Increasing company value sustainably

Our core mission is to contribute to global sustainable high value crop production and we set out to achieve this by building the best team in the industry.

Our Global HR team focuses on defining the contribution and pathway of every employee to increase company value in a sustainable way. This is firmly embedded in all our HR processes relating to attracting, developing and retaining employees.

Capitalising on diversity & inclusion

At the core of our HR vision is a strong focus on our employee’s talents and strengths – and not weaknesses. We implement StrengthsFinder (Gallup) methodology worldwide. The basic principle is that every employee is unique, with his or her set of talents and strengths. By deploying talents in teams in a multidisciplinary way, we capitalise on the power that diversity and inclusion bring to us.

Employee engagement

The basic idea here is that the right talent, in the right roles, with the right managers drives employee engagement. Developing leaders is therefore key – as great managers make engaged employees.

Engagement efforts are crucial as ‘customers will never love a company until the employees love it’. Engaged employees make loyal customers and with loyal customers you get sustainable growth that paves the way to increased company value. At Biobest, HR therefore plays a crucial role in this path from individual to company value.

By building the best 'mixed' team, we focus our HR strategy on three major pillars

• setting a solid foundation,
• generate the right behaviour & culture,
• stimulate leadership development & talent management.

Setting solid foundation

We are rolling out a worldwide Compensation & Benefit philosophy. The target is a transparent pay culture with a clear rewards strategy. Our philosophy is based on five critical key themes: clarity, differentiation, technology, fairness and transparency. In this context, we also started a project on Living Wages in developing/emerging countries where we do business.

The Compensation & Benefit philosophy is subject to clearly defined operating principles:

• determining the percentile at which we want to place our employees in the different local markets with their compensation & benefits package
• defining the industry with which we want to benchmark ourselves
• positioning the roles
• installing local calibration meetings in line with the budgets.

We have also strengthened our technological base. With the start of the design, development and implementation of an HR Information System - SAP SuccessFactors. We are now working on our digital HR transformation, to get people working on the right things, finding the right people and making them great to run the business better. Initially, the focus was on data integrity across the globe and the conversion of the Biobest Performance Cycle (BPM) to a digital system.

Generate the right behaviour & culture

We have a proven record of solid Corporate Social Responsibility projects that were rolled out worldwide. Some of these exciting projects are described below. We received again a Sedex-certification for Morocco. Given the many acquisitions, we also spent a lot of time on a high-quality integration of our new colleagues. Top priority was the integration of Plant Products.

Stimulate leadership development & talent management

We implemented a totally new powerful Talent Acquisition and Onboarding process, implemented a non-violent communication program, analysed absenteeism by using Bradford factor analyses to improve absenteeism, did a well-being survey in HQ with a focus on mental health resulting in the BEE WELL (improvement) teams, …

Workforce megatrends

As a business we are confronting several megatrends currently impacting the global workforce - demographic shifts; aging workforce; global workforce crisis; multiple generations in the workplace; shifts in global economic power; smart technologies; remote working; talent scarcity & increasing costs and the worldwide ‘great resignation’. Issues such as flexible working, reskilling & upskilling and digital transformation, are more important than ever - we are continuously exploring workable solutions.

Against this background of megatrends, we encourage our employees to have growth mindsets. By applying financial and legal discipline, goal focus, corporate housekeeping and high-quality processes and procedures, we are helping our people to work in a consistent and goal-oriented way to achieve results that really make a difference. This is the foundation of our Biobest Performance Management Cycle.

Making people count generates genuine passion. With a firm focus on the strengths of our people and on stimulating passion for our business, we are ready for exponential growth.

2045 The movie

With the world population forecast to exceed 9 billion by 2050, Biobest remains committed to helping greenhouse growers maximise yields using tailored Integrated Pest Management (IPM) programmes. Employing a toolkit of natural solutions, this approach minimises pesticide usage and delivers a raft of positive impacts. Click below to watch this short video:

Sustainability

With sustainability at our core, Biobest is proud of its links to nature, biodiversity and the local communities where we operate. The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) - which set out clear priorities for a more sustainable world in 2030 – are helping structure our efforts in addressing all sustainability topics.

Recent Corporate Social Responsibility projects include on-going initiatives in Kenya sponsoring staff children to join the local High School, and another providing vertical vegetable bags to local frontline workers and school children – supplying nutritious fresh vegetables. Opening a canteen at our production facility in Morocco, which is 75% subsidised by Biobest Maroc. And teamwork by Biobest Antalya, at Karatepe in Turkey, to clean up the local environment to help reduce flooding risk.