Colleague engagement
08

Colleague engagement

Listening to Our Colleagues

Open communication and feedback are essential for creating a positive work environment. Every year, we survey our colleagues to understand how they feel about working at Infineum. Our ambition is to achieve a colleague engagement score of over 75%. In 2024, our engagement score was 66%. We identified specific areas where we wanted to explore the results further and conducted additional focus groups in some countries to gain deeper insights. We then created action plans at all levels of the organisation to address colleague concerns and make Infineum a great place to work for everyone. 

We also have formal channels for colleagues to share their views and concerns. In 8 out of 11 of the countries where we operate, we have trade unions or recognised employee representative bodies. Globally, 44% of our colleagues are under formal collective bargaining agreements. At the local level, we regularly engage with trade unions and employee representative bodies to understand colleagues’ needs and work together to create a thriving workplace. 

Prioritising Wellbeing

We know that performance, creativity and innovation flourish in an environment where people feel safe, confident and supported. We provide resources and tools to help colleagues nurture their own wellbeing and support one another. For example, our online Global Wellbeing Hub offers a variety of tools, articles and learning videos. We also give all colleagues free access to a reputable global mindfulness app and since 2024, we have extended this free access to their family and friends. In 2024, the utilisation rate for this app was 68%.

Local activities are also taking place across our sites to promote colleague wellbeing, for example in Singapore, monthly 15 minutes sessions were organised called ‘Disconnect to Connect’. These sessions start with light stretching exercises, followed by colleagues settling down into ergonomic chairs for a meditation session using the Mindfulness app.

In our 2024 colleague engagement survey, 81% of colleagues rated the wellbeing-related questions favorably, five points above global benchmarks that we use to assess our performance. 

 

“The soothing guided mediation effortlessly leads me into a state of relaxation, allowing me to unwind and take a vital mental break from my busy work schedule”

Rachel Loh, Governance Risk & Compliance Process SME.

 

Find out more about the 'Disconnect to Connect' mediation session in Singapore.

Developing and retaining talent

Infineum is committed to enabling the personal and professional development of our talented colleagues. We aim to provide challenging roles and opportunities for colleagues to make a real impact on our business and reach their full potential. Through annual performance reviews and regular personal development planning, we offer opportunities for colleagues to discuss their skills and career development, as well as the support and resources they might need to achieve their ambitions.

Our dedicated careers portal offers colleagues all the resources they need to support them in their personal development. We encourage colleagues to explore diverse career paths through cross-functional development and take advantage of promotion opportunities where appropriate.  We offer career development opportunities through internal mobility to different roles across the business. In 2024, 70% of available roles were filled through internal job-rotation.

To provide more varied career paths, we also introduced a new Technical Expert Career path in 2024 allowing colleagues with deep scientific expertise to grow their careers further whilst staying in highly technical roles. 

Every colleague has different development needs, in line with their individual career goals. Therefore, we strongly encourage everyone to have Personal Development Plan discussions with their leader. Project assignments are another common way for our colleagues to gain hands-on experience to expand their knowledge whilst remaining in their current role. We also offer other resources for colleagues to learn from others through mentoring programmes, coaching, and attendance at external conferences and seminars. 

We provide all colleagues with access to our online learning platforms which offer over 16,000 video courses on various topics. In 2024, 65% of our colleagues activated their licenses and 44% of them are active users. To cater to different learning preferences, we also provided colleagues with an online platform which summarises books, videos, and articles.

Developing and retaining talent

Since 2023, we have provided our senior leaders with remote coaching to support their personal and professional development. In 2024, we expanded this coaching to a wider group of leaders, so that even more could benefit from this impactful tool. Since the launch, leaders completed over 1000 hours of coaching. Next year, we intend to further expand this coaching resource to support even more leaders.

While the talent market remains competitive, Infineum’s turnover rate is generally lower than industry benchmarks in the countries where we operate, reflecting an engaged and welcoming work environment as well as fulfilling jobs. We’re proud that, in 2024, our overall turnover rate was 7.6% and the turnover from resignations remained low, at 3.1%.

Promoting Inclusion

We believe that safe, respectful and inclusive workplaces foster fresh ideas and perspectives, driving innovation, creativity, and business success. It is also crucial for our colleagues and helps us to attract and retain the best and most diverse talent. We offer tailored training programmes to support us in this, including unconscious bias training for all Infineum colleagues and inclusivity training for leaders. 

