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Encouraging diversity and managing talent
'Diversity at Lion is defined as ‘all the ways we are different from each other’.
Building on the foundation of a constructive culture, Lion has a diversity of thought strategy in place. This includes training for leaders in unconscious bias and ethical decision-making to ensure leaders are aware of and addressing their own biases, remain open to different perspectives, including in the recruitment process, and consider the reasonable expectations of their stakeholders in their decision making.
Nurturing the next generation of leaders through these initiatives and other leadership programs that focus on authenticity also encourage leaders to be themselves but with skill and play to their individual strengths.
Lion has taken learnings from positive psychology to enhance the organisation’s approach to wellbeing, which includes flexible working practices, making it easier for employees to balance work and family commitments.
Although diversity goes beyond gender, it is worth mentioning that 40% of senior leadership roles at Lion are currently held by women. Lion remains focused on building a strong bench that includes equal representation of women, to become future leaders.
Encouraging wellbeing
Wellbeing has been identified by Lion as one of the key drivers of its people’s engagement. The company has developed a wellbeing strategy that incorporates its employees’ psychological and social needs, as well as protecting their physical safety. From a physical safety perspective, wellbeing is measured by monitoring the number of injuries sustained by the workforce and the amount of lost time caused by these. Both of these saw significant reductions between
December 2011 and December 2013.
In 2013, 83% per cent of respondents to a Lion engagement survey said that they enjoyed going to work each day and 93% per cent felt that people in their work area took action to ensure their safety. These are positive results, but in line with Lion’s emphasis on continual improvement, the company has implemented new initiatives to build on these foundations. These include:
• Delivering its Wellbeing@Lion program to leaders across the business. This is designed to help Lion’s leaders understand the wellbeing strategy and allow them to support and improve the wellbeing of their team members.
• Rolling out standardised safety and wellbeing plans across all sites to establish a consistent approach to safety and the ability to identify opportunities for improvement.
• Implementing a group-wide ‘permit to work’ system for high-risk activities.
• ‘Quality safety conversations’ between leaders and team members to provide feedback on positive safety behaviours and find opportunities for improvement. Developing an online Safety and Wellbeing module for both existing employees and new starters.
The people processes
Lion’s people processes help the company grow people’s careers, ensuring they are happy in their work and that they make a difference to customers, consumers and the community. The people processes bring the 10 Behaviours That Add Value to life and foster a culture of continuous development, where feedback is timely and actionable, and there is a focus on behaviours as well as technical competencies. They include:
• Achievement Planning – providing employees with meaningful goals and objectives that connect individual roles to the overall business vision and strategy.
• Development Reviews – a self-assessment process encouraging people to reflect on their behaviours and career goals, receive feedback and create a development plan that will support their goals. These plans also allow the business to identify the leaders of the future.
• Achievement and Bonus Reviews – these assess and recognise achievements and behaviours over the past 12 months and are measured against the goals and objectives agreed in the Development Reviews.
• One on Ones – a crucial part of the development process that allows regular benchmarking against set goals and ongoing coaching.
• The Remuneration Review – is conducted by the People and Culture team annually and reviews salaries and packages in the marketplace to make sure Lion is paying its people competitively.
Doing business the right way
Lion’s focus on doing business the right way extends outside its interactions with its people and out into the wider community. Lion understands that businesses exist and grow only with the permission of the communities in which they operate, and for Lion to maintain its licence to operate the organisation must act responsibly and sustainably.
Doing business the right way spans the way Lion governs the business and manages risks, to how products are manufactured in a safe and sustainable way, innovation to encourage responsible and sociable consumption
, the way products are taken to market, Lion’s approach and commitment to self-regulation and investments in the community.
, the way products are taken to market, Lion’s approach and commitment to self-regulation and investments in the community.
Lion is also working hard to improve energy and water efficiency and reduce its carbon footprint at sites across the Tasman. Lion continues to work collaboratively with industry partners in Australia and New Zealand on initiatives to increase recycling and reduce litter. To ensure Lion is continuing to live up to community expectations, the Lion Corporate Reputation Study is conducted every two years to assess the reputation and trust Lion has built in the community. It asks Lion’s varied group of stakeholders (including consumers, suppliers, customers, distributors, farmers, government, media, NGOs, marketing and sponsorship industry groups) what they think of Lion as an organisation, as well as their opinions on broader issues of shared interest. These views and levels of engagement are then incorporated into Lion’s ‘Balanced Business Strategy’ – which means there is a direct link between how stakeholders view the business, and their expectations of Lion, and how our Lion’s leaders manage the business and allocate resources.
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