Our Workplace

Our workplace

• maintaining a safe workplace;
• engaging and developing our co-workers,
• maintaining a diverse workforce and providing equal opportunity.

Our Workforce

Our workforce by Amcor Business Group and geographic region.

* excludes contractors

Maintaining a safe workplace

Our approach

Amcor’s Code of Conduct and Ethics Policy states: ‘Amcor cares about the safety of its people and recognises that injuries result in needless suffering to individuals and their families.’ Our ultimate goal is No Injuries.

Amcor’s Global Occupational Health, Safety and Environment (OHS&E) Steering Committee supports business leaders in the ongoing development of Amcor’s health and safety programs. The Steering Committee consists of the OHS&E leaders from within each business group and Amcor’s corporate functions. It meets approximately every two months to: develop OHS&E strategy and programs; facilitate knowledge sharing; ensure the consistent application of policies, standards and procedures, and to ensure compliance with standards.

The committee oversees the implementation of Amcor’s five year strategic plan for workplace safety and environmental management. All Amcor sites have annual action plans in place and provide on-the-job safety training to support this strategy. Amcor provides education, and on-the-job safety training appropriate for each country in which we operate and for the activities in which our co-workers are engaged.

We have a set of mandatory global standards for safety, environmental management and security that each of our sites must comply with. Internal audits of each site are conducted at least annually and third party audits are conducted at least every 3 years to measure compliance against these standards and/or internationally recognised standards such as OHSAS18001. Amcor’s businesses are required to report regularly to Amcor’s Board on compliance with these standards and with local legislation.

Amcor’s sites choose to be certified to international safety standards such as AS4801 or OSHAS 18001 depending upon local legal requirements, customer requests, or inherent risks present on site.Amcor’s safety policy statement outlines our corporate level objectives and commitments. Site-level procedures and plans provide details of how sites should meet the minimum compliance requirements outlined in the Standards.

Our five year strategic plan for workplace safety and environmental management requires that the following objectives are met:

1. Build internal commitment to safety and environmental management, and demonstrate leadership across all levels of the organisation;
2. Establish and maintain a best practice governance framework;
3. Build a performance culture of line ownership, co-worker involvement and systems integration; and
4. Ensure co-workers are trained and engaged in identifying and eliminating workplace risks.

All Amcor sites have annual action plans in place to support these objectives.

Amcor provides education and on-the-job training appropriate for each country in which we operate and for the activities in which our co-workers are engaged. Training aimed at changing Amcor’s safety culture may be developed and delivered at a business group or business unit level. For example, Amcor’s Fibre Packaging business unit in Australia, conducted Hands and Feet safety training across all their sites during FY2011/12. Site-specific safety training and programs is undertaken at the initiative of site management.

This year, we made significant progress in improving the safety of our workplace and reducing injuries.

Amcor’s safety performance is measured using two criteria – Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate (LTIFR) and Recordable Case Frequency Rate (RCFR). The Lost Time Injuries severity rate is also measured.

Amcor’s LTIFR is measured by calculating the number of injuries resulting in at least one full work day lost per million hours worked. In FY2011/12, the LTIFR was 0.7, corresponding to 56 cases across our global business. This represents a 12.5% improvement, compared to the previous year’s result of 0.8.

Amcor’s RCFR is measured by calculating the combined total of medical treatment cases and injuries resulting in at least one full work day per million hours worked. In FY2011/12, the RCFR was 3.1, corresponding to 243 cases across our global business.  This represents an improvement of 22.5% when compared to the previous year’s result of 4.12.

In addition to these safety lagging indicators, the following metrics are reported to the Board (but are not reported publicly):

• Severity rate of injuries
• Number of behavioural audits
• Number of first aid treatments
• Number of near miss learnings 

All metrics include both Amcor co-workers and contractors.

Achieving a reduction in recordable cases frequency from the previous year is a key performance indicator for Amcor’s CEO and Senior Executives, against which a percentage of their short term incentive renumeration is based. Details can be found in the Remuneration report section of Amcor’s Annual Report.

Some of our sites have achieved impressive safety performance, for example, the Amcor site in Chakan, India achieved no recordable case incidents for more than 1000 days and 1 million hours worked.

