Employee
relations

OUR NEW BETTER 

When we launched our Cultural Drivers, it was impossible to imagine that this set of guidelines could be even more relevant in 2020. During times of global uncertainty, remote work, and adapting operations and routines for those who needed to stay in the units, Suzano’s organizational culture proved to be powerful and capable of expanding the dialogue, creating alternatives, and moving forward in the midst of an unprecedented and volatile scenario for everyone. In this context, we understand that flexibility is the key word. 

Our people are an essential part of what Suzano is today. Employees are a priority relationship audience with whom we share the value created by our businesses. For this reason, and despite the extra challenges that the pandemic has imposed on everyone, we enforced the collaborative spirit that unites the company, facing the moment with resilience and continuing all projects that aim to develop employees in our organization.

PERCENTAGE OF COMPANY EMPLOYEES AND CONTRACTORS

Total number of employees
by region in 2020¹

COVID-19 Task Force

Faced with the new and unexpected, we decided it was time to use all our ability to work together with customers, partners, and governments to make a difference in the regions where we operate. Thus, we organized two different work fronts to face the challenges of COVID-19. One of them is much more focused on practical actions on a daily basis (short term), and the other focuses on analyzing future possibilities (long term). The two complementary groups brought together representatives and several areas of the company with the purpose of finding solutions related to the impacts of the pandemic.

Short-term vision

From the start, this group discussed and structured initiatives focused on disease prevention protocols. They determined the suspension of all non-essential operational activities of company employees and contractors and the cancellation of trips, events, visits to the units, and face-to-face meetings.

Those who did not need to be in person at the units for the continuity of operations started to work from home, following the social distancing guidelines and, later, they could choose to return to the workplace, according to the schedule established by the governmental agencies.

In the case of employees whose presence is essential in operations, since our products are essential for people’s lives and for fighting the pandemic itself, the company adopted the priority action of measuring body temperature before allowing access to our operations; the distribution of individual meals and greater spacing between tables and chairs in cafeterias; the adoption of greater distance between chairs in operational control rooms, with visual signage; and the adoption of quarantine if an employee or contractor is suspected of being infected; among other actions, which continue today.

This front also reevaluated, among other issues, the use of the buildings, identifying which floors were redundant and which could be shut down. See below for other important initiatives:

• close follow-up by the medical team of individuals and their families;

• increased sanitation of common areas;
• application of health self-assessment forms;
• distribution of masks;
• provision of virtual psychological support;
• support channels, webinars on health and quality of life, among other topics;
• tracking of all positive and potential cases, with protocols and monitoring of quarantine;
• lending of office chairs for the comfort of employees during remote work;
• implementation of the Preventive Interaction Mapping (MPI) app to help prevent COVID-19;
• implementation of “golden rules” to guarantee the quality of life of people who are working from home, such as meeting-free days and respecting lunch and work hours;
• communication plan and protocols established with third-party service providers.

On the short-term front, we are also working to transform the situation of the communities in our area of influence. In several locations, we carried out a series of actions aimed at reducing the negative impacts of the pandemic on local society. To learn about these initiatives, click here.

Long-term vision

This front had a group formed by professionals from different areas to discuss the cultural and behavioral changes caused by the pandemic and which will have effects over time. What are these changes and what impacts do they bring to Suzano’s way of being? To what extent will work routines be modified in the long run? How will people relate to others? What is the result of this in an extensive and complex production chain like the pulp and paper industry? These and other issues, in addition to being fundamental in the development of future scenarios, started to determine the advances experienced in people management, which were already maturing since the year before, with the launch of the HRX Program, which puts employees on center stage as agents of change.

A COMPANY WITH A PURPOSE

GRI 102-16

Purpose. A strong and meaningful word. Having a purpose is knowing what moves and inspires us, what drives us and gives us courage to achieve the unimaginable. Knowing our purpose is knowing our role in the world. Suzano understands that the company’s purpose guides its operations and legacy and that an authentic purpose is not created or invented, but rather revealed, because it is an inherent part of a person or organization.

The work to reveal the company’s purpose began in 2019, and we heard from approximately 3,500 people, including employees and external audiences, through surveys, interviews, and workshops. All this resulted in reaching an authentic, true purpose that was presented to employees in December 2020 at an online gathering that also celebrated the achievements of this challenging year.

Inspired by trees, Suzano learned that life is always renewed. Trees are part of the solution to society’s challenges, such as climate change, scarcity of natural resources, loss of biodiversity, and increases in social inequality.

Therefore, the company understands that it has a duty to strengthen this movement of regeneration, oxygenation, and renewal of the world, living the everyday purpose “Renewing life inspired by trees”, the reason of being that connects the company to society and the planet.

Along with the purpose, Suzano launched its new corporate tagline, “Suzano: we plant the future”, which marks the commitment to regeneration that the company wishes to expand, influencing and contributing to building a better and more sustainable world.

Suzano
ESSENCE

The dictionary defines the word essence as the most fundamental characteristic of a being or thing. For our company, from the revelation of its purpose, it was also possible to unveil the Suzano Essence, using the Golden Circle methodology, by Simon Sinek, which connects “why,” “how,” and “what.”

