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Making Health and Safety a Priority
We believe that it is our duty to ensure that our people
get home safely in the evening. Our responsibility
does not end at the brewery fence, and extends to
sales people on the road as well as general promotion
of healthy living. This year, sensible drinking
and accident prevention have been our strategic
priorities.
Best Practice in the Workplace
Employee Focus Groups:
More Consultation Needed,
but Fun Place to Work
WHAT I S I T L I K E WORK I NG F OR GAB?
GAB provides a fun working environment - it is very
challenging, but we also celebrate successes. There is
a good sense of teamwork. The benefits are good, and
the emphasis on work-life balance, flexi-hours, training
programmes and good prospects for internal promotions
are important. It is nice to be able to engage with the
MD through his talks, breakfast meetings and townhall
meetings. The Company has a good reputation, so friends
and family are often impressed.
The culture has changed over the past years. Before, it
would sometimes seem that it was more important “who
you knew” rather than what ability you had. Now it is very
transparent and based on merit. It is really positive that
there is transparency around promotions.
Generally speaking, we feel valued and important.
The service award is a great way of recognising loyalty.
GAB is a challenging workplace, and it encourages people
to develop and deliver to the best of their ability, and
rewards are good. There is a good feeling of being part
of a good company selling good brands. Compared to
other companies, GAB offers a cohesive working culture,
and the internal politics are less than other places.
WHAT WOU L D MAK E GAB
A B E T T E R P L AC E TO WORK?
The biggest issue is that some decisions are made
without consultation or feedback. It would work better
Response from GAB Management
Most feedback received is valid and useful.
In some cases though, the information from
employees is inaccurate. For instance, all
employees do get a replacement holiday for
a public holiday which falls on a weekend.
This replacement holiday is either the next
working day or one additional leave day,
depending on the department they are from.
In other cases, policies and provisions
requested are already in existence, for
example, the use of taxi or the guidelines
on drinking and driving.
The underlying issue appears to be some
lack of communication. This will be an area
for improvement, moving foward.
if there was some pilot testing, so kinks could be
worked out. It would also help to identify how it would
apply in a particular business unit and adjust it. For
example, the work-life balance policy is great for some
parts of the business, but for operations on shift-work,
it can’t be easily implemented. Recently, there have
been some decisions made around marketing activity,
which have caused problems between sales team and
customers. Better consultation on these decisions with
the field staff could have prevented a lot of problems and
unhappy customers.
The leadership could put more trust in the staff, and allow
them more freedom to do their jobs, but there is a tendency
for micro-management. Senior management often gets
involved in smaller decisions, which shouldn’t have to
involve them. This can feel a bit disempowering and it
might be better if management allowed staff to lead and
develop in some areas.
Not all employees are unionised, but it would be good if
the Company offered the same benefits for union and
non-union employees. For example, some units gets a
replacement holiday if public holidays fall on a weekend,
whereas others do not. We also think that the retirement
benefits could be improved.
WH E R E CAN GAB DO B E T T E R
I N B E I NG A R E SPONS I B L E COMPANY ?
One area for improvement is to have a policy on the use of
taxis. When we attend company or client events and this is
after working hours, we are allowed to drink. There should
be a guideline on drinking and driving in these cases. This
is not only for sales team but across the Company.
Projects like “The Big Day Out” and the W.A.T.E.R
project are really important. One person can only
do so much but a whole company can do so much
more. However, the “so what” part of these projects
is missing. It is not explained to staff how it relates
back to our Company and our products.
Last year, we were not involved much in community
projects. Some of us mainly contributed to the
community through associations and causes which
customers are involved in. Community investment
is really important in building relationships with the
government and the community.
After a thorough review in FY2011, we realised that
there were many areas where we could improve
health and safety at GAB. This year, health and safety
is a major performance indicator for our Supply Chain
and Operations Department. Most accidents happen
in this area and involve cuts from bottles, accidents
with pallets and transport on site.
SA F E T Y
We now have a zero accident target, which we have
adopted from Heineken. This is a challenging target,
but we need to be ambitious. We are applying
Heineken’s Total Productive Management (TPM)
safety pillar. When we were audited against this
system in 2010, we only got a score 41%, and in April
2011, we were re-audited and we hit 64%, so we are
making progress.
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G U I N N E S S A N C H O R B E R H A D
( 5 3 5 0 - X )