Having happy and healthy employees is critical to Britvic’s success. We recognise that each employee has an important role to play in creating and sustaining an inclusive and thriving working environment.
We know that when employees feel healthy, well and safe, they can reach their maximum potential. We see health in the workplace as a complex blend of physical, psychological and social factors. We offer a variety of programmes that support employee wellbeing and encourage healthier lifestyle choices for all.
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.
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.
In June, we celebrated the British Nutrition Foundation’s healthy eating week. We shared recipes, tips on nutrition and advice on how to reduce food waste.
We also encouraged as many people as possible to take part in a 100-day step challenge either individually or as teams.
Alongside health, the safety of our employees is our utmost priority. We have a relentless focus on risk reduction, adhering to safe and regulated practices, and the promotion of safe behaviours at all times.
Our lost time injury frequency rate (total lost time injuries per 100,000 hours) has reduced by 30% in 2023 in comparison to 2022 and now stands at a rate of 0.34. The improvement follows employees engaging with health and safety programmes and cultural change initiatives such as the quality, safety and environment day at our Leeds factory, which focused on manual handling techniques, food safety and quality awareness.
We hosted awareness and education sessions on health, safety and environment for all French employees. These days were an opportunity for all employees to engage in fun, practical and interactive workshops on topics such as waste management, first aid, risk awareness within the factory environment and safe ergonomics.
Food safety and quality culture within our organisation is critical to our success. This year we conducted a full employee survey to understand how we’re doing and what more we can do. This is linked to our external certification standards, such as Food Safety System Certification 22000 and International Featured Standards certification which we proudly maintained in 2023. We have action plans in place to ensure continuous improvement in quality in the coming year, including updating our quality and health and safety standards.
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.
We are proud to consistently see our engagement scores above the global benchmarks, and in our May 2023 survey our scores continued to be stable and strong.
This year our engagement score is 78. This is based on employee answers to two questions: the extent to which they are happy working at Britvic and how willing they would be to recommend Britvic as a great place to work. Employees provide answers on a five point scale ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree. Their individual responses were then converted to a number on a rating scale going from 0 (strongly disagree) through 25, 50 and 75 to 100 (strongly agree). The overall score shown is the average of all these ratings.
We currently have a score of 75 in belonging, based on responses to the statement: ‘I feel a sense of belonging at Britvic’.