EVOLVING JOURNEY

In 2019, when launching the HRX Program, Suzano encouraged the exchange of ideas for the joint creation of an exceptional employee journey in the organization. The project involved 250 company professionals, from different locations, positions, and areas, and in 2020, this work resulted in a new way of operating, a new structure, and some new People and Management products (described below). The area also underwent digital transformation and incorporated into its daily routine the principles of agility (delivering projects in record time with the expected quality), experience centered on the employee (always listening to internal clients to search for solutions that make sense to them), being data-driven (seeking information and indicators for decision making), and change management and skills for the future (developing skills that allow the areas to deliver projects that will contribute to Suzano in the future).

New structure

To face this new moment, we proposed a hybrid model in the structure of the People and Management Department. We maintained service to the various areas of the company through business partners and added a network structure, which integrates professionals with agile and more collaborative methodologies for the development of People and Management processes and programs. The products coming from this new way of working are connected in four stages of the employee’s path within Suzano:

• onboard and enchant – strategy for the evolution of the employer brand, talent attraction, and onboarding;
• empower and guide – career, performance, development, culture and learning;
• care and value – financial and non-financial recognition and reward;
• debark and leave a mark – departures, Alumni (groups of former employees who identify with Suzano’s purpose and culture) and preparation for continuing a second career or retirement.

Suzano Leader Profile

As part of this movement, we expanded our view on leadership and defined the attributes of the Suzano Leader Profile, which are connected to our Cultural Drivers:

• inspires – has purpose, mobilizes, engages, is a role model (walk the talk), is humble and authentic, generates trust and is reliable;
• communicates – shares and positions, guarantees understanding, aligns expectations, is transparent and straightforward, sustains difficult conversations;
• connects – has a systemic and long-term vision, understands the whole and the parts, knows how to negotiate, promotes collaboration, mobilizes for the best sustainable result of the company;
• transforms – is curious and agile, innovates, stimulates new ideas, values diversity, deals constructively with mistakes, has the courage to change themselves and to adapt to changes;
• delivers – sets challenging goals, is passionate about high performance, works together with the team to promote excellence, is meritocratic, recognizes and celebrates everyone’s success;
• forms people – shows empathy, knows and cares about people, aspires to continuous growth of each individual and the team, forms and develops leaders better than themselves.

360º vision

In 2020, for the first time, Suzano carried out a 360º assessment, which considers, in addition to the direct manager’s vision, the opinions of peers, partners, leaders, and direct reports regarding the employee’s performance (valid for all administrative employees and leaders). The company believes that this is one of the fundamental tools for employees and leaders to build an even more assertive development plan. The first assessment cycle had the participation of 78% of the company’s professionals. It should be noted that the 360º vision, the performance forums (that verify the results and potentialities of the employee’s performance), and other people-development forums at Suzano now explore, in their analyses, the six attributes that make up the leader profile and the Cultural Drivers for non-leaders.

THE VALUE OF DIVERSITY

Suzano believes that a work environment that values diversity and where people feel truly embraced, are treated with respect and ethics, is much more likely to develop the potential of professionals and, therefore, of the company as a whole. It is through the plurality of our team that we can better understand the various demands of the market and society.

This belief has become stronger within the company since the creation of Plural, an organic and voluntary movement that started in 2016 and institutionalized in 2019. The group looks to encourage the internal audience to create and participate in debates on diversity and inclusion, identify opportunities for action, and support senior leadership to keep important issues on these topics on the organization’s radar.

Some of the main issues on the agenda regarding diversity and inclusion are part of the business strategy and are also expressed in the company’s Long-Term Goals, as well as in Short-Term Goals and in the remuneration criteria of our leaders at the supervisory level and above. Suzano has advanced in its journey of diversity and inclusion in recent years, but is aware that there is still a long way to go to reach a satisfactory level in terms of equal opportunities in its work environment and to achieve its goal, which is to ensure a 100% inclusive environment.

Our commitments
Goals for 2021

• Increase the share of Blacks in leadership positions (supervision and above) by 3 p.p.
• Increase. the share of women in leadership positions (supervision and above) by 3 p.p.
• Increase the share of people with disabilities in the organization by 1 p.p.
• Increase the perception of an inclusive environment for LGBTI+ by 1.4 p.p.

Awareness-raising process

To achieve our goals, we structured, among other initiatives, four awareness-raising areas for our professionals, implemented in 2020.

• Training on unconscious biases – mandatory course for 100% of the organization. This course teaches how to identify unconscious aspects related to prejudice and discrimination.
• Training for executives – all senior management and other executives of great influence in the company are prepared to learn how to properly address topics of diversity and inclusion.
• Affinity groups – leaders and other employees with a high capacity to influence are invited to actively participate in one or more of the company’s five affinity groups, organized in all units, and each group has one or more sponsors who are Executive Board members. The groups are:

• Women (gender inclusion)
• LGBTI+ (LGBTI+ inclusion)
• Blacks (ethnic-racial inclusion)
• Generations (inclusion and synergy between different age groups)
• PWD (inclusion of people with disabilities).
• Diversity and inclusion for the People and Management team – since 2020, Suzano has offered training on this topic to People and Management professionals, with the support of a specialized consulting firm.