Social

Our people are respected as the company’s most valuable resource and they will continue to play a vital role in the process of building a sustainable business. We are committed to recruiting high calibre employees and providing them with the information, training and working environment they need to perform to the highest standards. We encourage all our people to develop to their maximum potential and support them with human resources policies and practices that are strategically linked to the needs of our business and our customers.

Read more about our human resources policies

We have a strong tradition in Johnson Matthey for good community relations – building and maintaining these are an integral part of making ours a more sustainable business. We have an important contribution to make to the economic development of our local communities, not only as an employer but also through collaboration and investment, both financial and in kind.

Read more about community investment

Recruitment, Training and Development

Our success depends on the skills, qualities and wellbeing of our people. We have an effective, streamlined recruitment procedure to meet our steady requirement for high calibre graduates and offer a variety of career foundation training to engage new recruits. We also offer training and development programmes at middle and senior manager levels. Our aim is to retain high potential and high performing staff. Training is provided at our facilities around the world with a high level of attendance by employees from Asia, reflecting the increasing importance of this region. We also encourage employees from acquired businesses to attend programmes to expose them to our wider company culture and help them integrate. Presentations from senior executives anchor all these programmes to the company’s strategies and progress.

Providing career development opportunities for employees assists staff retention and in turn, succession planning and the sustainability of management. Recruiting well qualified staff is vital to support business development in new and emerging markets. This challenge will be met through appropriate manpower planning, local recruitment and the encouragement of international mobility. Cross divisional movement is encouraged among our employees and monitored as an important part of the annual management development and succession planning review process. We have continued to develop the management skills inventory database which provides the group with a powerful means of helping to identify and match suitably qualified internal candidates to promotional and development opportunities globally and / or across our divisions.

Read more about training to support employees in achieving the Sustainability 2017 Vision

Employee Relations and Communication

Johnson Matthey recognises the importance of effective employee communications and particularly the value of face to face dialogue. We communicate through our in house magazine, attitude surveys, regular news bulletins, presentations to staff and team briefings. Employees are also encouraged to access the company’s intranet and website.

The company supports employee share ownership and employees have the opportunity to participate in share ownership plans, where practicable. Under these plans, employees can buy shares in the company which are matched by a company funded component. Employees in six countries worldwide are able to contribute to a company share ownership plan or a 401k approved savings investment plan. Through these ownership plans, Johnson Matthey current and former employees collectively held 1.76% of the company’s shares at 31st March 2009.

Johnson Matthey also sponsors pension plans for its employees worldwide. These pension plans are a mixture of defined benefit or defined contribution pension arrangements, savings schemes and provident funds designed to provide appropriate retirement benefits based on local laws, custom and market practice.

We have continued to strengthen and improve communication and engagement with employees through site satisfaction and attitude surveys. This year, Emission Control Technologies (ECT), our largest business, ran a global attitude survey of all its employees. Over 76% of the employees invited to participate completed the survey and overall satisfaction levels were very positive, with 81% of participants feeling satisfied or very satisfied working for ECT.

Effective communication with and among employees has continued to play a vital role in working towards Sustainability 2017. Click here for more on our communications activities and initiatives in the year.

Health and Wellbeing

Helping our employees achieve an optimum level of health and wellbeing is a core principle of our sustainability vision. We have significantly increased access to workplace programmes that provide employees with encouragement and resources to realise the full potential of their health at work and in the community. Examples include health risk appraisal programmes, coaching on health improvement topics, confidential information, advice and counselling services and a range of activities to improve physical fitness. These programmes are also believed to have contributed to sustaining the reduced rate of sickness absence achieved over the last four years.

The scope of our health and wellbeing programmes includes a number of serious diseases. We consider HIV / AIDS to have the greatest potential impact on our employees, their families and / or community members. Our facility in Germiston, South Africa, has developed an HIV / AIDS assistance programme, working with employees, their families and community members. The scope of the programme is outlined in the table below.

The programme involves a number of activities and social investment initiatives with regard to HIV / AIDS. There is a formal Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) through ICAS for all employees, their families and friends living with them. Voluntary counselling and testing for HIV is provided at the on-site clinic and all permanent employees are on a medical aid that includes a comprehensive HIV / AIDS management benefit. The site also supports a number of local HIV / AIDS charities: during the year, R450,000 was donated to St Francis to help subsidise the services of community care workers providing total care for HIV / AIDS patients; donations totalling R375,000 were made to the Topsy Foundation and to Lambano, both orphanages for children suffering from HIV / AIDS. Each year the site celebrates World AIDS Day where various activities are arranged to promote further awareness among employees.

Read more about our health and safety performance and achievements

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