Human capital

Impacts, risks, and opportunities 

The risks and opportunities of human capital are managed and steered by the Human Resources Leadership team led by the Chief Human Resources Officer and the Executive Committee. Progress on policy objectives and targets are primarily steered by the Chief Human Resources Office, the HR Leadership Team (notably the Head of Total Reward and Head of Talent) and Executive Committee.

Talent attraction, retention, and people development

How we manage our impact: strategy and governance

At Corbion, attracting, retaining, and developing talent, is at the heart of driving our business successfully and sustainably. The high demand for talent compounded by the persistent talent shortage in the market can pose a short-term challenge for Corbion in finding and recruiting top talent. There is a risk that failing to attract or retain skilled employees could hinder our ability to meet commitments or delay achieving strategic objectives. We aim to mitigate by creating fair working conditions and a fair renumeration whilst adhering to clear values and continuously investing in our people. Thus we manage to attract and retain our people to execute our strategy. Additionally, we have been able to mitigate any financial impact of this risk through the flexibility of our workforce, by for example adding temporary labor or having employees that are multi-skilled. The latter is something we actively promote and encourage in our workforce. These actions have ensured there is no material impact on the financial statements.

In 2024, the market-wide talent shortage persisted, and external market conditions remained highly competitive. Candidates and employees are seeking a purpose-driven company with competitive salaries, meaningful work, offering career growth and alignment with their values on top of flexible working conditions. This offers considerable opportunities for Corbion to stand out as a top employer in this talent landscape. We aim to be an attractive purpose-led employer by supporting employee wellbeing, placing importance on diversity, equity and inclusion, creating a safe working environment, and providing ample development opportunities for both deep experts and broader generalists. As an employer, Corbion offers competitive benefits such as short – and long-term incentive programs, fair and equitable pay, outstanding health and accident insurances and retirement benefits and we ensure a living wage for all employees. We also foster professional growth through talent development programs, providing clear pathways for career progression.

Engagement

Corbion places a strong emphasis on gathering input and feedback from it's own people and regularly conducts engagement and pulse surveys to understand our organizational health.

Corbion engages with its workforce in several ways, amongst others through townhalls by site and senior leadership teams, through site visits and by conducting engagement surveys at regular intervals. Specifically and more intensely for 2024, we conducted interviews and held dozens of workshops to engage with our people and get a good pulse of our organizational health. We also distributed various pulse surveys to assess the state of our company culture. These shorter, more frequent surveys help us take the "pulse" of the organization on specific topics or during particular periods and allow for quickly identifying and addressing any emerging issues or concerns among employees. We also conduct "Stay Interviews" to evaluate the effectiveness of our onboarding and integration for employees with under two years of tenure at Corbion.

The Chief Human Resources Officer, together with the Executive Committee, is ultimately responsible for ensuring that employee engagement related activities take place and informs our people strategy.

Performance

Actions and progress

Actions in 2024

Throughout 2024, we celebrated numerous instances where our employees exemplified our core values across the organization. The Corbion values of care, courage, collaboration, and commitment were introduced in 2018. Since 2019, Corbion has celebrated both big and small moments where employees exemplified these core values. Quarterly, through our Values Showcase Program, we honored and recognized four exemplary success stories, each embodying one or more of Corbion's core values. Several times during the year, we dedicate one of these showcases to stories of people putting safety first, reaffirming our unwavering dedication to this paramount topic.

People come to work for us because they share similar values. By showcasing the great examples of our company values in action at our organization, we strengthen the bond between the employee and our company. This connection plays a vital role in employee retention.

An ongoing focus remains on demonstrating our value of care for colleagues by supporting our employees with a Headspace premium account, made freely available to all employees. This initiative underscores our commitment to the wellbeing of our people, nurturing a healthy work life balance, and focus on mental wellbeing.

Our culture and values are at the heart of our company and guide us in how we want to do business. Yet, we acknowledge that more clarity can be given around the behaviors we would like to see to live these values day in and day out. As a result, we have engaged in discussions across our workforce to better understand, define, and implement the behaviors we would like to see reflected in our day-to-day operations across all sites, regions, and functions. A focus on ownership, accountability, and collaboration will be key to creating a high-performance culture, which is a journey well into 2025 as we simultaneously prepare for our new strategic period. In 2024, our Talent Management and Organizational Development function spearheaded the design of an integrated talent strategy aimed at enabling our workforce to actively contribute to the overall business performance and support our growth objectives. As part of this initiative, a new capability mapping process was implemented to identify talent segments requiring focused efforts. Furthermore, we have strengthened our talent review and succession planning processes, paying particular attention to the assessment and calibration of performance and potential, as well as the diversity of our talent pools. An additional focus on bench strength has been implemented to secure the pipeline for future growth. In terms of leadership development, our ongoing partnership with a leading thought institute continues to provide valuable opportunities for employees to participate in virtual, on-campus courses and coaching sessions.

