SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
WHAT MATTERS TO US
In 1983, the founder of Schouten & Nelissen, Jan Schouten, already had the vision that everyone should have equal access to development opportunities to be strong enough to stand up for his or her rights. He therefore gave free assertiveness training on Dutch television to anyone who wanted it. That feeling of offering equal opportunities is still present in the organization more than 40 years later.
It matters to us that the way we do business contributes to the well-being of our people, the people we train and coach, and the people in society. We value ensuring a good work-life balance and focus on diversity and inclusiveness. We carry out scans a few times a year to map out the satisfaction and needs of our employees.
In addition, we find it important to support vulnerable adults and children and help our customers and suppliers achieve their sustainability ambitions.
WE TAKE CARE OF THE PEOPLE AND THE PLANET
In addition, we care about our planet and therefore buy sustainable as much as possible. We separate waste, use green energy and try to use as little material as possible. With our hybrid forms of learning, we also try to limit the number of travel movements in the learning programs as much as possible. Our home working facilities and our mobility scheme offer the opportunity to organize this. We try to make our ecological and CO2 footprint as small as we possibly can. We conduct an intensive stakeholder dialogue to continuously test our CSR performance.
Ecovadis
A CSR management system has been set up to measure and continuously improve the performance of our CSR policy and we are also externally certified by Ecovadis. There are more than 50 People-Planet-Profit KPIs that are reported on. We also support several United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
WE ARE VERY AMBITIOUS WHEN IT COMES TO LIVING UP TO OUR VALUE STATEMENTS:
- We deliver a net positive outcome to the world around us.
- We strive to be an excellent employer and pay attention to our ecological footprint.
- We want to add social and societal value for our customers and their employees when they rely on us to develop further.
- We drive our value chain to be progressive and innovate with sustainability.
WHAT ARE WE DOING NOW?
The CSR policy has been formulated in concrete terms and translated into results in the areas of people, the environment and quality.
The first Ecovadis Silver Certificate was obtained.
A very extensive range of facilities for employees to support his/her/their development from the moment of onboarding up to a life stage program during their career.
A lot of attention for the environment: using sustainable energy, separating waste, and making the buildings energy efficient.
Setting up working groups consisting of employees to collect and implement initiatives.
What initiatives are already planned?
- Contribution and initiatives to social objectives.
- Implement ISO26000.
- Sustainable purchasing.
- Expand the setup of a CSR working group.
- Become a better reflection of society.
- Raising the bar on yet another level.
What are the trends?
The pressure on people, both privately and professionally, is increasing. Various crises such as the financial crisis, COVID of course and, most recently, the war in Ukraine and the ensuing energy and refugee crisis as well as the great change taking place due to climate change, are being felt by many.
The shortage of personnel in all industries increased the pressure on individual employees.
That is why extra attention is paid to well-being, stress management, continuous learning of new skills, new leadership programs and organizational culture. The transition to a future-proof healthcare system is only possible if we focus more on prevention and health instead of illness and cure. That is why the theme of health will play an increasingly important role within companies.
A trend is developing in society aimed at sharing and reusing instead of owning and throwing away. Rising prices for raw materials and energy also help. This makes the circular economy increasingly attractive to companies.
Accelerated by COVID, new forms of working and learning have emerged that have been widely implemented in organizations. This has also had its consequences for our company and how people help to empower themselves. Our customers are asking for our CSR vision more and more. Supporting new ways of behavioural and cultural change with technical, didactic and psychological innovations is wildly interesting for us. It is linked to making our processes and those of our customers more sustainable.
