We employ locally

As at December 31st 2018, the Group employed a total of 14,967 people, with 67% of them working for the four leading companies. In 2017, the Group’s headcount was 14,434 people (67% employed with the four leading companies). Our employee turnover remains low. 90% of the staff at Grupa Azoty Kędzierzyn, Grupa Azoty Police, Grupa Azoty Puławy, and Grupa Azoty are hired under open-ended employment contracts. Our workforce numbers are continuously growing as the Group has opted not to hire contingency workers any more. Most our employees are men (77% in 2018 and 74% in 2017) and persons aged 30 to 55 (54% of the four leading companies’ total workforce in 2018). However, the majority of our laboratory staff and professionals are women. The HR-related projects that we are going to focus on in the coming periods include building a strong and consistent corporate culture across the Group, developing programmes to support employees’ competence and innovation drive, managing age diversity in the workplace, and developing mentoring programmes.

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Total number of employees by gender and type of employment contract (headcount)

Total number of employees by gender and working time arrangement (headcount)

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Number of directors, officers, and staff by gender, age group, and other diversity indicators

Percentage of employees by gender and type of position

Percentage of employees by age and type of position

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All employees of the four leading Group companies are covered by collective bargaining agreements.

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Workforce by gender and age (headcount)

New hires by gender and age

Total number of terminations and employee turnover by gender and age

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Full-time employee benefits unavailable to part-time employees or those employed under fixed-term contracts

Part of our commitment to supporting employees is a wide range of employee benefits offered by Grupa Azoty Group companies under their occupational welfare scheme.
The employee benefits include:

• Healthcare, 
• Corrective eyeglasses,
• Protective wear and workwear, 
• Health and life insurance, 
• Retirement benefits,
• Financial incentive scheme dedicated to retiring personnel, 
• Social fund,
• Length-of-service award, annual bonus, 
• Training and courses,
• Maternity/parenting/paternity leaves, 
• Co-financing of holidays and leisure.

 Under the occupational welfare scheme, the Grupa Azoty Group employees* are also entitled to:

• Participation in the Occupational Pension Scheme,
• Participation in health-promoting programmes and rehabilitation procedures,
• Participation in the financial incentive scheme dedicated to retiring personnel,
• Participation in the free-of-charge ‘Work-Life Balance’ counselling project, as part of which employees can receive free-of-charge psychological advice,
• Co-financing of university-level education, 
• partial financing of holidays.

* Excluding Grupa Azoty Puławy employees. At Grupa Azoty Puławy, special focus is placed on providing support to retired personnel – we stay in touch with approximately 2,000 such persons, each year presenting them with Christmas vouchers, inviting them to Senior Dance Parties, providing support to finance holidays, including sanatorium treatment, co-financing their cinema or swimming pool tickets, or providing housing loans.

BEST PRACTICE

Since 2018, all Grupa Azoty Police employees who have just become parents have been entitled to layettes for their babies. During a special meeting, they receive congratulations and practical baby care packages for their newly born children.

Grupa Azoty Police also takes care of its retiring employees. Twice a year, official meetings are held during which the members of the company's Management Board have the opportunity to thank every retiring employee for their involvement and work for the company.

Each of the key Group companies is a significant and valued employer in the region in which it operates. The table below shows ratios of standard entry level wages compared to minimum wages in Poland in 2018.

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Ratios of standard entry level wages by gender compared to local minimum wages*

* Ratio calculated as the average entry level wages compared to local minimum wages.

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Ratio of average gross salary or wages of women to men

BEST PRACTICE

In the academic year 2017/2018, seven employees of Grupa Azoty Police took part in the Implementation-based Doctoral Programme project of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education. The project allows its participants to combine the writing of their doctoral thesis with their professional careers, and its aim is to foster conditions for cooperation between science and businesses. Doctoral students are employed at and carry out research projects for the company. Their research agenda is subject to approval by the thesis supervisor selected from one of the 54 college or university departments that joined the programme. In addition, if the supervisor decides that the research plan is appropriate and the doctoral student is a good candidate, a request is filed with the Ministry for a scholarship equal to the minimum salary payable to an assistant at the university (approximately PLN 2.5 thousand). Thus, a future PhD holder receives a double salary while he or she writes their doctoral thesis: one from the company, the other in the form of the scholarship.