Actions beyond 2024

As we develop and roll out our increased focus on culture and talent as part of how we do business, many activities that we engaged in during 2024 will further mature and deliver over the next years. We will invest in leadership and development, start to measure hours spent on training in Corbion, objectively assess and measure potential and skills of our talents, define our critical positions and understand the bench strength for those critical positions. A more elaborated People Strategy will be announced in the course of 2025 in alignment with our new business strategy.

Metrics

Employee turnover

The employee turnover within the organization is a critical metric that reflects our workplace environment and overall employee satisfaction. Turnover rates provide valuable insights into the factors influencing employee retention and help to identify opportunities for improvement. We do not have a target on turnover rate.

The talent shortage in the market and highly-competitive external conditions persisted. In 2024, 258 employees were hired and onboarded during this year. Per the end of the reporting period for 2024, 412 employees left the organization, resulting in a turnover rate of 16.5% (excluding the divestment of the Emulsifiers business). This figure is significantly higher than in previous years, in line with the previously announced reorganization within Corbion.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion

Corbion firmly believes that innovation, creativity, performance, and quality are driven by diverse perspectives. We aim to be a company where people can be their true selves and have equal opportunities to achieve their full potential. By consciously building a diverse workforce, Corbion can become an 'employer of choice,' attracting, retaining, and promoting highly talented and diverse employees across all levels for the sustainable success of our company.

How we manage our impact: strategy and governance

Policies

In 2024, we have updated our Diversity and Inclusion Policy (new window) through which we aim to:

• Establish a more diverse workforce by attracting, retaining, and promoting highly-talented and diverse employees across all levels.

• Enhance performance by creating well-rounded leaders and an increased range of leadership styles across all levels.

Corbion has the following processes in place to manage the objective under our policy. All Corbion recruiters undergo Diversity and Inclusion Certification and Training. This ensures they use inclusive language in job postings and leverage diverse channels to attract a wide range of candidates. We actively monitor and report on the inclusion of diverse candidates in the recruitment processes, while also encouraging managers to consider diversity when forming their teams. Additionally, Corbion has set specific gender diversity targets for the Executive Committee and the Supervisory Board. We monitor gender pay equity annually, with particular focus within management and the Executive Committee. If we find any pay disparities, we implement proactive measures, which are carefully reviewed and approved by the Executive Committee to ensure a fair and comprehensive approach to closing the gap.

Equitable compensation

Ensuring equitable compensation is fundamental to our commitment to fairness and inclusivity. By analyzing our pay practices, we aim to identify and address any disparities that may exist, reinforcing our dedication to providing a supportive and just workplace for all employees. Furthermore, we have aligned our compensation structures to adequate wage principles, ensuring that every employee receives an adequate wage. This comprehensive examination reflects our ongoing efforts to promote equity in our compensation practices.

Performance

Targets

The gender diversity target for the Executive Committee states that at least two members should be female if the committee consists of six to seven members. The gender diversity targets for the Supervisory Board states that at least 30% of the Board must be female and 30% must be male, in line with statutory gender targets. At the end 2024, the Executive Committee, comprising a total of six positions, consists of 50% male members and 50% female members.

Actions and progress

Actions in 2024

Our journey toward greater diversity and inclusion involves continuous effort, supported by leadership, refined employee data analysis, and strategic talent management.

In 2024, in alignment with our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) roadmap, we conducted comprehensive interviews with employees spanning different regions and nationalities, identifying our strengths and pinpointing areas for improvement.

By understanding the varied DEI experiences and expectations of our employees, we aim to foster a more inclusive culture. Corbion actively promotes equal opportunities and inclusivity, exemplified by initiatives such as a local young Corbion employee group (CorbiYoung). This initiative aims to foster a sense of community and support among younger employees, promoting inclusivity and equal opportunities.

Additionally, we have set objectives to enhance gender diversity, aiming for greater female representation across all employee categories. These objectives notably include increasing the percentage of female candidates on shortlists provided to hiring managers.

Actions beyond 2024

We will continue to invest and create a culture and a workplace where everyone can be their true selves and achieve their full potential by continued listening sessions, pulse checks and promoting specific employee representation groups such as Young Corbion. Additionally, we will continue our efforts to maintain and achieve gender balance at senior levels as well as actively monitoring and addressing any gender pay gaps.

