Healthier employees

Wellbeing is a fundamental part of the overall health and happiness of people at work, as well as at home. This year we organised voluntary wellbeing roadshows for our employees in Great Britain, which were attended by over 600 people. We targeted all working shift patterns to help our employees better understand their own mental health needs and highlight the tools available to them. Roadshows included sessions hosted by our Wellbeing Warriors, Mental Health First Aiders, the Britvic Reward team (to learn more about the health and lifestyle benefits available), our new charity partner Bounce Forward, our diversity network groups, and the Employee Involvement Forum (EIF), and our wellbeing score increased by three points in our employee engagement survey, following these roadshows.

With a significant proportion of our work force routinely working nights, sleep is a hot topic which bridges emotional and physical wellness. In Great Britain, we worked with external experts Night Club to create a better and healthier shift work experience that improves the wellbeing of our factory-based employees. 

Our 55 Mental Health First Aiders in Great Britain completed refresher courses, and we are now training additional Mental Health First Aiders to cover all shift patterns in our factories.

At the same time, we have strengthened and promoted our partnership with GroceryAid, the industry charity providing free and confidential emotional, practical, and financial support to anyone working in the industry, including Britvic employees.

At Britvic we offer practical support to empower all our employees to make healthier choices.

Britvic employees who elected to take part in the healthcare plan in Great Britain now have access to a 24-hour doctor service, to see a GP whenever they want, wherever they are, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

In the last 12 months, we have actively addressed the topic of menopause in the workplace, highlighting its impact on countless employees and emphasising its significance as a natural life stage. Britvic has signed the employee menopause pledge, introduced a menopause support group and increased awareness and understanding through a series of workshops. These sessions were open to everyone to help foster an environment of openness, understanding and support, thereby reducing the stigma and misconceptions historically associated with menopause.

We also encouraged as many people as possible to take part in a 100-day step challenge either individually or as teams.

The safety of all our employees across our sites is a high priority and embedding strong operational standards has been a key focus area this year. To support changes in legislation and reflect best practice, we’ve refreshed our Britvic internal standards which have been rolled out with a series of gap analyses and audits to drive compliance.  

While the lost time injury frequency rate (total lost time injuries per 100,000 hours) has increased slightly from 0.34 to 0.45 this year, the five year trend remains positive. We’ve seen good progress in safety observation completion rates and adherence to hazard notification processes this year. And we remain focused on learning lessons to improve even further. 

We remain committed to a strong quality and safety culture, so introduced a number of targeted campaigns to raise awareness throughout the year. We also published a library of ‘safety moments’ to support a safety first approach which is being used at the start of meetings. 

Britvic is a people business, where relationships matter, and where we want everyone to feel they can truly belong. Our shared purpose, vision and values are what drive us every day and everywhere. Whether it’s length of service, attracting many generations of the same family, or people rejoining the company after they’ve moved on, there is something very special about working for Britvic. 

We seek to be refreshingly dynamic, constantly evolving our business and keeping it future fit by attracting diverse talent and fostering a sense of inclusion every day. This is one way that helps us stay true to our vision be the most dynamic soft drinks company, creating a better tomorrow. We are very close to achieving our 2025 goals of being in the upper quartile of Engagement and Belonging. 

We regularly seek feedback from our employees across the business through our engagement survey, Employee Heartbeat, to understand how they feel about the company, and why. The anonymous feedback is used by people managers, team leaders and senior executives to influence positive change across our business. Examples this year have included policy changes, adapting our ways of working and the way we look after our wellbeing and safety. 

In 2024, we changed our survey provider. This enabled us to measure ourselves against specific FMCG, manufacturing, and country benchmarks. The rating scale has also moved to focus on favourability rather than average. Scores for previous years have been recalculated using the new methodology to ensure comparability. 

The survey continues to be managed confidentially, across all markets, with 89% participation in 2024 - our highest response rate since the start of Employee Heartbeat four years ago. The results show the highest levels of belonging, engagement, and wellbeing since its launch, with stable intent to stay among employees. We scored 78% for belonging, 85% for engagement and 77% for wellbeing. This exceeds global benchmarks. 

As well as the quantitative data, Employee Heartbeat provides qualitative insights through employees’ verbatim comments. This year an incredible 11,176 were received, up 49% on last year. Taking action on issues highlighted in employee feedback, stabilisation following organisational changes in 2023, and good mid-year business results have all led to positive improvements.