policy; and the Group's food safety performance is presented at each Management Board meeting.

HEALTH AND SAFETY (H&S)

Our responsibility is to take every reasonable step to secure and protect the health and safety of our employees and those people who are working on our premises.

We have four health and safety measures as required by law and which we believe are the most useful to report in our businesses: major accidents, reportable injuries, total accidents and near misses.

Measures and performance
One of the key H&S measures is Major Accidents per 100,000 employees and in 2012 our performance improved by 26% year on year. Historically we have performed significantly better than the average for the food and drink industry and we will continue to track our progress against this third-party measure. Our total number of accidents also fell by 10% in 2012 compared to the previous year.

ENVIRONMENT

We are committed to complying with relevant legislation and managing the direct impacts of our businesses on the environment. Our Environmental Policy focuses on business improvement initiatives in five key areas over which we have immediate control: Energy, Waste, Water, Packaging and Transport.

Measures and performance
In the UK, we measure the amount of total waste, in percentage and absolute terms, which we divert from landfill. We achieved a significant step change in improvement when we first started to use this performance measure in 2009 through a variety of initiatives such as waste segregation and anaerobic digestion of food waste. In 2012, as in the previous year, we diverted over 98% of our waste away from landfill.

The Group Head of HR, Gillian Haythornthwaite, is responsible for ensuring employee practices and initiatives are implemented across the businesses, monitoring performance and reporting monthly to the Management Board on our employee KPIs. She manages the Group HR function which covers key employee areas such as Group recruitment, HR systems, benefits and training, and supports the UK HR business teams.

In addition, Gillian chairs the Employment Law Review Committee, which is responsible for updating Group policies, processes and procedures with revisions and changes in legislation. As part of this, Employment Law update meetings are held for business HR teams to discuss the impact of these changes and to ensure that they are communicated effectively.

In order to develop best practice across the Group and drive HR excellence, the function organises regular HR Forums and an annual HR Conference. Every two years our businesses carry out self-assessments - HR Steps to Excellence - which set out what 'good' should look like in the HR function and drive an action plan at business level for our HR teams to implement.

We have also recently appointed a Group HR Director, Pippa Greenslade, to ensure that the HR function is fully involved at a strategic level right across the Group.

EMPLOYEE RETENTION

We aim to nurture a dynamic, inclusive and values-led working environment which recognises, rewards and promotes our employees fairly to encourage them to stay with our business.

Measures and performance
Employee retention is one of our key measures and we have set ourselves a target of 90% for managers and 75% for our site-graded employees. For the fourth year in a row we have hit or exceeded our targets, achieving retention rates of 90% for managers and 92% for site-graded employees in 2012.

We also measure the number of vacancies that we fill internally and have set ourselves a target of 50%. This is an important measure as it demonstrates our wish to keep and promote good people within the business who have the right values and who understand the behaviours expected of them. This year we just fell short of our target, filling 45% of vacancies internally, largely due to our success at promoting internally the previous two years. However we will continue to focus our efforts in this area through communication and action at our Functional Forums.

EMPLOYEE DEVELOPMENT AND SUCCESSION (DAS)

The Bakkavor DAS process is focused on developing our people to reach their full potential. It includes performance appraisals, personal development plans and DAS meetings.

In 2012 we updated the DAS process, making it more relevant to our business needs across the Group and ensuring that we have the systems in place to develop and support our most talented people. This process will facilitate career development across the Group more effectively.

We have introduced a new Functional Talent Pipeline. This will help us measure the strength of each function today, as well as the potential to fill roles in the future. In addition, we also track, by individual, those employees who are ready for an immediate move as well as those ready for a move in one year. All this helps us to promote from within wherever possible.

Measures and performance
The DAS process is supported by two key measures - % of DAS discussions undertaken every six months for all employees above a certain band and % of completed annual appraisals. Our starting base in 2012 is 75% for DAS discussions and 80% for completed appraisals with a target of 100% for both.

ACCELERATED MANAGEMENT SCHEME (AMS)

We recognise the shortage of skilled and motivated people coming into the food industry and we have established our own programmes to help address this issue.

Measures and performance
Our two-year Accelerated Management Scheme is a fast-track programme for new graduates and current employees, giving them hands-on experience in 'real' jobs alongside trainers and mentors. AMS participants specialise in one of six core areas of strategic importance to the business: Manufacturing, Product Development, Technical (food safety), Produce procurement, Purchasing, and Finance. We recruited 14 people onto the Scheme in 2012 and many former AMS participants have since taken on important roles within the Group.

DIVERSITY

We are proud of our multi-cultural workforce and are committed to encouraging diversity within the business. In 2012 we launched a 'Better Together' self-audit tool which identifies what we need to do to make our workforce even more cohesive than it already is.

TEMPORARY LABOUR

We have seasonal requirements for additional temporary resource and, in the UK, we work closely with a selected group of fully accredited and licensed temporary labour providers, whom we audit regularly.

All UK temporary workers are subject to UK legislation and in 2012 we introduced and implemented a new system across our UK sites to promote sound governance in this area and to ensure compliance with the requirements of the Agency Workers' Directive.

Reflecting the strength of our decentralised operating structure, we believe that our local Bakkavor business teams are best placed to understand the needs of their communities and support local initiatives. At a Group level we actively encourage our employees through several established recognition award schemes and by communicating their achievements internally and externally. For more information please see Community engagement.