Employee
experience
Packaging
Distribution
Packaging Design
& Manufacture
Packaging
Distribution
Packaging Design
& Manufacture
Environment
Health & safety
Customer experience
Employee experience
Human rights
Gender Pay Gap

Macfarlane Group is committed to its people and we recognise our staff are our greatest asset, being critical to not only the growth of our business, but its resilience in challenging times.

Effective, meaningful and timely communication has always been recognised as fundamental to positive employee engagement. The need for effective communication has never been more crucial than during the past year, ensuring that each employee has the tools and support needed to effectively fulfil their role.

The health, safety and wellbeing of our people has never been more important. In the current climate it is essential that we create a supportive, safe and rewarding work environment that enables employees to continue to deliver our goals and develop their careers.

Employee development

Macfarlane Group believes that each employee should be provided with the opportunity to realise their potential. Through several mechanisms, including Career Development Plans, apprenticeship schemes and the Macfarlane Leadership Programme, we provide a platform for personal development and career enhancement whilst also ensuring, through structured training, that employees have the correct skills and knowledge to effectively fulfil their role.

The significant developments in technology within Macfarlane Group over the past two years have enabled us to enhance virtual training programmes, supporting our ability to engage all employees in their development no matter where they are geographically located. The Group has provided an average of 15 hours of training per employee in 2022, a decrease on 2021: 16 hours due primarily to the sale of Labels in December 2021 which had a higher hours of training per employee related to health and safety.

Diversity

The gender breakdown of Directors, Senior Managers and other Group employees at the year-end is shown below:

Employee engagement

Our aim as a business is to be an inclusive employer of choice. The successful engagement of our employees is not only critical to us achieving this aim but also in ensuring the overall success of the business.

Excellent colleague communication continues to be a key area of focus. We have a framework of internal communication channels which seek to inform, engage and inspire individuals on matters of potential interest to them alongside wider business performance.

We encourage the engagement of every colleague to ensure the delivery of an outstanding service to our customers. This is achieved through a number of tools including business update sessions run by our CEO, functional forums, regular structured meetings, focus groups, informal review meetings and employee surveys. These methods, along with individual one-to-one discussions, provide opportunities for individuals to engage in two-way dialogue covering topics such as the overall well-being of our employees in addition to business and personal performance.

The Group-wide implementation of Microsoft Teams has improved the level of connectivity across the business. Platforms such as this, along with tools such as Yammer, will enable us, to continue to widen our feedback and engagement channels.

Employee Wellbeing

Inspiring and enabling our colleagues to fulfil their potential starts with supporting their overall well-being. We are passionate about creating a culture where all our colleagues feel able to seek support and have access to helpful resources. Throughout the year we raised awareness of mental ill health and encouraged all our colleagues to understand that mental health is an issue for everyone.

Guides, support tools and online training have been made available to all employees with the aim of creating a healthy, supportive working environment. A full Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) is available 24 hours a day to all our colleagues with Mental Health First Aiders available for support in the workplace.

As a Group we understand how important a healthy home life is to an individual’s well-being. Flexible working practices, including hybrid working, are adopted whenever possible to support the ability of employees to manage the demands of both work and home.

Gender Pay Gap

Macfarlane Group, as in previous years, reported its Gender Pay Gap information for the snapshot date 5 April 2021. The report showed men’s mean hourly rate to be 2.4% higher than women’s and women’s median hourly rate to be 12.1% higher than men. The median pay gap is reflective of the number of women employed in the sales function, where their pay is impacted by the ability to earn bonus in a set period. This result is also influenced by the fact that the lower earning band of employees in production and logistics is predominantly male.

These results do however change when reviewing the mean pay gap information. This is reflective of the demographics of the Senior Executive team and those Printers (typically male) employed in Macfarlane Labels (sold in December 2021) as skilled professionals, who receive competitive basic pay and a full shift system, offering a significant uplift on standard hourly rates. It is worth noting that the mean bonus pay gap for 2021 was 16.1% higher for females, whereas in previous years the gap was 46%. This shift is reflective of the bonus scheme paid within the relevant period, being adopted to deal with the impact of Covid-19, with all employees being placed on a same scheme.

Macfarlane Group is a progressive company operating in a traditionally male oriented sector. We continue to engage in initiatives that promote a career in Logistics and Production to those in under-represented groups, and our focus on this area will enable us to build toward having a more diverse organisation in future years.

Macfarlane Group Gender Pay Gap information can be found on our website (www.macfarlanegroup.com).

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