Strategy and human capital

“Leveraging the skills of our employees” is one of the aims of the strategy of Norske Skog Golbey. That is why our human resources strategy for 2018-2020 is built on the basis of the expectations stated by our employees in October 2016. Its implementation particularly includes support for organisational changes and skills management to anticipate future needs and action to foster greater loyalty.

Health and safety are given priority

Being a responsible paper manufacturer means we have to protect the health and safety of our people. That priority is supported by this statement, which features prominently in the introduction to our Health & Safety policy: “No task is so urgent, and no job so important, that it cannot be done safely”.

The general principle is based on the implementation of preventive action to make all our staff more aware and more responsible in risky situations. Many tools are in use to achieve that end:

• Risk analyses and behaviour audits
• Development of the autonomy of teams, with the suggestion and application of quarterly initiatives to improve their safety. The most deserving action is rewarded every year at the Safety Trophies event.
• Safety correspondents: these are volunteers from each area who act as the interface between their co-workers and the Safety department.
• Monthly publication of results and actions taken
• Systematic training of all newcomers and outsiders working on the site
• Prevention of arduous work, reinforced monitoring of night workers and training in rest and recovery techniques

Commitment to equal opportunity action

In 2017, we entered into a company equal opportunity agreement. After a preliminary diagnosis of the differences in position between female and male workers, we prepared an action strategy and selected four themes:

• effective compensation,
• training,
• career development

Indicators were defined and the commitment was made to reduce those differences, some of which are related to the mixed nature of employment. For instance, we set ourselves the goal of reducing pay differences within the same level of responsibility for managers, clerical staff, technicians and supervisors to less than 5 %. That goal was reached for workers, clerical staff, technicians and supervisors in 2018 and will be reached for managers by the end of 2019.

 We comply with our obligations in respect of the employment of disabled workers. We help them integrate into our teams and adapt their workstations when that is necessary.

Recruitment and employee loyalty

Norske Skog Golbey aims to increase the knowledge of its activities, values, culture and performance in order to attract new profiles and make its employees proud of their company.

In order to combat the prejudices that are often held by people about the paper industry, Norske Skog Golbey takes a range of actions to make its trades known and to reinforce its appeal, particularly in young people:

• Active presence in the local area and in social media
• Partnerships with training institutions
• Participation in student fairs
• Promotion of our trades, for example with the reverse CV devised with the Face Vosges organisation

Norske Skog Golbey has also decided to invest in apprenticeships, by helping to train young apprentices and trainees, and is particularly attentive to how they are received and inducted.

Lastly, the loyalty and involvement of our employees are also given top priority in our human resources strategy. That is why they are monitored and supported by concrete action:

• Involvement is particularly measured through the low absence rate.
• The average salary level is and remains a determining element for loyalty. Thus, we are careful to ensure that it remains competitive with the rest of French industry.
• Since 2017, special bonuses have been put in place to reward the individual involvement of operators, clerical staff, technicians and supervisors
• Particular care is taken to put value back into trades under pressure.

Developing employability, encouraging initiatives and managing skills

In order to maintain a high skills level, Norske Skog Golbey supports employees in their development and encourages them to become agents of their own careers. Different types of action are thus taken to manage skills:

• Implementation of a training plan to enable employees to adapt to new positions or acquire skills that can be transferred to other areas of activity.
• Use of a tutoring system with young recruits to allow them to gain the theory and practical knowledge required for acquiring a trade and also to understand the working of the company and become part of it rapidly
• The formalisation of a process for the provisional management of jobs and skills initiated in 2017 allows us to adapt our resources and anticipate our needs, particularly in respect of developments in technical expertise, rare skills and the trades of the future

Besides, we encourage our employees to take initiative and work on projects. Every year, a trophies ceremony is organised to reward the employees who have taken action with most merit in the areas of safety, continual improvement, energy and CSR.