Social responsibility
Social responsibility is an essential element of our company culture, and we are committed to being socially accountable to our employees, contractors, customers, visitors and ourselves. Marel provides a safe and respectful workplace that fosters diversity and inclusion (D&I), and belonging. We also ensure that our employees have opportunities for further education and career development.
As a global company, we reach out to communities where we operate to seek local insights and collaboration. Together, we forge solutions to benefit everyone. Moreover, we apply the highest standards at every level and do not tolerate human rights violations under any circumstances.
Our people
Our people drive Marel’s success, and this success is directly tied to the unique perspectives and experiences that each individual brings to the table. The Marel team comes from a wide range of cultural, geographical, professional and personal backgrounds, and we actively encourage and respect this diversity.
As an international team of problem solvers, we feed off each other’s drive for creating leading solutions and transforming the future of food. With technology driving us forward, our people’s innovative mindsets, talents and perseverance allow us to create more sustainable food solutions for the world.
We work collaboratively and learn from one another, building our knowledge and experience to advance our solutions and business.
To ensure our employees have the necessary tools and knowledge to succeed, we provide a supportive work environment that motivates our team to make Marel’s vision their own. We encourage further education and career development, for example by offering employees a variety of in-house training courses.
Employees in 2022
| 2022 | 2021 | |
|---|---|---|
| Europe, Middle East and Africa1 | 5,250 | 4,777 |
| Americas | 1,819 | 1,466 |
| Asia and Oceania | 435 | 402 |
| Total employees | 7,504 | 6,645 |
| 3rd party workers | 514 | 495 |
| Total | 8,018 | 7,140 |
Note: 1Iceland accounts for 835 FTE (2021: 695 FTE) excluding 3rd party workers.
Employees by geography
Average full-time equivalents in 2022
Employee engagement is key
Employee engagement is crucial both for our team members and for the overall health of our organization. Since 2019, we have partnered with Gallup UK on an engagement journey to benchmark Marel against top-performing global companies. We provide managers with training to promote desired behaviors in their teams through frequent and future-focused performance dialogues.
To measure engagement, we conduct an annual survey and actively follow through on the results. In 2022, more than 90% of our managers created an action plan with their teams to improve their engagement. Our new engagement activities concentrate on working with employees’ strengths and having conversations that further evolve Marel values and culture, emphasizing diversity, inclusion and respectful behaviors.
As we emerge from pandemic restrictions, we have embraced positive changes in our work culture. We promote work-life balance, physical wellbeing and mental health support, which all contribute to our employees' efficiency at work. We respect that people have responsibilities and a life outside Marel and need to nurture themselves and recharge. Therefore, we offer flexible working arrangements, opportunities to work part-time and other options to help our employees find the right balance.
Case study:
Building our Employer Brand together
Marel places great importance on having a strong employer value proposition to help attract and retain diverse, world-class talent. To support this, in 2021 we initiated work on our Employer Brand, which permeates all People and Culture (our human resources team) processes as well as various Marel offerings.
Our people are our focus, and we seek to create an Employer Brand that reflects this by ensuring that everything we do adds value for our employees. Moreover, our Employer Brand is centered around the fact that Marel has an international team of problem solvers who work together to create leading solutions and transform the future of food. In over 30 different countries, we rise to the challenge together.
To create our Employer Brand, we put together focus groups with key stakeholders from across different geographies, business entities and functions. We took into account factors such as age, nationality, gender, seniority, function, business units and regions to ensure that our approach was inclusive and reflected the diversity of the Marel team.
We tested our Employer Brand narrative and taglines with more than 350 Marel employees through surveys to ensure that they resonated with our team. The output of this work is our New People Vision, which guides our interactions with employees and ensures that they remain at the center of everything we do.
In keeping with our Employer Brand, we rolled out our global branding strategy in 2022. This is a critical step toward unifying our global brand.
Statistics and initiatives from learning and development
Talent management
Marel’s competitive advantage depends on our talented workforce, making talent management essential to our success. We recognize that employees perform best and feel most fulfilled when they are able to utilize their natural talents, skills and knowledge on a daily basis. Hence, we prioritize aligning people with roles that best match their full potential.
Our global talent management process focuses on key positions within our organization and works to establish the essential skills, knowledge, experience and behavior needed to be successful in these roles. We then identify individuals who meet these requirements and determine how we can support their development. We have identified succession candidates for most key positions and are working on development plans to ensure succession coverage in the years to come. In 2022, we concentrated on strengthening our current leadership while developing our next generation of leaders.
