Management Approach
Material topic: Human rights & fair labor practices
[GRI 3-3, 406-1; ESRS S1-1, S1-5, S1-17, S3-4]
Diversity, inclusion and respect are core pillars of a talent strategy designed to attract and develop talent from all backgrounds. A committed and empowered workforce is critical to business success, and Lenzing acts to provide equal opportunities for employment, learning and development. The company seeks to create an open-minded and inclusive environment by proactively fostering ethical ways of working in compliance with high internal standards, as well as principles outlined by international regulatory bodies. Lenzing continues to adhere to and uphold human rights and fair labor practices in all aspects of the global working environment.
Actual and potential negative and positive impacts
Positive
- Good labor practices promote staff safety and wellbeing and ensure healthy and satisfied employees
- Launch of a clear and appealing purpose with people focus at its core to deliver the Better Growth strategy
- Enabling personal success and contributing to the growth and success of the company
- Diversity promotes the quality of business decisions and contributes to the company’s resilience
- Competitive advantage through a committed workforce
- Development of a corporate culture that is characterized by openness and mindful interactions
- Definition of related targets of social sustainability
- Global Performance and Talent Management processes in place
- Global Skill Matrix and Functional Competency Frameworks in order to offer the right learning and development opportunities to employees
- Comprehensive set of business policies that set clear standards and processes regarding the behavior of leaders and employees
Negative
Own activities
- Risk of losing employees with high potential
- Risk of reducing the engagement and productivity of employees
- Risk of negatively impacting on the mental health of leaders and employees
- Risk of not being able to hire and train a successor in time
Business relationships
- Risk of discrimination and other possible negative impact on human rights
- Potential regulatory and corporate reputational risks
- Risk of failing to attract future talent or losing employees due to a lack of initiatives on diversity, equity and inclusion
- Risk of not meeting regulatory requirements with regard to the share of different genders in executive management
- Risk of losing know-how through demographic change
Policies and commitments
- Local Labor Right laws
- Local Employee Terms and Conditions
- 17 Sustainable Development Goals of UN
- 10 principles of the UN Global Compact
- Lenzing’s Purpose, Culture & Strategy
- Policy on Human Rights and Labor Standards
- Lenzing Group Reward Guideline
- Global Code of Business Conduct
- Policy for Safety, Health and Environment
- Global Supplier Code of Conduct
- Wood and Pulp Policy
- Sustainability Policy
- Lenzing Sustainability Goals
- HR Strategy
- Global Anti-Bribery and Corruption Directive
- Global Whistleblower Directive
- Global Compliance Investigation Directive
- Anti Money Laundering Group Directive
- Global Recruitment Guideline
- Global Job Evaluation Guideline
- Lenzing Group Short Term Incentive Plan
- Global Salary Administration Guidelines
- Global Learning & Development Guideline
- Global Performance Management Guideline
- Global Guideline for Creating a Job Description
- Modern Slavery Act Transparency Statement (UK only)
Actions taken
- Training on diversity topics for HR Business Partners
- 3rd party audits on social sustainability topics conducted for several sites
- Preparatory work carried out for creation of Employee Resource Groups (ERGs)
- Performance and talent management processes expanded to all white-collar staff
- Structured performance management processes with regular employee feedback
- Insightful talent data availability on career ambitions and potential future career paths and development opportunities
- Competency framework expanded to HR and Global Engineering organization
- Skills matrix piloted at Lenzing site with six production areas – identification of additional departments to proceed further
- Eye-to-eye partner for local unions, works councils, and other workforce representatives
- Employee training programs (HR capability academy, technical academy for Global Engineering, Commercial capability academy)
- Focus on digital learning led to a globally available catalog with over 100 eLearning courses in German, English and Portuguese, covering a range of topics from business to personal development and wellbeing.
- Regional social projects
- Compensation & benefit benchmarks and grading systems
- Application of 4-eye principle
- Whistleblower system and investigation directive
Sustainability targets, measures and progress
- No cases of discrimination or human right abuses, based on Discrimination ILO 111 Article 1, were reported.
- No strikes at any Lenzing production facility
- The increasing importance of this topic led to the implementation of a dedicated Social Sustainability unit within the Corporate People Development department.
For more information, please see the “Sustainability targets, measures and progress” chapter.
Stakeholder
- Employees
- Local communities
- Rating agencies
- Brands & retailers
- Certification bodies
- Suppliers
For more information, please see the “Stakeholder engagement” chapter.
Responsible
- CEO
- VP Corporate Human Resources
Supporting
- Corporate Communications
- Corporate Sustainability
[GRI 406-1; ESRS S1-17]
A company directly or indirectly impacts its employees, but also the workers in the value chain, its customers, and the local communities around its sites. Social sustainability is about identifying and managing the positive and negative impacts of the company on people. Social sustainability is therefore one of the three pillars of the holistic sustainability approach (Environment-Social-Governance). The Lenzing Group is committed to conducting business in a manner that respects the rights and dignity of all people. Lenzing respects internationally recognized human and labor rights for all employees and business partners.
Labor rights are subject to national laws. Employees at all Lenzing sites receive fair wages thanks to a highly regarded internal global grading system, collective bargaining, the activities of union representatives, and national protections for human rights. The EcoVadis supplier assessment tool includes fair labor rights in the upstream supply chain. The Lenzing Group’s own labor practices are also evaluated through the yearly assessment which is conducted by EcoVadis. The wood certification systems used by Lenzing ensure that labor conditions meet the requirements of the International Labour Organization's (ILO) Core Conventions.
The Lenzing Group’s corporate culture is characterized by long-term partnerships, close collaboration, and mutual respect based on open dialog and transparency. Social sustainability is regarded as a corporate value and has consequently been integrated into Lenzing’s global human resources (HR) strategy, HR policy, and HR processes.