Similarly, our Rigid Plastics operations in Mexico, consisting of 12 sites in July 2011, has achieved 32 months without a single recordable incident, despite dismantling and re-ploying equipment from seven of those sites over the past year.

Our site in Ushuaia, Argentina enjoyed 7 years without a lost time incident and 4 years without a recordable case as at the end of FY2011/12. The site received OHSAS 18001 certification for their occupational health and safety management system in December 2011.

Read a case study of the SafetyNet computer system implemented at our Ledbury, UK site.

Fire Protection

To establish global standards across Amcor, we developed Fire Protection Standards and Risk Engineering Guidelines during FY2011/12. These will be released during FY2012/13 and will set the minimum standards for each of Amcor’s operational sites.

Fines and prosecutions

Amcor did not have any material fines or prosecutions for workplace safety violations in FY2011/12. 

Health and wellbeing programs

All Amcor co-workers travelling for business purposes have access to the Amcor TravelSafe program, which offers pre-travel advice, travel tracking and incident response.

Over the reporting period, 20,320 unique international trips  were tracked by the TravelSafe program. The program tracks the risk rating of each trip, based on the countries visited. This enables the active management of personal risk to Amcor co-workers travelling on business.

Amcor offers Employee Assistance Programs (EAP)  to approximately 70% of our co-workers. An Employee Assistance Programs is a work‐based intervention program designed to enhance the emotional, mental and general psychological wellbeing of all employees and includes services for immediate family members. Similar programs are offered to other co-workers on a country-by-country basis, sometimes as part of medical insurance services.

The aim is to provide preventive and proactive interventions for the early detection, identification and/or resolution of both work and personal problems that may adversely affect performance and wellbeing. These problems and issues may include, but are not limited to, relationships, health, trauma, substance abuse, gambling and other addictions, financial problems, depression, anxiety disorders, psychiatric disorders, communication problems, legal and coping with change.

Selected information on this page pertaining to Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate and Recordable Case Frequency Rate, Amcor’s Global Occupational Health, Safety and Environment (OHS&E) Steering Committee mandate, statements related to material fines and health and wellbeing programs has been assured by Net Balance.

Engaging and developing our co-workers

Our approach

We recognise that our co-workers are our most valuable asset and the foundation of our success. We want to work with the best people, who are engaged and passionate about our business and our customers.

We build capability through ‘on the job learning’ and by deploying training and development tools across the organisation. Our online talent management system includes co-worker performance scorecards, development plans and role-specific training requirements. Year end performance assessments involve co-workers and their supervisors discussing goals for the year and performance against those goals.

Training and development is managed in various ways across the Amcor Group:

• Company-wide cultural change programs or training that all co-workers require, such as induction training, are developed within the Group HR function but managed locally within each business group
• Business Group soft skills and/or cultural change programs are managed within the Corporate-function of the Business Group
• Business Unit-wide programs are managed within the Corporate-function of the business unit
• Site-based technical skills and site-specific training such as site safety programs are managed within the management team at Amcor sites. On-the-job learning also takes place at this level.

Amcor also seeks to engage all co-workers so that they are highly committed to their roles and collectively produce outstanding business results. We believe that engaged co-workers are highly productive, more customer-focused, safer and likely to stay longer with the organisation.

Our global co-worker engagement surveys, first conducted in 2007, enable us to monitor co-worker engagement and formulate action plans in response to the specific feedback we receive. Our ‘Values Gateway’ tool and 360 degree feedback survey ensures leaders obtain feedback on their behaviours against the Amcor Values.

How we are doing

Co-worker engagement

In March 2012, we conducted an Amcor-wide engagement survey, the first global engagement survey since the acquisition of Alcan Packaging, which saw a 40% increase in the total number of Amcor co-workers. The survey was conducted in 22 languages and there were over 26,000 responses, equivalent to 79% of all Amcor co-workers. The results showed that our overall Employee Engagement compared well with general benchmark data available, with both our Performance Excellence Index (feedback on performance standards within the company) and efficient work practices score at “best-in-class” level for manufacturing organisations, as determined by external benchmarks.

The employee engagement score is not publicly disclosed, but is used within each Amcor business group to monitor continuous improvement progress and as a benchmarking method.

