People-2018 | BRB International CSR annual report

Health and safety of employees

Health and safety is one of the most important focus areas of our QESH policy and the driving force of the organization. When an employee starts working, the process of informing employees about safety and health starts immediately. There is an introductory process with extensive safety training that includes a toolbox, spill training, lift training and an ADR training. This is supported by means of an interview with the QESH department. In addition, the safety instructions are always available because they are presented on posters in the production locations in addition to being described on production receipts. Employees also receive the work instructions on paper (the employee signs for receipt), so that he or she can access it any time.

The managers of the various locations are responsible for health and safety matters. Furthermore, an operational meeting takes place weekly where incidents are extensively discussed for learning and improvement purposes. After all, everyone within our organization feels responsible for one’s own safety and the safety of another. There are 25 trained Emergency Response officers within BRB International, including a prevention officer. A total of 313 reports of unsafe situations were made in 2018. The work at the production sites is physically very heavy. It therefore remains a challenge to not let the ‘hands-on’ culture result in irresponsible lifting behavior. We constantly keep an eye out to ensure that employees make use of the available lifting aids. Through a conscious increase of communication around the topic of safety, employees showed to be more involved and more aware of their personal responsibility in the matter in 2018. Heavy lifting, and doing so responsibly, is something that is part of the job. However, putting the issue on the table with employees, management and customers, resulted in lowering the maximum weight of 80% of our products in pails from 25 kgs to 20 kgs. Employees were also trained on dealing with physical strain in the workplace.

In line with the focus on the physical wellbeing of our employees, our organization participated in a medical examination for all employees in 2018, which will be conducted periodically as of now.
BRB International continues to grow, meaning the locations become busier as well. Constantly adapting to new situations is key in securing safety.

Personnel structure

The workforce of BRB International in Ittervoort consisted of 143 employees and 17 temporary employees during the reference year 2018. If we leave out the warehouse and the workshop, where predominantly males work due to the physical nature of the work, the male/female ratio is about 60% / 40%. In 2018, 24 employees joined the company and 15 employees resigned; this count does not include trainees and temporary or holiday workers. The average age within our organization is 45 years old.

Personnel per age group

Personnel structure

“We consider our employees to be our most valuable asset and their health and vitality accordingly. Our people are extremely committed and this makes us very proud.”

Comment by Inge Rutten, (Global) HR Business Partner

Inclusion

Danny Smeets

Westrom in Roermond and PSW Nederweert are local social workplaces that provide quality care and support to children and adults with intellectual disabilities. BRB International considers it important that people with a distance to the labor market can fully participate in society and in business. Therefore, we have been working with PSW since 2004. The knowledge, experience and guidance from PSW in combination with the ambition and determination of BRB International means that the cooperation has been going very well so far. We currently employ four employees via PSW. For BRB International the collaboration involves patience and understanding, but it gives us intensely motivated employees and increased involvement from the other employees. We therefore cannot imagine our team without them.

Danny Smeets has been working at BRB International since 2013 and is one of our four employees that are coached by a job coach from PSW. BRB International created functions within the organization for these employees.

Danny, tell us something about yourself.

My name is Danny Smeets and I am 35 years old. I have been working at BRB International since 2013 and I really like it. Every day I cycle back and forth for 45 minutes. In my spare time I like to cycle, swim, or do something fun with my girlfriend Wilma. I follow a cooking class every Thursday evening!

What do you do at BRB International?

I make sure the canteens and toilets are clean in our buildings in Ittervoort. I now have five canteens to clean. I clean everything every day and have a schedule for this. I also deliver the internal mail between the locations. I have been given a bicycle with a basket to do this, because the buildings are spread over the industrial area. Furthermore I check the stock of food and beverage supplies with the purchasing department. Then we order the products together.

And what do you like to do most?

I like everything I do. Everyday I come to work with a smile. I like my colleagues the most because they are always very cheerful and nice to me. What I really like is when I have been on vacation my colleagues say: “Danny, it’s good to have you back, we missed you!”