People underpin our success
Without our people, we would not have a sustainable business.
Our some 15,000 people around the world (of which about 6,500 are based in Europe) underpin our business success. Our focus is on equipping our people and subsequently the communities we operate in with the life and career skills, knowledge and confidence that allow them to build on their own capabilities and further their development.
Our Sappi Fine Paper Europe People Strategy is very closely aligned to both the European Business and Global People Strategies|
Our business goal is to be on a sustainable basis the most profitable company in paper, pulp and cellulose-based solutions, and we measure this in terms of returns on capital employed.
Aligned to our business strategy is our people objective: To have a fulfilled and engaged workforce that delivers on the key business drivers. We believe that the connection between work and organizational strategy is important. This connection ensures that employees feel that their work is truly of value to the organization and therefore to their peers and managers, and leads to heightened commitment and retention.
Underpinning the manner in which we achieve our goals and objectives are our Sappi Fine Paper Europe values:
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Integrity is for Sappi the basis of trust and as such a must for our business success which strongly depends on trust between people both internally and externally.
Exhibiting discipline to deliver on commitments taken and agreed accountabilities is the basis for respect towards others and grows trust.
Courage is our ability to take calculated risks and act on them to achieve greater success in the market.
Speed is the direct result of our conviction that if something is worth doing well, it is worth doing quickly.
It entails being accountable for consistent delivery on responsibilities assigned.
Partnership is pro-actively seeking mutual collaboration between different entities, departments and individuals within Sappi to collectively advance our interests towards our common goal or vision.
Entrepreneurial spirit is what makes Sappi’s employees take responsible initiatives within defined boundaries to progress our business. The importance of diversity and collaboration both internally and externally in achieving synergies based on mutual trust, integrity and interdependence, is key.
Being open to change is a key enabler.
Entrepreneurial spirit is the result of living up to our values. |
The key drivers to achieving our Sappi Fine Paper Europe People Strategy are:
Connecting People to the business – Sappi has an embedded process to communicate the strategy and yearly business targets to all employees. This management process provides employees with the opportunity to engage on the strategy with management, and allows them to understand how the strategy translates into what they need to do in their roles to contribute to the overall achievement of the strategy.
Building strong skills across Sappi – having a workforce that is both capable and competent in getting their jobs done right. This involves hiring correctly, retaining talent, accelerated development, strategic sourcing of talent, providing performance feedback and creating development opportunities.
Our focus on training and development, whether it is to learn new skills, improve performance or to prepare for a future career objective, is recognised as a strategic tool for Sappi’s continued growth, productivity and its ability to retain valuable employees.
Developing a strong leadership culture – building leadership capability at all levels within the organization and using our pipeline framework as a means to guide development.
It is our goal to develop leaders at every level of the organization who are accountable for achieving business results and who exemplify the ‘Sappi Way’ of working.
Sappi believes that a strong leadership culture drives collective mind-sets which is crucial for executing effectively our strategic priorities.
As we are committed to growing and developing our own talent and developing leaders from within, we have defined a set of leadership competencies that clearly sets out the qualities and behaviors expected from our leaders:
We do run annually a bottom-up talent review process allowing us to identify, validate and further develop all talents across the organization.
Transforming our workplace – in the context of our European business this means a focus on workforce composition, transformation; changing mindsets in how we do our business and behaviors in line with our values.
We do value diversity.
As a global company, we employ a diverse workforce. We value this diversity, believing that it contributes to innovative thinking and our ability to service diverse global markets. We strive to create a workplace free of from discrimination and harassment, acknowledging and accepting differences among our people with respect to age, class, ethnicity, physical ability, race, sexual orientation, and spiritual practice.
Energizing our work environment – valuing our employees through recognition, granting freedom with responsibility, allowing people to stretch and reach their full potential, safety at work, and aligning our behaviours towards our Sappi values.
Employee engagement is fundamental to organizational effectiveness. Sappi is committed to running a bi-annual employee engagement survey across all its Regions to ensure that it keeps closely in touch with the employee experience.
We promote well-being and employability.
Compensation philosophy – attracting, motivating and retaining employees in order to drive the achievement of Sappi’s strategic goals. We strive to reward our employees fairly and equitably in relation to job level, experience and the employment market. Our compensation programs are aligned to the organizational context, support the business strategy and are aimed at reinforcing and sustaining high performance levels of all employees.
Sappi recognizes the need for a variable pay component to drive individual and/or team performance to achieve business goals. Variable pay programs, both long and short-term, have been implemented, each with parameters that are relevant for the purpose they wish to achieve
Needless to say that it takes strong, effective, customer-cantered human resources function to deliver on those components.
Our Employment Values summarize what you can expect when working for Sappi Fine Paper Europe:
We want you to realize your dreams
... through living our key employment values:
Integrity and trust
We are truthful and build trust through all our actions. This is the basic employment value through which we allow a culture of collaboration and interdependency throughout our organization.
Freedom with responsibility
Sappi encourages an entrepreneurial spirit allowing all employees to take diverse initiatives driving business results, within a defined framework of accountabilities.
Courage to explore new avenues
Sappi people challenge and shift existing paradigms allowing them to take new approaches and make appropriate decisions to further grow our results and stay ahead of competition.
Personal Development
Sappi commits to constantly grow its people so they have cutting-edge knowledge, skills and experience to serve all customers. Equally Sappi’s people are encouraged to take
themselves responsibility to stay equipped with relevant skills and experience.
Our people and leadership underpin our success!
It takes inspirational and engaging leadership to attract, develop and retain talented and motivated employees who form the heart of a high performance culture.
We are confident that the combination of the various people processes and activities will directly contribute to us achieving a high performance culture and thus allowing us to deliver and outperform on our ambitious business targets.