Long-term thinking is key to Vopak's sustainabilityLong-term commitment is a key guideline for Vopak’s sustainable entrepreneurship when doing business with partners in strategic alliances, joint ventures and with customers, as well as in relationships with its employees. Vopak takes long-term safety, health, environmental and social aspects into account in all its decisions. The principle underlying this policy is sustainable development on the basis of People, Planet, Profit. Applying the principles of sustainable entrepreneurship leads to high-quality services and lower costs.
For Vopak, sustainable entrepreneurship means a profitable operation without accidents and with the least burden on the environment. Customers give preference to suppliers who can guarantee a high degree of quality and safety by means of comprehensive attention to sustainability.
People
Sustainable investment in people
Vopak has made a specific decision to act as a socially responsible employer. This is a natural choice for a company focusing on long-term operations and with long-term customer relationships. Maintaining and investing in sustainable relationships with employees and offering them a challenging working environment offer Vopak considerably more than always attracting new people. The atmosphere in the company is one of Vopak’s strengths. The style of dealing with people is informal, with the Vopak feeling, loyalty and enthusiasm permeating the company, despite the large range of nationalities. It is particularly important to keep and add to these good cultural elements, given the professionalisation process at Vopak.
International sustainable entrepreneurship
Vopak operates in thirty countries, each of which has its own laws, culture and customs. In this context, it applies Vopak Values and subscribes to the principles of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Vopak ensures that human rights are respected and, where necessary, safeguarded when performing its activities. Vopak has internal policies and a code of conduct that supplement local rules in the countries where it operates to ensure that fundamental standards for employment and human rights are met throughout the world. In the Corporate Governance section on page 49 a list of these codes of conduct is included.
Building long-term relationships from an equilibrium
Vopak wishes to bind people for the long term by maintaining the right balance between factors that employees regard as important in their work, such as interesting job content, personal development, career prospects, competitive employment conditions and work-life balance.
As an employer, Vopak has profiled itself as an attractive international company and an employer who encourages, binds and retains people. This is particularly important in today’s turbulent labour market and it also allows Vopak to be able to recruit the right people.
In 2007, a great deal of attention was paid to drawing up a realistic and attractive corporate profile for use around the world for advertising in the labour market. The recruitment and selection website has become much more userfriendly and easier to access, as shown by the increase in the number of applications for vacancies from 20 to 220 per month.
Vopak has extensive contacts with universities and carries out its own recruitment and selection activi ties. This year, Vopak also wants to address the higher vocational education level in the same way.
Professionalisation of the organisation and management
Vopak is rapidly developing into a robust multinational; the organisation must be in line with this in terms of its professionalism. This demands a transparent and rational approach to decision making, based on facts. As a learning organisation, Vopak needs good management information systems and high-quality knowledge management, they are vital for standardisation and professionalisation. Performance management was introduced in 2006. This system sets clearly-defined leadership competencies. In connection with this, particular attention was paid to creating a remuneration policy in 2007 that links performance and pay. Vopak has developed a long-term bonus plan for senior management and changes have been made for other groups of staff to reward better performance. The structure of the corporate management development programme has also been changed.
As well as the programmes for younger employees and middle-management with senior management potential, there is now a third programme for senior managers. The structure of the programme has also been made more logical and effective by tightening the participation conditions somewhat. People now have to attend certain specified courses before moving to a subsequent phase.
Vopak Values
People are the key success factor in Vopak’s growth strategy. Vopak’s rapid growth requires us to pay more attention to communicating the company’s core values, the Vopak Values. A lot of time and energy has been invested in making employees aware of the importance of these values. The values of Integrity, Professionalism, Improvement, Ownership, Service, Passion and Agility are the basis for any decision and ensure a constant level of quality in our services. Various initiatives were developed in 2007, including an educational game, Vopak Volare, which centres on these standards and poses dilemmas to the players that link in with Vopak’s strategy and core values.