In August 2011 we devoted an entire edition of our internal newsletter, Accent, to Social Responsibility and our approach to sustainability, explaining how they are integral to our operating model, Being Amcor.

Talent management and development

Our focus is on developing a culture of outperformance.  Performance objectives are aligned with business objectives and cascaded to align both team and individual performance. This approach enables co-workers to ensure their goals are aligned with the organization’s Business Strategy.

Performance Management is an annual cycle underpinned by routine feedback and development opportunities. Development opportunities are discussed and evaluated routinely. The objective for development goals is to ensure the organisation has a sufficient pipeline of talent to support Amcor’s growth strategy.

Talent Management at Amcor encompasses:

• Bi-annual objective performance and potential assessment.
• Short and long term development activities focused on career progression.
• Succession depth for critical roles and creating a pipeline of leaders within Amcor

Most executive, managerial and professional co-workers undertake mid year and year end performance reviews , using our standard global online Talent Management System (TMS). Local performance management systems are used at sites for other co-workers, where enterprise bargaining agreements allow.

The year end performance assessment process involves co-workers and their supervisors discussing goals for the year and performance against those goals. These annual discussions include the setting of development plans for co-workers. For professional co-workers, Amcor uses an on-line Talent Management System to record and track these activities.

Year end performance assessments are required to be completed by mid-August. 4792 Amcor co-workers participated in the performance assessment process during FY2010/11 within our Talent Management System, with 91.4% completing it.  This represents approximately 10% of our total workforce, with the majority being professional co-workers.  1277 (27%) of the co-workers who completed performance assessments were women. 

‘Talent Council’ is a succession and development planning process undertaken annually by senior leaders across the organization. Individual performance assessments are used as inputs into this formal process for identifying and assessing talent and ensuring succession depth.

During the performance review process, development needs for each co-worker are identified. Appropriate training and development is then determined. This could be in the form of external training, on-the-job training, further education or mentoring. 

Amcor has an effective online training delivery mechanism within our Learning Management System, that is available for the delivery and tracking of the online training courses offered. This electronic learning management system, now offers 280 online courses. Amcor co-workers completed 5535 course modules using the system during FY2011/12.

In April 2012, Amcor also introduced the new Amcor Leadership Framework. This Framework outlines the skills and competencies required by co-workers at all levels to ensure that Amcor achieves success in all its objectives. This framework is the foundation of leadership development at Amcor. It underpins the entire co-worker life cycle from recruitment onwards and is being implemented across the global Amcor organisation, with its first use being in the performance management process.

Management of organisational change

After a series of acquisitions and with continuing organisational change happening as our growth strategies are implemented, how we manage change is critical to our success. Amcor acquired four companies in FY2011/12, with the largest being the $238 million acquisition of the Aperio Group.

A sophisticated communications  and business planning approach  is used for acquisitions of businesses with multiple sites and large numbers of employees that will be integrated into an existing Amcor business. The approach involves all functional areas of both the Amcor Business into which the acquired business will be integrated and of the company being acquired (where possible). For smaller acquisitions or where the business model will remain largely unchanged the team managing the acquisition determines the appropriate change management approach.

Selected information on this page pertaining to Year end performance assessments, Amcor’s online learning management system has been assured by Net Balance.

Diversity and equal opportunity

Our approach

Amcor’s focus is on recruiting, retaining and developing local talent to manage its businesses around the world, and on selecting from this broad talent pool for its global leadership roles.

The Board of Directors approved Amcor’s ‘Talent through Diversity’ policy in April 2011 and established the following indicators for tracking gender diversity within Amcor:

• The number of women employed at Amcor as a proportion of the total workforce; and
• The proportion of women employed at leadership level (defined as middle management including plant level leadership and above).

These are reported annually to the Board and the Human Resources Committee, and for the first time this year, will be included in the Amcor Annual Report.

How we are doing

As of June 30th 2012:

• There were more than 33,000 Amcor co-workers from 55 different nationalities working in 42 countries and speaking 22 different languages.
• There was one female Director on the Board (12.5% of total Directors);
• 21% of co-workers were women; and
• 24% of our leadership positions were held by women.

