By corporate social responsibility, we mean considering the societal impacts of our operations, for instance through our procurements, and also our HR policy and operating culture. Corporate social responsibility aspects in procurements are discussed in the chapter on procurements.
Principles and policies governing HR responsibility
The HUS Executive Board decides on HR policy, the remuneration system and implementation of an equitable pay policy and how these are applied across the HUS Group. The aim is to ensure meaningful, productive and safe work in a setting of equality, transparence and fairness. HUS Logistics complies with the general HUS HR ground rules and policies, and all new employees are provided with orientation in HUS values.
Personnel responsibility goals and how to attain them
Our HR policy goal is for HUS to be a pioneer and the most attractive employer in its field and for every employee to have meaningful, productive and safe work. HR principles are founded on the notions that good, strong HR policy is equitable, transparent and fair to everyone, regardless of which unit or area any given employee is working in.
HUS Logistics grew in 2019, with an increased number of recruitments and new employees. Orientation was improved with team orientation sessions and by further specifying the content of the general orientation plan. New supervisor roles and organizational changes were introduced to ensure feasible team size and to clarify team responsibilities so as to streamline improvement of operations.
Improvement of operations is based on the Lean philosophy. In the course of the year, personnel participated not only in the development of their own team but also in development workshops known as ‘kaizen’ and on ‘gemba’ walks. A kaizen is typically a workshop lasting 1 to 4 days, during which a change addressing a pre-identified problem in a process is planned and executed. The people participating are those responsible for supervising and executing the process in question, from various teams. Every participant contributes according to their role, and the workshop group learns together in improving the process. The overall goal is to find smoother and better ways of working.
Gemba walks are intended to demonstrate concretely how a particular process works and to remove obstacles to success. The aim is to improve communications and cooperation between management, personnel and teams and to increase the understanding of management of the content of and problems in day-to-day work, so that management can have a better insight into how to make the work better.