WHY WORK FOR LACTALIS?
Our Culture & How We Work
OUR PEOPLE
At Lactalis, our people matter
We are a family-owned business connected by shared values, ethics and a passion for making delicious, nutritious dairy products that bring people closer together.
Today, we have 585 employees across the two businesses, and four production sites spread throughout Scotland, Wales and England. We are focused on ensuring that our businesses are safe, rewarding and enjoyable places to work.
Safety & Wellbeing
Employee safety and wellbeing is paramount; no job is ever so urgent or important, not to take the time to do it safely.
Development
We believe a career at Lactalis should be rewarding; so, we help develop our people and build their job-related skills & expertise, as well as their broader management and leadership skills.
Engagement
We also put significant emphasis on employee engagement and regularly assess our performance through externally validated surveys so we can understand where we are strong and where we need to develop improvement action plans.
DE&I
A truly diverse, equal and inclusive organisation
Purpose & Overview
Since its foundation in 1933 the Lactalis Group strives to reflect and embrace diversity and to comply with local regulations in all countries in which it operates.
Our employee’s diversity of profiles and skills are vital to our success and our growth, and have proven to be an asset in helping our Group transition to more sustainable production models.
Our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Policy aims to formally set out our commitments and to establish the principles and measures that will enable us to offer our employees an inclusive and equitable working environment.
General Principles
At Lactalis, diversity is embodied by the variety of profiles present among our employees, which mirrors the variety present in society as a whole. We seek to recognise and promote talents for their distinctive skills, inclusive of various gender, disabilities, age, family situation, social or cultural background, religion, sexual orientation, political convictions or trade union membership.
Equity involves creating and promoting an environment that seeks fair treatment for all individuals by identifying, addressing and adjusting the advantages and barriers to opportunity.
Inclusion is the conscious effort of making employees feel valued, respected and supported for their distinctive skills, experiences and perspectives. We strive to create an inclusive working environment that gives employees a strong sense of belonging to the company.
Through our three core values, the Lactalis Group strives to respect and value all cultures and all employee profiles:
COMMITMENT
We are committed to equity in the workplace and to
non-discrimination, respecting and recognising all identities and cultures. This commitment is pursued in all our entities and with all of our stakeholders.
AMBITION
Our ambition is to promote diversity in our workforce, both as a reflection of the diversity in our customer base, and as a source of innovation and performance.
SIMPLICITY
By respecting local cultures and differences, we foster an inclusive environment and strive to promote wellbeing at work, so that every individual feels engaged and can thrive.
DEVELOPING OUR PEOPLE
A company that encourages you to grow
One of the ways we look to show our ambition is in the development of our people.
We want to help our employees thrive. We foster talent through people-centred leadership – driven by our MDs, Group HR Director and Board – and through access to many learning and training opportunities. Generally speaking, we look to develop skills in 3 ways and across all levels of the business.
- Firstly, by building expertise in the job role and the dairy industry.
- Secondly, through honing management and softer skills (that might include for example time management or project management).
- Lastly, by building leadership capability and skills. We offer different ways to demonstrate leadership and this can be through getting involved and running business projects, through our social, health and wellness or charity teams, or volunteering as well as in leadership roles.
The Lactalis Leadership Model
The Lactalis leadership model gives existing managers and our leaders of tomorrow, a roadmap to engage them on the skills we’re looking for in order to grow and develop their career within the business. The model is based upon 4 key leadership areas; Care, Share, Dare & Inspire and each has a number of behaviours to model what good leadership looks like.
Key behaviours for The Lactalis Leadership Model
We create a safe and trusting working environment
We foster a culture of listening and mutual feedback
We unlock potential and enable people to play to their strengths
We take responsibility for our impact on the environment and our stakeholders
We work and win as teams
We respect local cultures and are open to new ideas and ways of working
We share our learnings and best practices across the group
We are proud Lactalis ambassadors, any time, any place
We take initiatives and learn from experience
We challenge the status quo and ensure continuous improvement
We lead innovation by being curious, flexible and open-minded
We act as intrapreneurs
We live our vision and our values in an authentic way
We lead by example
We walk the talk
We live our passion and motivation to strive for more and better
The Lactalis Learning Factory
The Lactalis Group has invested in an online training portal called The Learning Factory where Lactalis staff can upskill themselves and to take ownership of their own learning and development. Worldwide there are over 24,000 learners across Lactalis, from 77 countries!
The Learning Factory has also been externally recognised:
- After having received in 2022 a GOLD Award by Brandon Hall Group, for our strategy, and an Award from Future of HR by Deloitte in a Business Partner category,
- In 2023, we received TWO GOLD Brandon Hall Awards! One for our global and local strategy and one for the innovative digital learning programme “Passion for Taste”.
Brandon Hall Group is an international research and analyst firm, with more than 10,000 clients globally and nearly 30 years of delivering research-based solutions that empower excellence in organisations around the world.