In line with our future-oriented approach, we have assessed our employees’ growth potential and asked them to register their career interests and development needs. All processes are supported by our global human resources information system, Workday.
In 2023, we will further integrate talent management into our culture and ways of working, providing training and support for meaningful discussions around career development. Our goal is to foster a transparent talent marketplace that makes it easy to match talent supply and demand. To achieve this, we are building the right support to empower employees to take control of their careers.
Case Study:
Launch of the Marel Campus
Today’s skills will not meet tomorrow’s needs. As our industry rapidly evolves, our employees must develop their skills to adapt, and they need support to develop these new and different skills. It is estimated that 30% of the skills we use now will no longer be needed by 2026. To prepare our people for these future challenges, we launched the Marel Campus.
The Marel Campus is an online learning platform that provides unlimited employee access to a wide variety of learning content and opportunities. It is the place to go to gain knowledge, develop new skills and sharpen leadership capabilities through technical courses and video and conference platforms.
In addition to self-led learning, managers can provide employees with more specific learning paths. Designed to ensure the skilled-preparedness of our people, these paths are structured, skill based and easily scalable.
Learning is for everyone, and through these digital tools, we increase access for all Marel employees.
Diversity and inclusion
We foster a diverse and inclusive workforce and culture where all people feel respected and valued and are treated with dignity and fairness. We have already achieved our desired gender diversity in our Board of Directors (43/57) and Executive Board (40/60) and have set a 2026 goal to achieve greater gender diversity in middle and upper management.
We also recognize that diversity and inclusion (D&I) goes beyond gender. Marel employees, prospective employees, contractors, consultants, suppliers and customers must be treated fairly and should not be discriminated against on the grounds of age, race or ethnicity, nationality, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, mental health, neurodiversity, religious or political beliefs, financial status or class, marital, carer or parental status, or any other aspect of diversity.
It is important that we reflect the markets in which we operate. This includes servicing our customers in their local languages, listening to the needs of our end consumers, moving toward fully local management teams in the regions and hiring and developing more diverse talent in technical roles. We hope to be a part of moving our industry toward greater diversity and inclusivity going forward.
For 2023, we plan to offer learning programs covering various D&I topics to enhance our employees’ knowledge. Additionally, we will continue to collaborate with our various locations to create local D&I policies that accompany our Global Diversity and Inclusion Policy.
Composition of governance bodies and breakdown by gender
|
2022
|
2021
|
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Female
|
Male
|
Total
|
Female
|
Male
|
Total
|
|
|
Board of Directors
|
43%
|
57%
|
7
|
43%
|
57%
|
7
|
|
Executive Board1
|
40%
|
60%
|
5
|
44%
|
56%
|
9
|
|
Employees
|
18%
|
82%
|
8,018
|
17%
|
83%
|
7,140
|
Note: 1On 2 November 2022, Marel introduced organizational changes whereby an Executive Board of six members was formalized. One seat on the Executive Board is still vacant.
Case Study:
Passionate volunteers educating colleagues
To create a culture of inclusion, we believe it is important to build our capabilities from within. Instead of relying on external professionals to educate our employees on D&I, we established an internal team of trainers made up of employees who are passionate about D&I. We have given them the resources they need to share knowledge with their colleagues.
A group of 40 volunteers stepped forward and participated in a full-day workshop on the importance of D&I within organizations. The workshop equipped participants with the knowledge to foster an inclusive culture in their day-to-day activities. It also trained them to facilitate interactive educational sessions called ‘Creating a culture of inclusion.’
Our volunteers, now serving as trainers, set out to conduct sessions in their own languages. Together, they managed to host more than 80 sessions in 12 languages. In just under four months, they exceeded the year’s target of having 50% of our global workforce participate voluntarily in a D&I session. In 2023, we will continue to offer training in more languages, with the end goal of reaching all Marel employees.
The volunteers’ enthusiasm and readiness to take on the role of trainer, in addition to their usual work, demonstrate Marel’s core values of unity and excellence in action. Their commitment has already raised awareness of the topic within Marel and provided us with a strong network and foundation to build our inclusive culture going forward. The sessions have provided great insight, both for employees and our organization, and we look forward to continuing our efforts in this area.
Health, safety and environment
We strive for excellence in health, safety and environment (HSE) because it aligns with good business practice, makes us an attractive business partner and employer of choice. It means we can grow with confidence, knowing that risks related to the health and safety of our employees are effectively managed.
