Management approach
The quality, accuracy and integrity of SGS services are of paramount importance and are continually reviewed and improved through a range of corporate functions including Compliance, Operational Integrity and Strategic Transformation. Our overall performance is overseen by the Professional Conduct Committee which is chaired by the non-executive Chairman of the Board of Directors, Sergio Marchionne, and is regularly reported to the Operations Council. SGS Group commitments relating to our service responsibility are formalised in the SGS Code of Integrity. As a provider of inspection, verification, testing and certification services, SGS is required to achieve a wide range of accreditations in order to meet legal or customer-specific requirements.
CEO STATEMENT BY CHRIS KIRK:
AS A SECTOR LEADER, OUR ABILITY TO ACQUIRE, MANAGE, DEVELOP AND RETAIN TALENT IS THE LIFEBLOOD OF SGS.
Our business plan is wholly dependent on our ability to attract, retain and optimize talent where it is needed in order to grow the business, nurture relationships with customers and deliver results.
As a service company, our employees play a crucial role in creating value for SGS and our stakeholders. Their collective talent and professionalism form the basis for our recognition as the global benchmark for quality and integrity.
We are proud of our diverse, multi-talented and multicultural workforce, with over 75,000 employees around the world working in our laboratories, offices and operating in the field. Our success to date has relied upon our ability to attract, develop and retain the most competent, committed and engaged people we can.
We have developed global human resources programs to support our strategic priorities and promote a cohesive approach to managing and developing people across our network. To complement these programs, we have an abundance of locally inspired ‘bottom-up’ initiatives. There are thousands of employees who are using their outstanding talents every day to deliver exemplary services to our customers.
Onboarding - A Chance To Shine
Officially launched in October 2012, SHINE provides a structured, disciplined approach to onboarding and is designed to make a significant, positive impact within the first six months of an employee’s journey at SGS. During the year, nine global webinars were held involving managing directors and country and regional HR managers. Intensive training was provided to managers and employees to ensure that all key stakeholders were fully briefed about the programme and their role in ensuring its success. A comprehensive toolkit including training programmes is being translated and adapted for local use in preparation for new employee deployment from January 2013. The objective is to ensure all our employees receive a structured and well informed onboarding experience across the Group by completing the SHINE programme.
GLOBAL HEAD LEARNING & DEVELOPMENT STATEMENT BY DEBORAH O’DWYER:
SHINE IS A HELPFUL AND SYSTEMATIC WAY
of welcoming, familiarising, guiding and informing new employees on what to expect from day one.
Learning and Development (L&D)
Our vision is to contribute to our vitality and ongoing business success through a compelling L&D culture that brands SGS as an employer of choice. Our new global L&D strategy will be rolled out in 2013. Designed to create a ‘performance contributing’ approach, its goals create a road map that will ensure a strong partnership with business leaders to align all L&D activities to their dynamic market environments and challenges. It will also provide employees with opportunities for continued career development and progression.
Diversity & Equal Opportunity
A diverse workforce helps us to innovate and improve our understanding of the markets we operate in, and provides a more inspiring workplace. We consider diversity and inclusion to encompass, but not be limited to race, ethnicity, gender, thinking styles, religion and belief, sexual orientation, age, ability, education, languages, professional background, nationality, and life experiences.
We believe that our business is best managed by a leadership team which reflects the diversity of our global workforce and customer base. At the highest level, the SGS Operations Council, comprising 23 members, includes four women and represents more than 10 nationalities. At affiliate level, 64% of managing directors in our trend countries are recruited from the local labour market and are native to their country of operation.
Gender ratios and equal opportunity in employment are measured as part of our sustainability management system. We will publish additional diversity data, including recruitment by gender, as part of our upgraded human resources information system from 2015.
We monitor return to work and retention rates of employees following parental leave at our headquarters and in our affiliates. At our headquarters, 100% of employees returned to work following parental leave in 2012.
Employee engagement
Early in 2012, the Operations Council decided to launch CATALYST, an employee engagement initiative to better understand how engaged employees felt and how well the business strategy was understood. An online survey was designed using 48 questions across 15 topics and one open question. It included three indices – linked to performance excellence, employee engagement and sustainability – to allow composite attitudes by region, business and management responsibility to be tracked year-on-year and evaluated against global norms.
Survey results
Our Employee Engagement Index (EEI) measures the extent to which employees are motivated to contribute to organisational success.
The Performance Excellence Index (PEI) measures the extent to which an organisation is strongly committed to high levels of customer service and product quality and relies upon continuous improvement to achieve superior organisational results.
Our PEI and EEI scores indicate that SGS performs well above average compared to global norms.
The Sustainability Engagement Index (SEI) measures employee awareness of our sustainability targets and the importance of sustainability to the business, as well as employee understanding of how they can contribute to sustainability and the actions they can take to make SGS more sustainable. Our SEI score tells us that 75% of employees are aware of our targets and understand the importance of sustainability to the business. While we are delighted with this score, there is more work to be done to help employees understand how they can further contribute to making SGS more sustainable. As this is the first SEI on the market, it is not yet possible to benchmark scores externally.
Operational Integrity
Our commitment to health, safety, quality, and protection of the environment enables us to deliver the highest quality services in the industries we serve; maximises long-term returns for our shareholders, and provides a safe workplace for employees, while protecting the communities in which we work from potential harm resulting from our activities.
Operational Integrity (OI) is how we define our approach to managing quality, health, safety, and environment (QHSE). Our OI strategy is based on the aim to ‘save lives’. Protecting the health and welfare of every employee is our highest priority. We believe that everyone working for, or on behalf of, SGS has an equal right to a safe and healthy work environment. Our customers expect us to have the highest standards and management systems in place to provide the high quality service and standards they have come to expect from SGS.
View an illustrative graph of SGS Rules for Life.
For case studies of our work with our people and examples of staff development, please browse through our global programs and initiatives and see Sustainable: Corporate Sustainability Report 2012.