2020 GROUP SUSTAINABILITY REPORT



1 One employee identifies as non-gender specific
Note: The people numbers given here differ from those supplied in the annual integrated report as the numbers in the latter are supplied by Finance which calculates numbers differently from Human Resources (HR). Those given here are supplied by HR.

United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) Principle 1:

Business should support and respect the protection of internationally proclaimed human rights; and

UNGC Principle 2:

make sure their own corporations are not complicit in human rights abuses

UNGC Principle 3:

Businesses should uphold freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining;

UNGC Principle 4:

the elimination of all forms of forced and compulsory labour;

UNGC Principle 5:

the effective abolition of child labour; and

UNGC Principle 6:

the elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation.

Read more: https://www.unglobalcompact.org/Letter from our CEO to the UNGC at
https://www.sappi.com/2020GSDR-UNGC-letter

Closing the gender gap at Carmignano Mill

Sappi is on a journey towards greater diversity and inclusion, cultivating a culture where all people can realise their potential. Carmignano Mill in Italy is helping to show the way. While women have traditionally been underrepresented in our industry, the mill is working to close this gender gap.

In 2020, women comprised 60% of new hires in 'white collar' roles spanning from innovation and process engineering to supply chain and customer service. Across Sappi Europe progress is also being made to attract more women to management roles. Since 2019, the proportion of women in management roles has increased from 13.6% to 16%.


Promoting diversity and inclusion

A diverse workplace benefits different skill sets and backgrounds, as well as unique ways of doing things and divergent ways of thinking innovatively. These in turn enhance our ability to service diverse, rapidly evolving global markets. We celebrate our differences and strive to create a workplace free from discrimination and harassment; acknowledging and accepting differences among our people in age, nationality, class, ethnicity, gender, physical ability, race, sexual orientation and spiritual practice.

We view diversity as a key driver that enhances our competitiveness and sustainability and contributes to a thriving world. Accordingly, we have established a 2025 target to promote gender diversity. In addition, under our SSA 2025 targets we are striving to enhance our BBBEE-related performance, which includes goals for racial diversity.

Improving the lives of others

We work to improve the lives not only of our own people, but also those of our neighbouring communities through targeted social investment, social impact and shared value programmes. Read more: Sharing value with communities. We also improve the lives of our customers by offering a wide range of products based on natural, renewable resources.

Monitoring turnover and new hires

Staff turnover is the result of retirements, resignations or changed business requirements. This brings new people with new skills into the business to drive innovation and a fresh approach while maintaining a certain level of continuity. However, there are costs to constant turnover, and employees who grow with Sappi add value based on their institutional knowledge and their understanding of our culture, customers and products. Accordingly, we monitor turnover very carefully. Our global voluntary and involuntary (total) turnover rate for 2020 was 6.62% (2019: 7.64%).

Recompensing fairly

Our labour standards ensure that our remuneration practices are fair, with compensation levels set to reflect competitive market practices and internal equity as well as company and individual performance.

In all three regions, labour is sourced on the open market. In rural areas, forest products companies like ours are often the only, or major, employers that makes the local population very dependent on the company and that could, in turn, lead to exploitative behaviour and an indirect form of forced labour. Recognising this, we ensure we pay market-related wages in line with or above local legislation.

A recent PWC survey highlighted some interesting perceptions that are relevant to the world of work. Respondents' views were as follows:

  • 73% think technology can never replace the human mind
  • 37% are worried about automation putting jobs at risk – up from 33% in 2014
  • 23% say 'doing a job that makes a difference' is most important to their career
  • 25% say their ideal employer is an organisation with values matching their own
  • 74% are ready to learn new skills or completely retrain in order to remain employable in the future
1 Workforce of the future: The competing forces shaping 2030, published by PWC and available at:
  https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/services/people-organisation/workforce-of-the-future/workforceof-the-future-the-competing-forces-shaping-2030-pwc.pdf

Income differentials between genders 2020

  Female
comparative
ratio		   Male
comparative
ratio		   Number of employees
included in the
calculation
SEU 90%   99%   1,081
SNA 106%   107%   726
SSA 114%   115%   2,705
Sappi group 105%   110%   4,512

When assessing income differentials we compare the person's salary to the midpoint of the salary scale for that level of position. For the purpose of gender income parity, we look for a close match between male and female. From on overall point of view there is a small pay gap between male and female with males being paid on average 10% above the salary scale midpoint and females 5% above the midpoint.

Please refer to Our 2020 People indicators on www.sappi.com/2020GSDR-People-indicators for tables detailing

  • Total workforce by level and gender
  • Gender split per region
  • Workforce profile by gender and nature of employment
  • Workforce by minority group (numbers)
  • Gender and age split at executive level
  • New hires (internal and external) by age group, gender and region
  • New external hires: gender percentages
  • All exits: voluntary and involuntary
  • Voluntary exits as a percentage of permanent employees (voluntary turnover)
  • Voluntary exits only (resignations)
  • Absenteeism rate by gender and overall
  • Total turnover rate (voluntary and involuntary)
  • Voluntary turnover by gender – voluntary exits as a percentage of the number of employees per gender
  • Voluntary and involuntary exits by gender, age category and region