To accelerate progress, in 2023, we appointed a new inclusion Director role, accountable directly to our CEO, who will provide senior sponsorship for our inclusion initiatives. Additionally, in 2024, a Global inclusion Lead has been recruited to accelerate progress towards our strategic aims. 

In 2024, we also partnered with a specialist inclusion consulting firm who undertook a comprehensive inclusiondiagnostic. The outcomes and follow-up strategy and actions will be fully assessed in 2025, and a new inclusion strategy and action plan will be established. 

Our inclusion journey is ongoing, and we continuously look for ways to learn from the best practices, bring in new ideas and drive inclusivity. We regularly engage external speakers, experts, and charities to expose colleagues to the latest insights on inclusion and keep our colleague community united and aligned on our key values.

Read more on how we embed inclusion in our business here

Inclusive Policy for New Parents

We strive to be an inclusive organisation that provides the necessary support and adjustment period to new parents. Therefore, all Infineum colleagues are entitled to a minimum of four weeks paid parental leave for birth mothers, fathers and adopting parents, including in locations where it is not required by statutory parental leave.

Affinity Groups

Since the introduction of Affinity Groups for Women and for Ethnicities in 2021, these groups continue to thrive. As a recognition of our efforts, in November 2024, our UK Women’s Affinity Group was one of the finalists for a European Diversity Award. The Affinity Groups bring together people who share common interests, characteristics, or life experiences to meet and connect with others in a safe space that allows open and honest sharing. They serve as an additional tool to overcome potential barriers to advancement among talented colleagues from underrepresented groups. The groups are set up locally and are open to all colleagues.  In 2024, we introduced our first LGBTQ+ affinity group, and in June, Infineum’s LGBTQ+ team joined the iconic Pride in London parade.

Affinity groups

In 2024, the US women’s affinity group volunteered to mentor high school girls at a Women’s Future Leadership Academy event in New Jersey. The event was organised by Junior Achievement (JA), the largest US organisation dedicated to giving young people the knowledge and skills to make smart academic and economic choices.

“It’s been a great opportunity to reflect on the mentoring process. I am glad I took the opportunity to support girls from different backgrounds by sharing my experience as a woman in the chemical industry. As you so often hear from people who mentor others, you really do feel you are receiving as well as giving. I’m proud to have devoted time to such a worthwhile project.”

Maria Barcenas, Procurement Manager.

Inclusion in Recruitment
and our Population*

Infineum’s ambition is for our workforce to reflect the diversity of our markets, communities and relevant local talent pools. We are committed to identifying and removing potential bias in both recruitment and internal development processes. 

Our recruitment materials emphasise our commitment to inclusion, and we utilise appropriate channels, such as women and inclusion job boards, minority recruitment agencies and partners, technical groups, networks and affiliations on LinkedIn to broaden our talent pools. We request our recruiting partners to provide a balanced mix of candidates in terms of gender and diversity.  We then use diverse assessment panels to provide richer perspective and create an inclusive experience for candidates of all backgrounds, as well as a structured interview process to ensure an objective and unbiased recruitment experience. In 2024, we introduced accommodations for candidates with different abilities, especially when undergoing psychometric assessments during the recruitment process.

These include additional time, color contrast, and screen reader compatibility. Historically our industry has been male dominated, especially at manufacturing sites, due to the nature of work. Infineum has been working hard to attract and retain a wider talent pool, and this includes a number of efforts to promote STEM disciplines with younger generations.

In 2024, our population consisted of colleagues from over 45 nationalities and various cultural backgrounds with well-balanced age distribution. We believe this demographic brings different perspectives and ideas enabling us to make the best decisions for Infineum and our stakeholders. 

*Excluding union-represented colleagues, our population is 36% female.

Inclusion in Leadership

We have specific ambitions to ensure that our leadership population reflects the communities in which we operate and the talent pools that they derive from. By the end of 2024, we have either met or exceeded half of our talent metrics. In 2025, we will review our talent metrics for 2026 and beyond, to continue our progress in improving inclusion across our organisation.

Being an excellent employer

At Infineum, our people are at the heart of our success. We are committed to fostering a supportive and inclusive workplace where our colleagues can thrive, both personally and professionally.