People

Direct and indirect employees

In general, approximately 32% of our staff was composed of indirect employees in 2019, up five percentage points from 2018, with greater emphasis on the Forestry unit, where this increase was eight percentage points.

The indirect employees perform activities to support each business’s end activities and comply with the precepts of working hours, remuneration and other legal requirements, including the freedom of collective association.

The following tables contain a breakdown of Klabin’s direct employees by age group and functional category of governance body members:

Talent management

GRI 103-1, 103-2, 103-3

An engaged and trained team, in search of constant development contributes to increased productivity. Trained employees are able to simplify work, foster innovation, contribute to operational efficiency and, consequently, deliver sustainable results.

Klabin’s management of the subject focuses on permanent employee development, a robust succession chain and the training of extraordinary leaders, as we believe that cultural evolution for the Company to execute its strategic plan is only possible with a strong leadership team, with behaviors and skills capable of delivering results both now and in the future.

Focus on strengthening the succession chain

In 2019, many people management efforts were focused on identifying and training successors. We revised the Performance Cycle, a process for evaluating and discussing Performance and Potential, which generates relevant inputs for good development conversations. The Cycle provided us with inputs to form a pilot group of 20 employees who participated in a new initiative at the Company: the Development Acceleration Program for leaders, starting in August.

Based on a robust process of evaluating skills and behaviors, the program helps build and execute a strong plan that accelerates these leaders’ development for the next career step It prioritizes the concept of continuing education under self-directed learning in the daily life and culture of the company, reinforcing autonomy as a core part of the process. The program remains in 2020.

Forming high performance teams

In 2019, we worked hard to develop high-performance teams, with actions focused on strengthening collaboration, trust, transparency, agility and innovation, which further engaged the mid-level leadership in guiding our cultural evolution and leveraging extraordinary and sustainable results.

Internal recruitment is a priority

We prioritize internal recruitment to fill positions, giving employees the opportunity to progress within the Company. In this case, vacancies are published through the Internal Opportunities Panel (accessed via the intranet). When positions are not filled internally, we resort to external recruitment through partnerships with websites and our institutional talent database as well (online platform available on our website).

Climate survey

In 2019, we conducted the Organizational Climate Survey with our employees. Its execution was 100% digital for the first time, with 88% adherence. The survey is an important tool that measures the effectiveness of our people management practices throughout the employee’s journey. It has been conducted since 2001 at Klabin. GPTW began handling the task in 2012 and a two-year periodicity was adopted. The Hay Group (currently Korn Ferry) became responsible for the task as of 2017.

Check out the key results of the survey conducted in 2019:

Rate of new employees and turnover

GRI 401-1

The number of terminations exceeded hirings at Klabin in 2019. Regarding age groups, a greater renovation of human resources is observed, reinforced by the structuring of the apprentice and trainee programs. The most significant movements in hiring and termination occurred in the South, due to expansion of the forestry base. Business movements often justify the slowdown of operations in certain cities to make room for a ramp-up in others. The following tables portray our turnover indicators, which consider apprentices and interns in the admissions and terminations base.

Maternity and paternity leave

GRI 401-3

Klabin joined the federal government’s Empresa Cidadã program in 2019, whose main action is to extend the parental leave period. With the increasingly higher ratio of women in our workforce, we also see higher retention of members of this group who return from maternity leave and are still with the company 12 months after returning, showing greater stability for the gender.

Recognition

Klabin’s Policy on Fundamental Rights in Labor Relations  determines that balance in remuneration constitutes a retention factor for qualified employees, ensuring the non-interference of criteria such as race, color, gender, religious or sexual orientation, social origin, appearance, age, physical disability and special needs.

In 2019, we sought to simplify the Performance Cycle and made improvements to the employee performance and potential evaluation program, in which deliveries, skills (Atitude Klabin), potential and also the remuneration of eligible employees are assessed. Among the changes, the highlights are the construction of good conversations and development plans.

Our remuneration guidelines

GRI 102-35, 102-36

To determine remuneration, we use the market methodology with universally comparable factors to measure the relative size of positions, ensuring comparison reliability. We conduct annual salary surveys and analyze the competitiveness of our remuneration practices as compared to the market. Deliveries, skills, performance, potential and salary position in relation to market research are evaluated for salary adjustment decisions.

One of the tools that guide the management of the topic is Klabin’s Remuneration Policy, which is updated periodically to establish guidelines and directives in line with our purposes.

The Executive Board’s remuneration consists of fixed and variable remuneration, including short- and long-term incentives , benefits (life insurance, health care, food vouchers, meal vouchers, private pensions and check-ups) and Guarantee Fund for Length of Service (FGTS). indicators long-term Our strategy for total remuneration is a position aligned with the third market quartile. We adopted indicators for short- and long-term incentives related to the strategy and business cycle, allowing greater alignment with shareholders.

Annual total remuneration ratio

GRI 102-38

In 2019, the ratio of the annual total remuneration of Klabin’s highest-paid individual to the median annual remuneration for all employees was 9.696%. All employees are included in the calculation, considering the integral calculation for annualization of the amounts. Only operations in Brazil and the aspects of base salary data, benefits, short- and long-term incentives were considered for the calculation.

Promoting diversity

GRI 103-1, 103-2, 103-3

We believe that the best decisions are made when the work environment is free of discrimination and characterized by several different points of view, experiences, cultures and ways of life. Therefore, we seek to provide job opportunities compatible with people of different aptitudes, skills and life stories.

Diversity is a topic that gained a more strategic approach at Klabin in 2019, with the creation of a governance structure, responsibilities for initiatives attributed in different instances and focus on the purpose of expanding the representativeness of diversity groups in the Company.

