Billerud’s human resources activities are to ensure that employees develop and contribute towards the company’s value creation. Billerud is to be a workplace that stimulates its employees and attracts new ones. Billerud will also have a functioning work environment and be a safe place in which to work.

A RESPONSIBLE EMPLOYER

Billerud’s core values are professionalism, efficiency and creativity. Billerud needs increasingly competent employees if the company is to remain competitive as an employer and to live up to increasing demands from customers, society and business partners.

The director of human resources is the person who is ultimately responsible for all human resources issues, for ensuring that the regulatory framework is complied with and that human resources strategies are implemented. Each of the four mills also has its own human resources manager. Strategic work on HR and Group-wide projects are led by the director of human resources in close dialogue with the business through collaboration with mill managers, business area directors and human resources managers. Local, operational HR activities are carried out under the leadership of the local human resources manager.

Billerud Beetham is certified under the standard OHSAS 18001. The Swedish mills operate under the guidelines of the Swedish Work Environment Act on Systematic Work Environment Management. Work in this area involves constantly identifying focus areas for improvement, setting targets, monitoring progress and communicating the results achieved.

Every other year a staff survey is carried out to measure motivation and value-creation and evaluate leadership at Billerud. The results are analysed and play an important role in working towards improvements.

A SMOOTH GENERATIONAL TRANSITION

In 2010 Billerud carried out a survey of re-tirements coming up in 2011–2015. This shows that just over 200 people will reach the retirement age of 65 during this period. Managing these retirements is not expected to be complicated and can be handled within the framework of the normal budget. Work on drawing up plans for ongoing skills development and skills transfer will be carried out in the first part of 2011. The aim is to increase the level of education and to increase diversity while safeguarding the transfer of expertise from experienced staff.

The company’s trainee programme makes Billerud a more attractive employer and increases the level of education in the company. In 2010 Billerud carried out its first trainee programme for young engineers. The trainees were given placements in the Swedish mills and at head office. They then rotated through different posts across the organisation during the year. Blocks of training linked to the different responsibilities of the functions in the company, and personal development also formed part of the yearlong trainee programme. A new trainee programme will be starting in 2011.

SKILLS ARE THE KEY TO SUCCESS

Constantly increasing the level of education and expertise is an ongoing process at Billerud. All employees are constantly able to develop their skills and receive personal feedback on their development and performance. Performance reviews identify any skill gaps in relation to the organisation’s objectives, and development plans are drawn up. 59% of employees had performance reviews in 2010.

LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT A PRIORITY

Leadership development is a prioritised and strategic issue that will contribute towards Billerud’s success and profitability.

INCREASING DIVERSITY IN THE ORGANISATION

Increased diversity is important for creating an organisation that makes the most of the full potential of its employees, irrespective of their sex, age, ethnic background or similar factors. Therefore Billerud needs to recruit more younger employees and more women at all levels in the organisation. On 31 December 2010 the average age of the company’s employees was 46.5 and the proportion of women 19%.

The average age of the Board of Directors was 65.5 and the proportion of women 30%. In senior management the corresponding figures were average age 48 and 12.5% women. 23% of Billerud’s ’Top 100‘ managers were women. Other diversity factors are not reported with reference to Swedish legislation.

To retain female employees and attract more women to the company, Billerud is actively engaged in work to boost gender equality. With the aim of changing attitudes and behaviours in the organisation, Billerud has produced Group-wide diversity targets and an action plan against victimisation at work. The company takes a zero tolerance approach to discrimination. Irrespective of ethnic origin, nationality, gender, religion, sexual orientation, age, disability, union membership or political allegiance, the equal rights and obligations of each and every individual must be conveyed and emphasised.

To avoid unjustified pay differences on the basis of gender, pay in the Swedish units is surveyed every three years in line with Swedish legislation. This work is carried out with the help of an external consultant and the unions examine the results. Only isolated cases of material differences have been encountered in the surveys and action plans have been formulated to remedy the situation.

Billerud is working to attract young women to the company by attending education fairs and arranging information evenings for young women. This work has paid off, and interest from young women is increasing. Four of the ten trainees on the trainee programme for young engineers that finished this year were women.

HIGHER SCORES IN STAFF SURVEY

Every other year Billerud carries out a staff survey to measure the climate and leadership in the company. The response rate for the 2010 survey was 81%. Compared with 2008, scores were higher for all 13 parameters measured apart from one, Skills development, where scores fell somewhat. The greatest increase was seen in the areas Loyalty and Image of Billerud.