Grupa Azoty

• OHS training 
• ISO training
• Position-specific training 
• University tuition allowance
• English language course for employees, attended by approximately 70–80 students

Grupa Azoty Kędzierzyn

• The Foreman Academy Project aimed at improving team building and effective teamwork skills;
• employees are reimbursed the costs of English courses

Grupa Azoty Puławy

• Co-financing of language course tuition fees
• Co-financing of post-graduate, MBA and PhD programme tuition fees
• Opportunities provided to attend open training courses as well as specialist and industry conferences
• Opportunities provided to attend closed training courses and take occupational licensing exams
• The Grupa Azoty Puławy Professional Skills Development Programme dedicated to blue-collar staff, as part of which mentoring guidelines were defined, and curricula were developed for each blue-collar position; the programme was implemented along with a new SAP Qualifications Management module, to which data on all blue-collar employees’ qualifications was migrated
• The Competence Improvement Programme dedicated to white-collar staff as part of the Grupa Azoty Puławy Skills Academy; an in-house training platform was set up under the programme to encourage employees to share knowledge with one another and allow them to improve their social and managerial competencies such as communication, teamwork and team management skills

The employee training process is covered by the integrated quality, environment and safety management system. All employee groups undergo training. Many courses are provided at the request of employees, who are free to choose their subject matter, form of instruction, and date, as long as a course is going to improve employees’ work-related skills (must be linked to their current or future responsibilities) and there are sufficient funds in the training budget.

Grupa Azoty Police

Employees develop their skills in keeping with the approved annual training schedule of Grupa Azoty Zakłady Chemiczne Police. The schedule represents a training programme for the company’s employees, based on which training and professional advancement activities are organised.

Programmes to support the continued employability of terminated or retiring personnel

• Improving employees’ professional qualifications through formal education
• The ‘Green Forge’ internship programme, designed to introduce flexible options for recruiting top talent for the company
• The Smooth Succession Programme, designed to ensure continuous governance of the company, provide development opportunities to the management, and improve the competencies of outstanding employees
• The Multi-Skill Programme aimed at enhancing employees’ skills and expertise and creating flexible options to recruit qualified personnel
• Educational programmes taught under the company’s auspices:
  - Chemical Technology Class – created to increase the availability of qualified technicians for recruitment by Grupa Azoty
  - 2nd edition of a programme in olefin manufacturing processes at the West Pomeranian University of Technology in Szczecin, run to educate highly-qualified professionals

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Average number of training hours per employee by gender

Average number of training hours per employee by type of position

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Percentage of staff subject to regular performance assessment and career development reviews by gender*

* At Grupa Azoty Kędzierzyn, Grupa Azoty Police and Grupa Azoty the annual performance assessment covers all employees except those with length of service of less than a year, members of the respective company’s Management Board, employees delegated to trade unions and Social Labour Inspector at a given company.
** Grupa Azoty Puławy does not carry out periodic performance assessments. Under the bonus policy (bonuses are awarded on a quarterly basis, with the total amount of the bonus fund contingent on the company's financial performance), managers are required to award bonuses based on employee performance assessment, taking into account the incentivising effect of a bonus. The assessment results are not recorded (only the amount of the bonus awarded is). In 2017, an agreement was signed to amend the Company collective bargaining agreement. The amended collective bargaining agreement provides for a review of the employee’s career development by the employee’s superior (based on a set of criteria) and for differentiating the amount of base salary paid to employees holding the same positions on the basis of the review. The first such review took place in 2018.