What does responsibility mean here and in my job?
Corporate responsibility training sparks discussion. In autumn 2013, more than half of the personnel of Paulig's Coffee Division in Finland took part in training for corporate responsibility. The goal was to open up the importance and content of corporate responsibility at Paulig and to bring responsibility even closer to every employee's daily work.
"The training courses were to increase understanding of what responsibility means here and to elicit the commitment of the entire personnel to promoting it. Another key point was to reinforce the transparent corporate culture: issues of responsibility can and must be discussed, and perceived deficiencies must be brought out boldly so we can exert influence over them,” says Corporate Responsibility Manager Leena Miettinen.
"The training made us think about how we can all figure the People, Planet , Profit philosophy into our everyday work."
It's important for the personnel to know the present state of responsibility-related matters in the company. "More and more of us are daily encountering questions in our work about corporate responsibility from customers, partners or consumers, and it's important to know how to meet and manage them."
"The training is important because we company employees all have to answer these questions and act as representatives daily."
A total of 12 training sessions were held in Finland, each of which was attended by 10-20 people, plus one in Russia with about 40 attendees. The groups, which were gathered from various parts of the organisation, had plenty to talk about and they keenly exchanged experiences.
"The company values are also transplanted into our own lives: a vegetarian week, energy conservation, recycling..."
"The result was fruitful discussions and everyday examples of how each of us has encountered responsibility issues in our jobs. Our purchasing department people reported on current affairs in the countries of origin and the procurement chain while the sales staff talked about what responsibility issues were raised by the customers, and the manufacturing people described how, for example, operational equipment maintenance has an essential impact on the way environmental responsibility is implemented," as Leena Miettinen describes it.
"A company is just as responsible as its employees."
The corporate responsibility training continues and it is integrated into the Corporate Responsibility and Ethical Principles training programme being rolled out throughout the entire Paulig Group in 2014. The three-part training programme will familiarise the personnel with the common values and code of practice shared by the entire Group.