We aspire to be a ‘high-reliability’ organization that delivers consistently high performance across all aspects of HSE management, even amid changing business environments, regulatory landscapes and unplanned events.
Providing a healthy and safe working environment for Marel’s employees, contractors and visitors is imperative, and we take pride in doing this well. HSE risks concern all company stakeholders, and Marel does its utmost to make sure employees have the necessary competence, environment, tools and instructions to perform their work professionally and safely. Our global HSE function provides support and oversight to Marel operations, ensuring compliance with our HSE policy and facilitating continuous improvement. Local management within all Marel entities is responsible for establishing processes and procedures to comply with Marel’s HSE policy and local laws.
Our goal of zero harm
As we continue our journey toward zero harm, we remain committed to a culture of safety in all aspects of our operations. We aim to ensure a safe and healthy environment for our employees, contractors, customers and visitors.
In 2022, 85% of all Marel employees participated in HSE e-learning activities, created to increase awareness of key health and safety issues. These activities show employees how to ensure that they and their colleagues return home safe and healthy at the end of every day.
Our continuous efforts over the last four years have resulted in a steady reduction of both the total reportable injury rate (TRIR) and absolute number of injuries over the same period. From a TRIR of 1.24 per 100 employees in 2019, we achieved 0.91 in 2020, 0.78 in 2021, and 0.67 in 2022. These positive trends indicate that our HSE improvements are having a tangible impact.
Increasing awareness of HSE has resulted in more reporting of first aid and near-miss events, allowing us to analyze trends and launch improvement actions to prevent future occurrences. By enabling employees to report safety concerns in all areas of our business, we create more opportunities to highlight risks and prevent them from becoming injury events.
Marel's journey to zero harm
Local and global community outreach
Marel’s social responsibility includes actively and systematically engaging with the local communities and stakeholders where it operates, seeking local participation and insights. Marel is investing in these locations for the long-term. This is good for business and helps spur innovation, capacity building and know-how in the industry and among Marel’s current and future workforce.
By introducing new food processing technologies to these locations, Marel can have an immediate and radical effect on production capabilities, worker safety and food traceability. One of Marel’s growth opportunities is the creation of shared value through partnerships in new markets. By providing groundbreaking solutions to these markets, Marel hopes to positively impact on both general wellbeing and economic progress in all the company’s markets.
Educational outreach and development programs
Marel focuses on educational outreach in collaboration with local educational institutions. We also emphasize the continuing education of our employees. Most Marel locations offer internships and trainee programs to support talented young professionals entering the workforce, to help them develop their skills in a professional and safe environment.
Charitable giving and social participation guidelines
Well-designed charitable activities and social participation programs can contribute to a better standard of living and increase social stability. Marel’s charitable giving and social participation guidelines reflect our pledge of corporate social responsibility. This helps us to extend our purpose beyond our core business activities. Our guidelines are designed to support the company in its desire to be the partner, neighbor, employer, customer and supplier of choice around the world. Through partnership, Marel aims to empower external organizations, our customers and employees in their efforts to serve the communities in which we operate.
Humanitarian aid for Ukraine
In 2022, we directed all major social participation programs toward easing the suffering of civilians impacted by the Russian military invasion of Ukraine. We express our deepest sympathies to those affected by the violence and have donated EUR 250,000 to an international humanitarian organization. This donation helped to provide humanitarian aid including food, water, shelter and maintenance of basic infrastructure in Ukraine. We have also been touched by all local initiatives from our employees to support and help those directly impacted.
Forced labor and underage workers
Marel does not tolerate human rights violations in the value chain under any circumstances. We have a zero-tolerance policy for human rights violations, including forced labor, child labor and all other illegal labor conditions. No Marel facility shall be associated with illegal labor conditions or forced labor, and all employees must have reached the legal working age in the country where they work.
Since 2017, Marel has required all new suppliers to comply with its standards on issues related to human rights and labor, as described in Marel’s Code of Conduct. Our renewed Supplier Code of Conduct reinforces guidance on how to work and act in line with Marel’s purpose, values and the highest standards of integrity.
Marel complies with the European Whistleblowing directive and related local legislation. Marel’s whistleblower portal can be used by its employees, suppliers, business partners and customers to report any wrongdoings, violations or illegal actions.
No human rights violations were reported at Marel in 2022 or the previous year.
Freedom of association
We are committed to respecting the right of all employees’ freedom of association and their right to collective bargaining without discrimination, as established in the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention (C. 87) and the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention (C. 98). Marel ensures that these rights can be exercised by all employees, business partners and those directly associated with our services, products and operations.