Diversity is also discussed in the 2012 Amcor Annual Report.
We do not collect and consolidate global data on age group, minority group membership, and other indicators of diversity, largely due to differing local anti-discrimination laws that prevent us from doing so. 

Discrimination

Our Code of Conduct and Ethics policy includes: ‘Amcor recognises the dignity of each co-worker and the right to a workplace free of harassment, abuse or corporal punishment. Decisions on hiring, salary, benefits, advancement, termination or retirement are based solely on the co-worker’s ability to do the job. There is no discrimination based on race, creed, disability, gender, marital or maternity status, religious or political beliefs, age or sexual orientation.’
Co-workers can report instances of discrimination via Amcor’s Whistleblower Service (further described in the ‘Governance’ section of this report), which can be accessed anonymously by telephone in 33 countries, or by email and postal mail. They can also report to the Human Resources function at their site or Business Unit.
During FY 2011/12, no material discrimination claims were identified through internal or third party use of our Whistleblower Service, and no material discrimination claims were escalated beyond the Amcor business group level.  

Selected information on this page pertaining to Amcor’s approach to diversity and equal opportunity, diversity performance data, and the statement on material discrimination claims has been assured by Net Balance.

Our approach to other labour practices

In 2006, Amcor set minimum global labour standards. Amcor believes that it is not only required to abide by the national laws of each country in which it operates, but that it must also conduct its business in accordance with internationally accepted practices and procedures.

Our Company Code of Conduct and Ethics Policy establishes a minimum set of standards of compliance for all co-workers and includes the following:

Mutual respect

‘Amcor is committed to a working environment where there is mutual trust and respect and where everyone feels responsible for the performance and reputation of the Group.’

Forced and child labour

‘Amcor recognises the rights of every child to be protected from economic exploitation and respects the laws of each country in which it operates in regard to minimum hiring age for co-workers. Amcor also complies with existing employment regulations regarding forced labour.’

Compensation

‘Amcor complies with minimum wage legislation in the countries in which it operates.’

Benefits

Amcor’s Code of Conduct and Ethics Policy states: ‘Amcor aims to provide each employee with all benefits that are legally required.’
Details of our Retirement Benefit Assets and Obligations can be found in Note 24 of our 2012 Annual Report (page 102).

Security practices

The utilisation of security personnel is not material for Amcor.

Indigenous rights

In locations where this is a material issue, our corporate code of conduct and ethics policy guides decisions about indigenous rights.

Freedom of association

All Amcor employees are free to participate in collective bargaining and associate with political and similar associations in a private capacity.

Freedom from harassment

‘Amcor has created a work culture that affords its co-workers the opportunity to work without fear of intimidation, reprisal or harassment, and Amcor will continue to take action to ensure that such a culture is maintained within the Group.’

Co-workers can report instances of harassment and bullying via Amcor’s Whistleblower Service (further described in the ‘Our Governance Framework’ section of this report), which can be accessed anonymously by telephone in 34 countries, or by email and postal mail.

Compliance with labour practices

During FY2011/12 we worked to have all our manufacturing sites complete a self assessment questionnaire (SAQ) as part of our membership of the Supplier Ethical Data Exchange (SEDEX).

SEDEX is a global not-for-profit membership organisation that enables the sharing of ethical performance information between companies and their suppliers. SEDEX provides an online platform for reporting labour standards, health and safety, business integrity and environmental performance information. The questionnaire includes questions  about labour conditions and human rights, including questions about:

• Child and young employees
• Freely chosen employment
• Freedom of association and collective bargaining
• Wages
• Working hours
• Non-discrimination
• Regular employment
• Use of small holders
• Discipline and grievance
• Use of home workers

Our Group Internal Audit function includes the auditing of responses to the SEDEX SAQ when they visit sites as part of their annual audit schedule (refer to the Governance section for more about our Internal Audit function). We also support numerous audits from our customers against the SEDEX SAQ responses. More information about our participation in SEDEX and responsible procurement is provided under ‘Responsible and ethical sourcing/procurement’ in the Marketplace section.

Selected information on this page pertaining to forced and child labour, Compliance with labour practices and membership of the Supplier Ethical Data Exchange has been assured by Net Balance.