The management of the topic is supported by the Policy on Diversity and Promoting Employability.

Cultural evolution at Klabin also highlights this aspect. In 2019, informal movements that arose at the company and fostered reflections and discussions on the diversity led us to catalyze initiatives and create synergies, privileging natural leaders on this issue in the company.

The upswing of female participation in our workforce by two percentage points in 2019 (from 11% to 13%) already represents an evolution compared to previous years, when this result shifted by 1% in each period. This representation is an important indicator (considering the reality of the sector, which varies between 12% and 14%), but we are still concerned.

To expand this representativeness, we have been promoting initiatives such as the inclusion of women on the shortlist (list of pre-selected candidates) for attraction and selection and a review of these processes, in addition to training on diversity for the teams involved.

Participation by all

Under the diversity governance structure, we held several work meetings, both in the corporate areas and in the units, to approve programs and projects in the area with the People Commission. We conducted several awareness actions for all target audiences, in order to boost the culture of promoting greater inclusion and respect in the Company.

Appreciating life

GRI 103-1, 103-2, 103-3

GROWTH AND STRONG RESULTS ONLY HAVE REAL MEANING IF OUR OWN EMPLOYEES AND THIRD PARTY CONTRACTORS PERFORM THEIR ACTIVITIES SAFELY.

We posted a significant improvement in our safety rates in 2019, reaching historical records at Klabin. Even so, we believe that even better rates can be pursued and achieved, aiming for excellence. We will not be satisfied until we attain zero occurrences.

Safety improvements result from a more strategic view and the recent structuring of governance for the matter at the Company. Numbers (detailed indicators are further presented in this chapter) reflect a change in approach. In addition to seeking continuous improvement of work environments, we encourage employees to be the protagonists of this story. With the motto “Appreciating Life: a caring gesture”, internal initiatives reinforce that everyone is responsible for taking care of colleagues.

We expanded our monitoring on this front in 2019. In addition to tracking the classic safety indices, we also included high potential occurrences on the radar. These are situations that could have, but ultimately did not result in accidents. The operation then becomes more preventive and less reactive.

Health and safety management

GRI 403-1, 403-2, 403-8

We adopted our own Occupational Health and Safety Management system, which encompasses all of the company’s operations and employees, including our service providers. Audited internally and externally, the system is guided by three fundamentals: visible commitment, line responsibility and operational discipline.

In 2019, a complete review of the Management System was undertaken, focusing on building standards and guidelines that are more consistent and compliant to the business and, especially, on the mapping of critical activities, which allowed us to gain comprehensive knowledge on many of the routine activities that poised higher risk for employees.

Based on such analysis, Critical Activity Requirements (RACs) were established for our industrial and forestry operations. The process allowed us to identify gaps and resulted in the drafting of protocols for good standardization practices, enhanced integration among teams and further developed into strategic safety plans for the units.

Our operations’ compliance percentage with the protocols and guidelines is an relevant indicator, monitored to allow assessing the progress of our Management System. We expect at least a 10% evolution by 2021..

Facilities

We started a round of equipment analyses for all units in 2018 and consolidated it in 2019. The focus was to identify risk situations and raise awareness among leaders to act more closely with the teams in risk mapping and prevention. This study will allow us to implement a safety inspection routine.

Behavioral management

We updated the behavioral audit model, which was replaced by Safety in Focus. The proposal addresses the matter more extensively, analyzing the behavior of employees based on dialogue for the purpose of identifying contributing factors for a given behavior.
We also developed an application for filing Safety Reports. Employees can use their mobile phones to inform management of risk behaviors, environments inappropriate for work and good practices as well. The pilot project will be tested in 2020.

Measuring the maturity of the safety culture

We completed the Safety Culture Diagnosis throughout the Packaging and Paper businesses using the Hearts & Minds methodology, which allowed us to ascertain the maturity of our operations. We fluctuate between “Reactive”, a level at which safety actions still depend on an order or event; “Calculating”, in which the management system is well implemented and encourages good behavior; and “Proactive”, whose attention is on the future and not on responding to data from the past or present events.

The diagnosis of the cultural model allows us to be more assertive in safety-related actions, whether through a method or leadership model. We want to reach the highest level in 2030, which is the “Generative” level. At this stage, organizations exceed the highest safety standards, leadership is always aware of what is happening and employees work attentively and study new preventive possibilities. This will guarantee an accident rate close to zero.

The analysis at the Pulp Unit was interrupted due to complications related to the Covid-19 pandemic and should be resumed as soon as possible. In 2020, we also plan to make a comparison of Hearts & Minds with another methodology already applied at the Forestry Unit, in order to establish strategies that meet the cultural model of each unit.

Identification of risks and accidents

To manage risks we use the following tools, whose implementation varies according to the pace and needs of each unit:

Benefit plan

GRI 201-3

Our employees have medical and dental assistance, agreements with pharmacies, transportation and food benefits, life insurance, childcare and school supply assistance, among others. The pension plan is managed by a private and independent entity, in which there is no obligation for the company to hold reserves to ensure pensions. All professionals, regardless of position, can participate by making voluntary contributions. The company’s contribution includes the following modalities:

Work-related health indicators

GRI 403-10

The main work-related health problems in our units are associated with musculoskeletal diseases (tenosynovitis and tendonitis, for example) and back problems. The risks related to these diseases are determined in ergonomic analyses, such as the one conducted in 2019 at all units, for which action plans were developed, to be implemented starting in 2020. 

In 2019, 27 occupational health problems were recorded among our employees, compared to 16 in 2018, 10 in 2017 and 21 in the previous year.