The results of the survey indicate that Billerud is developing in the right direction but the aim is to continue to improve performance on all parameters and the Group management has highlighted Customer orientation, Leadership/Communication and Skills development as priority areas for improvement in the period ahead. Local improvement work is also carried out on an ongoing basis.

FOCUS ON A SAFE WORKPLACE

Billerud is working continuously to reduce the number of work-related accidents and injuries. This involves focused work on safety with a joint process for risk assessment and risk analysis of the work environment. Work on safety also includes reporting all near-misses, focused safety inspections and work to increase awareness of safe behaviour, as well as new technology and automation. The work is headed by local work environment groups together with union representatives.

No fatal accidents occurred in 2010.

Several Swedish pulp and paper mills have invested large amounts of money in modern biopurification plants in the past decade. Unfortunately it has proven to be the case that the conditions that are ideal for the bacteria and micro-organisms that break down different pollutants in the waste water are equally ideal for the legionella bacterium, which can cause the serious lung infection legionnaire’s disease. At Billerud all the Swedish units have carried out risk analyses and taken various preventive measures. The highest counts of legionella bacteria have been measured at the Gruvön biopurification plant.

No-one suffered legionella at Billerud in 2010.

As a consequence of swine flu, Billerud drew up an emergency plan for potential pandemics at central level and local action plans at each unit. In collaboration with local occupational health services Billerud will ensure that the plans are implemented effectively.

To ensure everyone’s safety and for the sake of the individual’s health, alcohol and drugs are not allowed in the workplace. A policy and guidelines are also in place governing both the company’s preventive work and follow-up within the sphere.

FITNESS MEASURES REDUCE SICK LEAVE

Billerud is keen to be an attractive workplace where employees enjoy working, develop and feel healthy. Fitness is run in partnership with the local occupational health service. To prevent musculoskeletal injuries and to combat poor health, all employees have access to various exercise facilities. There is also a fitness allowance for all employees in Sweden.

In 2010 sick leave went up to 2.9%, an increase of 0.1%.

CO-DETERMINATION

Billerud’s management is keen to create a good working climate and desires a good dialogue with its union partners. Such contacts are very frequent at Billerud. A general cooperative agreement that follows the guidelines for the sector and ensures that the dialogue functions is supplemented by local agreements. All employees are entitled to join the union of their choice and collective agreements are in place at Billerud.

At Group level there is a collaborative forum whose members include the CEO, the Director of Human Resources and the employee representatives on the Board of Directors. The group meets before each Board meeting to conduct a dialogue on issues that are important for the employer and the employees.

There is also a union reference group with representatives of all agreement areas and mills. This group also meets before each Board meeting, approximately every other month.

In addition to these meetings, regular dialogue is carried out within the framework of European Works Councils (EWC). All dialogue between the employer and employee partners is based on mutual respect and openness.

INCIDENTS DURING THE YEAR

In 2010 one confrontation took place at central level in the agreement negotiations between the Swedish Paper Workers’ Union (Pappers) and the employers’ organisation the Swedish Forest Industries Federation. Skärblacka was one of the six paper mills run by different forest industry companies which the central union Pappers chose to bring out on strike. 466 employees at Skärblacka were affected and the mill’s production came to a standstill for ten days. When the conflict was stepped up, Pappers also issued a warning regarding the Gruvön mill but the mill’s employees only downed tools for a brief period before the parties reached agreement and the strike was called off.

INTERNAL COMMUNICATION CREATES PARTICIPATION

Effective communication channels and clear leadership are vital in involving all employees in the company’s development. Personal communication, through spontaneous meetings or workplace meetings, is supplemented by a Group-wide intranet and the staff magazine Billerud Focus, which plays an important role in fostering a corporate culture. Employees from different departments are on the editorial boards of the intranet and the magazine to create wide-ranging participation throughout the organisation.

REWARD SYSTEM LEADS TO IMPROVEMENTS

The contribution and commitment of all employees is necessary to achieve the desired results and this is therefore constantly measured against the targets set. The aim is to create a working climate where each employee is encouraged to take active responsibility for daily tasks by clearly seeing the results of his or her work. All employees at Billerud have a flexible pay component linked to the company’s profitability and local targets. The aim is to reward improvement. There is also a profit sharing system which provides a maximum SEK 5 000 a year for all staff apart from the senior management team.

BILLERUD AS A LOCAL EMPLOYER

Billerud plays a dominant role locally. The business contributes towards the wellbeing of the communities in which its mills are situated on several levels, partly through jobs and tax revenue and partly through active participation in the local community. The latter includes Billerud sponsoring local sporting and cultural activities to improve the leisure time of Billerud’s employees and their families as well as other local people.