The implementation and monitoring of our diversity, equity, and inclusion actions involves our colleagues from HR, partnering with managers and employee resource groups.

Metrics

Age diversity

Having a range of ages within a company is beneficial as it balances the mix between experience and new ideas. Experienced employees bring valuable knowledge, stability, and mentorship, while younger employees often introduce fresh perspectives, innovative approaches, and adaptability to new technologies. This combination fosters a dynamic and resilient workforce capable of driving sustained growth, innovation, and benefits succession planning. Notably, Corbion maintains a balanced age distribution, with the majority of our employees between 30-50 years old, which is considered a prime working age in terms of both experience and productivity, whilst maintaining the experience and stability that 30% of our workforce over 50 brings, together with the influx of younger talent.

Gender diversity

For more information on diversity of our Supervisory Board and Executive Committee, see Diversity, values, and Code of Business Conduct (new window).

Employee tenure distribution

Corbion’s tenure profile confirms the stability and loyalty of our workforce, as nearly half of the employees (52%) have five or more years with the company. This indicates a substantial number of our employees have extensive knowledge of the company's history, processes, culture, and customer needs, which contributes to stability, loyalty, strong relationships, and higher productivity. The percentage of newer employees reflects our active recruitment skills and new perspectives to help balance stability with growth.

Pay ratio

The pay ratio based on the at target average remuneration of all employees can be found in Remuneration report (new window).

Other information

Human rights – own workforce and workers in the supply chain

Corbion is committed to respecting and upholding human rights and labor standards. We act in accordance with internationally declared human rights and adhere to applicable laws within the framework of our business activities.

Our commitment is based on the International Bill of Human Rights and the International Labour Organization’s Declaration on Fundamental Rights and Principles at Work. We have implemented procedures to ensure alignment with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises and the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and are also a signatory and active participant of the United Nations Global Compact. More details can be found in our Human Rights Policy (new window).

Our human rights policy and commitment are applicable to both our own operations and value chain. They set the standard for our own activities, plus our expectations for suppliers and business partners, including zero tolerance for trafficking in human beings, forced labor and child labor.

Salient issues within our own operations are addressed through our Code of Business Conduct, which covers, among others health and safety; inclusion, diversity, and equal employment opportunity; harassment; discrimination, child and forced labor; working hours and compensation; and freedom of association. The following grounds for discrimination are covered in the Code (e.g., nationality, race, religion, gender, age, sexual orientation, disability, union membership, and political affiliation). Our health and safety commitments are reflected in our Environment, Health, and Safety Policy (see Health and Safety (new window) section for more information). Human capital management, diversity and inclusion, wages, working hours, equal opportunities, and collective bargaining agreements are managed by Human Resources and reflected in internal policies.

Policies related to managing material impacts on supply chain workers are described in the chapter Human rights in the supply chain (new window).

Employee and industrial relations

We acknowledge, facilitate and respect our employees' right to collective bargaining. In addition, to ensure frequent employee–management interactions and responsible labor practices, we have established joint management–worker health and 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 these interactions we monitor amongst others progress against employee related targets (gender diversity at top management level and TRIR/ work related incidents targets).

Corbion hosts regular town hall meetings to update employees on safety, financial performance, and local topics. Senior Managers are required to brief their teams quarterly after being updated on Corbion's results.

In 2024, Corbion announced a global restructuring plan that removed almost 200 roles, designed to achieve significant free cash flow delivery and enabling leverage. Employees were informed duly and timely about the reorganization through global information meetings and individual support sessions. The Dutch Works Council was consulted, and a social plan was agreed upon with the unions in compliance with Dutch laws. The execution of the global plan has been successfully completed during the year.

Other metrics

Contract types

The majority of our employees have permanent contracts. The remaining 48 employees have fixed-term contracts. Fixed-term contracts are used to absorb swings in activity and/or validate the candidate in the role. The goal however is to transition fixed-term contracts to permanent contracts after a certain period. Corbion allows part-time work in accordance with country specific legislation. Notably, in the Netherlands, a significant number of employees work part-time at their own request.

The headcount has decreased significantly as a result of a strategic divestment and a worldwide reorganization, resulting in 2,431 employees by the end of 2024 (compared to 2,765 in 2023).

Note: at this moment, no gender reporting of 'Other' and 'Not disclosed.'

Gender

70.4% of our employees are male, reflecting historical trends in the production industry. However, we are committed to promoting gender diversity and inclusivity across all roles and are working to increase female representation in our operational staff.

Employees by region

Employees by country

Incidents and complaints

For information on our Speak up channels, see our Risk management (new window) section.

Social value assessment