Our Executive Vice President, Human Resources, Johanne McNally Myers, leads our people-first approach: developing our team, recognizing their contributions and building a positive culture that drives performance and supports well-being.
Environment, health and safety (EHS). In 2021, we had a total of 16 recordable injuries (RIs). This represented a decrease of five incidents relative to 2020 (21 RIs) and a cumulative decline of nine incidents from our 2018 baseline (25). We take pride in these gains not only because they show progress toward our goal of zero workplace injuries, but also because they indicate that a new, three-year EHS strategy we adopted in January of 2021 is already working to keep our team members safe. This year, the decline in overall incidents was driven mainly by progress in our three manufacturing plants. Improved safety performance at these locations is especially positive since these facilities present risks of serious injury by virtue of their equipment.
Building our team. From new succession planning approaches to flexible work arrangements and wellness supports, we continue to adopt systems and practices that show our team we value their contributions — and that we see their potential for growth. Over the past couple of years, we’ve updated and formalized our succession planning approach both to ensure more equitable access to promotions and to ensure that team members are aware of and prepared for opportunities to develop their careers within High Liner Foods. To ensure that we understand who’s leaving our business, where, and why, in 2021 we began tracking voluntary and involuntary departures from High Liner Foods by work location, salary tier and setting.
Diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I). We’re committed to ensuring that talented people of all backgrounds and identities can join our team and do their best work with us, finding opportunities for learning, growth and advancement. As our DE&I program continued to mature this year, the benefits were felt across our organization. In 2021, we introduced new interview guides for hiring managers, introduced a more formal approach to succession planning, and implemented a range of new training initiatives for leaders – all part of our efforts to become an even more inclusive and equitable employer.