Continued

Human Value and employee benefits
Elementis aims to maximise Human Value through enhancing the expertise and knowledge of our employees and extending their career choice.

The success of our business is highly dependent on the quality of the contribution our people make to the Company and society. We aim to demonstrate that working at Elementis can significantly enhance individuals' skills and employability and that the organisation is truly committed to maximising the potential of its employees.

Our approach to Human Value can be summarised in the following four policy statements. We shall:

• create an environment that allows people the opportunity to increase their knowledge and skills through personal development and learning so as to sustain the Company's competitive position regarding human capital

• enable individuals and teams to maximise their contribution and realise their potential for both their own development and the Company's goals through continuous performance and potential management

• be receptive to the opportunity to create and support equal opportunity and diversity in all our locations worldwide in all businesses

• ensure that our people are supported by a culture of Well-Being that focuses on both prevention and cure as part of a positive mental and physical health policy.
  

Talent attraction and retention
Elementis recognises the need in today's constantly changing work environment for individuals to be adequately prepared to face stimulating career challenges. Our commitment to Human Value demands that we help our people develop and be prepared for career opportunities, by offering them training and work experiences which increase their individual skill levels.

Further career opportunities are offered by our active use of secondments in response to company projects such as ERP4 and Six Sigma5, and also where individuals would benefit from a secondment to a role which addresses a gap in their own work experience.

In order to identify those individuals who have the potential and capability to be developed into key senior positions throughout Elementis, a new talent management review process was initiated in 2002. This has been supported by the introduction of an electronic career notice board system that informs people of suitable opportunities throughout the company.

The executive teams of each of the businesses and Management Team in turn review the findings of this talent management review process. This gives Elementis an integrated approach to talent management so that an individual's personal and professional development is not restricted to opportunities solely within their current business or functional area.

Working towards recognition of individual contributions
Gauging an individual's actual and potential contribution is essential to the realisation of both the company's business goals and the optimisation of that individual's career path. A company-wide Elementis performance management and review process links individual objectives with business goals in order to evaluate the contribution of each employee. This process is audited.

The adoption of a universal job sizing process on a worldwide basis has enabled Elementis to gauge its total reward practice against the external market. This ensures that an individual's reward and recognition package reflects their contribution and value to the company.

Equality of opportunity
We strive to ensure that no existing or potential Elementis employee receives less favourable treatment than another on the grounds of race, colour, nationality, ethnic origin, gender, sexual orientation, marital or parental status, age disability, social or economic class, trade-union membership or non-membership, religion or political beliefs. The Elementis fair employment policies also recognise that employees should be able to conduct their duties free from the threat of bullying or harassment.

In the pursuit of diversity goals across Elementis, local HR functions are responsible for ensuring that all local employment policies and procedures comply with employment legislation and employee relations practice. To guarantee that this occurs, all HR functions are subject to a full compliance audit every two years.

Employee Well-Being
Elementis aims to create a work environment where the physical and mental health of our people is seen as paramount and where we proactively manage all health issues. In pursuit of this goal we implemented an independent best practice review across all our regions during 2003.

The survey findings have been used to identify shortfalls between current Elementis Well-Being practice and market best practice. We are committed to adopting best practice as our Well-Being standard and will take steps to close identified gaps during 2004/2005. This involves the implementation of a co-ordinated and integrated range of regional initiatives that focus on both prevention and cure of health issues. Once implemented, all Elementis operations will meet regional best practice in the areas of employee assistance programmes, health awareness, health screening, HIV education and support as well as long-term disability and sickness programmes.

In pursuit of this policy we have introduced a comprehensive HIV education awareness programme in South Africa, whilst in the US we will be introducing a disease management programme (DMP). These DMPs are unique to the US and allow for the preventative and curative management of people's health concerns.

The process of total employee health management is summarised in the following diagram6.

4 Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is the implementation of a single software programme integrated across various departments of a business that allows different departments and functions to share information and communicate with each other more effectively, whilst serving their specific needs.

5 Six Sigma is a methodology used to increase quality and efficiency by reducing process variability. It combines the use of problem solving techniques with advanced statistical analysis to achieve breakthrough performance change followed by a continuous drive for improvement.

6 © Copyright Towers Perrin, Forster & Crosby, Inc. We are grateful to Towers Perrin for allowing us to illustrate our Well-Being programme with their diagram.