A culture of working together
Our 11,238 employees around the world are what make Greiner who we are. We all have a role to play in achieving the goals of our sustainability strategy and together helping shape our company’s transformation. As a family-run company, we have operated on a principle of working together ever since being established. And as a family-run company dating back over 150 years, we can safely say that this way is the way to success. Without our countless employees of the past, we would not be standing where we are today. Without our 11,238 employees at present, we will not achieve our goals today or in the future. A special culture of trust, recognition and respect for all employees is in Greiner’s DNA.
In connection with this, we would like to emphasize that general and/or collective bargaining agreements were in place at 36 of our 64 sites (56 percent) in 2020. Our aim is to continually increase this figure to take into account the UN Global Compact and its Principle Three on the importance of collective bargaining and collective bargaining agreements.
Employees by continent1
We want to maintain our corporate culture even as a global group. This reflects our conviction that integrating people with different identities and backgrounds enriches Greiner and makes us more innovative and robust and that we, armed with this diversity, can better rise to the challenges ahead.
It is also on the basis of this conviction that we very deliberately chose people as one of the three pillars of our Blue Plan sustainability strategy and set the following target: All employees should be fit to meet the challenges of the future by 2030.
Tomorrow’s world of work
Guided by our experience that we have our employees’ knowledge and skills to thank for our achievements so far, we also consider them the key to a sustainable Greiner future. To make the most of this key, we want to invest more than ever in training and education, push for occupational safety and health protection and step up our efforts in diversity. By 2025, we will almost double the average number of training hours. At the same time, we want to boost our employees’ physical and mental health through new offers and continually improve occupational safety measures. Responding to new and welcomed realities in an increasingly diverse society and company, we also say a conscious yes to more diversity and to promoting diversity at Greiner.
We must prepare our employees at an early stage and as well as possible so that we can respond constructively and successfully to the changes that tomorrow’s world of work will bring. To develop solutions for the challenges of the future, we need innovative strength, new, courageous and creative thinking and full support for this from company management. Creating a modern workplace that gives our employees a high level of personal responsibility when arranging working conditions and working hours, thereby favoring a more flexible work organization, is fundamental to this. Our Mobile Working Policy to promote a better work-life balance has become even more important following the need to work from home in light of the coronavirus pandemic. Mobile working regulations vary according to the requirements in our four divisions.
Breakdown of employees by employment relationship
Breakdown of employees by age group
Turnover rate1
Hiring rate1
The challenges posed to our innovative capabilities and versatility by the transition from a linear to a circular business model are enormous. To make this change to a fully circular company a success, we have to win the hearts and minds of all of our employees. This requires lively discussions and an honest approach to handling feedback and mistakes. Successfully implementing our sustainability agenda requires us at Greiner to provide fertile soil for entirely new production and sales approaches. To achieve this, we put our employees at the heart of our sustainability strategy, driven by the conviction that we are the basis for Greiner’s success. We have set ambitious targets in the various areas. Some of these we will be able to meet quickly, while others will take perseverance.
We have already achieved one target: Since 2020, part of our Senior Management has been measured by their successes in making the company more sustainable. For the first time, we integrated very specific emissions reduction targets into the target agreements. This brings the topic further into our managers’ focus and provides a new, quantifiable force.
Michael Parker (Greiner Bio-One)
Production Manager
Employer of Choice award for Greiner Bio-One North America
Greiner Bio-One North America received the Employer of Choice award from the Union County Chamber of Commerce in Monroe (USA) in December 2020 for its achievements in creating a respectful and innovative working environment. There was particular praise from the regional Chamber of Commerce for Greiner Bio-One’s great commitment to its employees’ health and wellbeing during the Covid-19 pandemic, and for the fact that Greiner Bio-One provided the right balance between protecting key workers and producing products needed to fight the virus.