This pillar focuses on creating a safe, supportive work environment that champions equality and celebrates diversity. We know that employee engagement is a key factor in ensuring our future success as an organisation. In 2022 our people remained at the heart of our journey, as we embarked on our journey to become a pure-play Components business.
Health, safety and wellbeing
Our focus and targets
Zero accidents for our people and visitors.
Mental health training to 80% of leaders by 2024.
Healthy lifestyles campaigns at 50% of sites by 2025.
Our progress
Lost time incidents reduced by 57% in 2023.
9% of leaders have received mental health training.
Healthy lifestyles campaigns launched in 2024.
Our commitment to safety in 2023 resulted in tangible improvements, ranging from increased visibility and accountability among leaders to successful hazard reduction initiatives and a significant 57% reduction in lost time incidents. All our sites have health and safety management systems in place. Of these, nine sites are certified to ISO 45001 or an equivalent standard, covering 73% of employees.
In 2024, our safety culture journey continues through a comprehensive strategy focusing on leadership commitment, active “grassroots” employee participation, stringent compliance measures, and continuous improvement. By embedding safety into our daily operations and ensuring leadership commitment at all levels, we aim to create a workplace that gives every team member a voice and leaders champion safety.
As well as physical health and safety, we recognise the importance of our people’s mental health and wellbeing. We currently have 24 mental health first-aiders trained across the business, and in-house capability to train our people in mental health first aid. We recognise that, as well as having mental health first-aiders, it is valuable to equip our leadership with the skills required to support their teams and encourage employees to thrive. Currently, we are behind target, with 9% of our leadership team trained. In 2024, we are rolling out the training to more leaders and employees to reach our 80% target, ensuring a consistent approach to mental health and wellbeing across the business. We have also commenced our healthy lifestyle campaigns, starting with a global walking challenge in February 2024, this will be followed up with a rolling programme of activities during 2024.
Employee engagement and recognition
Employee engagement is one of the most important indicators of the health of our business, as we believe that higher rates of employee engagement generate higher levels of customer satisfaction. 86% of employees responded to the 2023 survey, meaning that the findings are a true representation of the employee voice at Essentra. The results of our 2023 survey show we have an overall engagement across the business of 82%. This is down by 1% in comparison to 2022, but exceeds the industry benchmark by 7%.
Championing equality and celebrating diversity
Our focus and targets
40% women in leadership teams by 2025.
25% of leaders identify as ethnically diverse by 2030.
Our progress
31% of women in leadership teams at end of 2023.
17% of leaders identify as ethnically diverse in 2023.
In 2023, we progressed in our journey to create a more diverse, equitable and inclusive workplace. In 2022, we set a target to have 40% of women in leadership teams by 2025, at the end of 2023 this was at 31%, an increase of 5% from 2022. In addition, we have for the first time collected information on the ethnic diversity of our senior leadership team, and found that 17% of employees in the team identify as ethnically diverse. With this baseline, we assessed suitable targets for a global business like ours, and used benchmarking across the regions we operate in to formulate a target for ethnic diversity that we believe not just represents, but surpasses the broader populations where we work. Consequently, we have set a new target for 25% ethnic diversity in our senior leadership team by 2030, with an interim target of 20% by 2027. This also meets the voluntary request made by the Parker Review to set an ethnicity target for 2027.
Our commitment to being an ethical employer
Our target
100% of employees trained on Ethics Code biannually.
Our progress
99% of employees trained on Ethics Code.
Our Ethics Code is the core foundation of our compliance strategy, is issued to all employees globally, and is available here. It is supported by a comprehensive training schedule, both online, virtual face to face and in person training that is delivered by our in house team. In 2023, 99% of employees who were assigned to receive Ethics Code training completed it. Management followed up with those who did not complete on time to understand why, and ensure there was a thorough understanding of the subject matter and the importance that is placed on compliance with the Ethics Code. The Ethics Code is available in all Essentra languages both in hard copy for colleagues working in factories, and online, so that employees are able to access it easily. An ethics decision tree helps guide employees on making the right decision. In addition, we have specific policies relating to Sanctions, Anti-Bribery and Corruption, Anti–Money Laundering, Anti-Trust and Competition and Third-Party Due Diligence. These policies are made available to all employees and specifically issued for affirmation to senior leaders and other employees who hold positions where such polices are relevant to ensure best practice.