Employees and employee involvement

Northern Foods takes its responsibilities to its employees seriously and places great emphasis on optimising the contribution made by employees at all levels. The Company recognises the value of its employees and seeks to create an energetic, dynamic and responsive environment in which to work. It places considerable importance on communications with employees, which occur throughout the organisation on both a formal and informal basis. The Group’s policy is to provide opportunities for active participation and personal development, with the goals of motivating individuals and helping them to enhance their skills and maximise their potential.

The Group is committed to:

  • providing equality of opportunity for all existing and potential employees. It aims to treat all of its employees fairly in every aspect of employment;
  • ensuring that employees have access to information that enables them to contribute and participate fully in the Group’s achievement of its objectives;
  • providing employees with clear and fair terms of employment and competitive remuneration packages.

The Company encourages involvement in the Company’s performance in a variety of ways, including senior management briefings and via the Company’s intranet. The philosophy of encouraging employees to contribute to the performance of the Group is reinforced by a number of incentive schemes. A new savings-related share option scheme was approved by shareholders at the Annual general meeting in 2007. The first invitation, aimed at maximising employees’ involvement and interest in the success of the Company as a whole through share ownership, was successfully launched in November 2007.

Further information about our employment practices and our commitment to learning and development can be found in the Corporate social responsibility review.

Disabled persons

Applications for employment by disabled persons are fully considered, bearing in mind the aptitudes of the applicant concerned. In the event of members of staff becoming disabled, every effort is made to ensure their employment with the Group continues and appropriate training is arranged. It is the policy of the Group that training, career development and promotion of disabled persons should, as far as possible, be identical to that of other employees.