Human capital
Talent: from acquisition to retention, in a challenging environment
2021, like 2020, has been a challenging year for our people, as the world continued to be affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. This year more than ever, we have practiced and lived the Corbion values of Care, Commitment, Collaboration, and Courage.
Our people have been our top priority, with a focus on their well-being. We launched a partnership with Headspace, the mindfulness app, and reinforced communication and awareness around mental health and well-being throughout the year.
The global onboarding program we launched in 2019 formed a solid common foundation to onboard the few hundreds of new talents who joined Corbion in 2021, many of them remotely.
Inclusion and diversity
At Corbion, we believe in the power of diverse teams to create value and drive innovation and growth, and we apply this to our recruitment. We strive to attract talent based on diverse competencies, backgrounds, origins, to ensure that the diversity of our people reflects the societies in which we live and work.
We are continuously working on becoming a more diverse and inclusive organization and we do that through, amongst others, leadership, awareness-raising, more refined employee data, recruitment, and talent management.
Development
We are fully committed to developing our people to unleash their potential and create a highly engaged and performing organization. Our robust talent review and succession planning process contributes to strengthening our talent pipeline, ensuring quality, and timely succession at all levels of the organization. We also rely on our ongoing performance management cycle, which encourages managers to discuss objectives and give regular and timely feedback on performance to their teams (on the “what” and the “how”) and not just at the end of the year. This allows for continuous development and growth of our talent.
As for training and leadership development, this year some of our external programs had to be put on hold due to COVID-19 but, as an alternative, we provided several online trainings (for example, safety leadership, performance management, and well-being).
Company culture
Our values – Care, Commitment, Collaboration, Courage – along with the key Corbion behaviors – set clear direction, make the difference, focus on customers, and deliver through teamwork – are now fully embedded in our programs and processes and form the foundation of the Corbion culture.
To measure the health of our company culture, we run Engagement Surveys every 1.5 years. The last one was in 2020, the next will be in the second quarter of 2022. This year, we conducted follow-up interviews with a selected panel of talents to further explore some of the themes which emerged from the 2020 survey. Listening to our employees and their needs, is a critical foundation to sustain our high engagement levels.
Workforce profile
FTE of employees 2021 | % of workforce 2021 | FTE of employees 2020 | % of workforce 2020 | |
Total workforce | 2,493 | 2,267 | ||
By region | ||||
Asia | 309 | 12% | 227 | 10% |
EMEA | 810 | 33% | 702 | 31% |
Latin America | 496 | 20% | 429 | 19% |
North America | 878 | 35% | 909 | 40% |
By unit | ||||
Business units | 1,100 | 44% | 1,060 | 47% |
Sustainable Food Solutions | 712 | 65% | 641 | 61% |
Lactic Acid & Specialties | 205 | 19% | 193 | 18% |
Incubator | 45 | 4% | 43 | 4% |
Non-core | 138 | 12% | 183 | 17% |
CSSO | 101 | 4% | 71 | 3% |
Operations | 1027 | 41% | 889 | 39% |
Support functions | 265 | 11% | 247 | 11% |
By gender | Number of employees | Number of employees | ||
Female | 719 | 28% | 620 | 27% |
Male | 1,807 | 72% | 1,676 | 73% |
By employment contract | Number of employees | Number of employees | ||
Full time | 2,362 | 94% | 2,143 | 93% |
Part time | 164 | 6% | 153 | 7% |
Labor practices
Collective bargaining agreements | # of employees | % of workforce |
Total employees with agreements | 1,067 | 42% |
To ensure high-level employee-management interaction and responsible labor practices, we have joint management-worker health & safety committees in place at all production sites with formally elected employee representatives. In Thailand, the Election Welfare Committee has a formal quarterly meeting with employer representation by labor law to jointly review the welfare and working conditions. The members of the Election Welfare Committee are all employee representatives.
In addition, our Code of Business Conduct reflects our strong commitment to responsible labor practices. All Corbion employees are paid a living wage.