Focus 2007: Employee engagement

A fundamental part of our HR strategy is to create an environment that stimulates team spirit, passion and engagement. Engaging employees is crucial to our success: we know that companies with high employee engagement levels outperform their markets.

We are conducting online engagement surveys so employees can give anonymous feedback to management, be it appreciative or critical. In 2007, we covered Europe and Asia as well as some global Group functions. Although we are on average scoring in the 'Performance sector', we analyse the feedback carefully per country, division and department and work with line management to address areas of improvement.

We also have a web-based scheme - 'Ask the Management' - that allows employees to post questions to senior management. There are six different 'Ask the Management' forums across the Group, with the Global Operations one being the most used, often with 50-60 questions posted each month.

And more of our main locations are hosting 'All-employee meetings', where senior management address topics of interest and answer questions. There were more than ten such meetings organised across all brands, Group functions and regions in 2007.

We encourage employees to use any or all of these channels to voice their concerns, questions or suggestions. The more feedback we receive, the more we are able to improve our practices and be a better employer.

• business and
  report overview
• vision and
  governance
• engaging our
  stakeholders
• managing our
  supply chain
• protecting the
  environment
• working with
  the community
• our
  employees