Employees:
A strong, family-oriented team
Our employees are the heart of our company. We have grown steadily together as a family business and are now one of the largest employers in Damme and the surrounding area. Commitment, expertise, and loyalty: Many of our employees remain loyal to us for many years and often develop into managers. We promote a lively corporate culture to strengthen team spirit and identification and to inspire employees to stay with us for as long as possible.
Recruiting has taken on a central role at our company in the face of the shortage of skilled workers as we are a rapidly growing company. It is therefore very important to us to involve our employees in the development of the company and to provide them with an optimal, safe and fair working environment.
The topics of integration and inclusion also play a major role here. In our Code of Ethics and Conduct, we have established that all employees have the same opportunities to further their careers. We respect the dignity of every human being and reject any form of discrimination.
Gender-equitable pay, the availability of many social benefits, the compatibility of family and career, and welfare and retirement provisions are a standard part of our work as a family-owned company. We have also implemented a company health management system (CHM) that focuses on the well-being, fitness, and motivation of our employees.
Our goal by 2024: Record [and improve] employee satisfaction, expand our health offering with two additional actions.
Apprenticeship:
Train, Support, Retain
Attracting young people to our company, building up our own expertise, offering employees training and development opportunities, and training them to become managers - all these issues are of outstanding importance to us and are key aspects of our sustainability strategy.
Enthusiasm begins with opportunities to meet people. We use job and training fairs, cooperation with schools, company visits, internships and, of course, social media to communicate with potential new employees. We accompany trainees closely in theory and practice with fun and pleasure. In 2020, we became the first Damme company to be certified with the Chamber of Industry and Commerce's "TOP Ausbildung" quality seal. It recognizes companies that provide high-quality training. The re-certification will take place in 2023.
We want to ensure the long-term loyalty of our employees. Together, we talk about development potential as well as possible training and further education within the framework of our instruction and training portal. Our "Business English" teacher refreshes or deepens English skills of interested employees via educational opportunities such as the "Coffee Klatsch" and the "Business English" seminar.
Our goal by 2024:
Increase our trainee ratio to 6%,
increase the retention rate to 80%.
Supplier Relations:
New Paths Together
When procuring and purchasing auxiliary materials, operating supplies and raw materials, we rely on long-standing, reliable and, to the greatest possible extent, regional supplier relationships. Our business partners come almost exclusively from Germany and the EU, and with many of them, we have grown together.
We hold annual supplier meetings, carry out internal assessments and visit our partners on site. During this process, we also work together to find sustainable solutions as the requirements relating to ecological criteria, environmental standards, quality, standards and supply chains increase, sustainable aspects play an increasingly important role in our relationships.
With the establishment of a new purchasing department, we have centralized our ordering processes. This ensures a lower number of orders and deliveries and thus also less transport and greenhouse gas emissions. Our "Supplier Code of Conduct" serves as a guide and orientation for our partners. With it, we aim to improve our production environment and working conditions from a moral, ecological, and social perspective.
Considering the Supply Chain Duty of Care Act, which came into force on January 1, 2023, we will monitor our supply chains even more closely for compliance with environmental and social standards in the future. Our goal is to obtain a better assessment of procurement processes regarding resilient supply chains, the environment and sustainability. As part of this, we plan to conduct supplier surveys, for example on the carbon footprint of individual precursors.