3.4 Developing employees

The Emmi Group aims to develop and empower its approximately 12,000 employees worldwide, equipping them to meet both current and future job demands. This ensures Emmi’s job market competitiveness and strengthens the Group’s most important resource – its skilled, motivated and committed employees.

3.4.1 Impact on the environment and society, and opportunities and risks for Emmi

By offering basic apprenticeship and further professional development, Emmi has a significant impact on its employees as part of society. This includes their happiness, health, well-being, performance, employability and economic situation.

Developing its employees also offers Emmi numerous opportunities. Targeted training and professional development enhance the knowledge, skills and competencies of employees. This increases their productivity and efficiency as well as occupational safety. Training and development promote a more conservative use of resources and reduce the company’s environmental impact. Employees who continuously develop are also more adaptable to changes and challenges and boost the company’s innovative strength. If employee development is insufficient, these opportunities are counterbalanced by financial risks in the same areas, along with negative effects on society and the environment.

Continuous skill development and training for employees is therefore essential in order to meet the increasing demands of the market and the expectations of existing and potential employees.

3.4.2 Management approach and goals

Dual responsibility as a starting point

Emmi believes that responsibility for employee development lies with both managers and each individual employee. Emmi employees themselves are responsible for thinking about their future and showing openness and willingness to continuously develop in their day-to-day work, seize opportunities that arise and accept new challenges. Equally, Emmi’s managers must keep the future of their teams or departments in mind and focus on strategic workforce planning. They must also empower, develop and support their employees individually in their personal development journey.

Personal development plans and internal recruitment as key goals

This dual responsibility is reflected in the two goals in the area of employee development. Firstly, all employees of the Emmi Group should have a personal development plan by 2027. Secondly, 50% of all vacancies are to be filled by internal candidates by 2027. These two goals are intended to ensure the broad-based development of employees in the Emmi Group for their current and future areas of responsibility. The aim is to lay the foundations for the Emmi Group to fill vacant positions with tailored skills from within its own ranks and offer its employees exciting development opportunities and diverse perspectives.

Diverse, balanced development measures

Emmi uses the 70–20–10 development approach to promote the entrepreneurial, personal, social, technical and methodological skills of its employees in a balanced way. 70% of professional development takes place directly in day-to-day work, 20% through targeted feedback and reflection, and 10% through internal and external training. At Emmi, this approach begins when new employees first start at the company and is guided by the mantra “Keep exploring”, which encapsulates the idea of nurturing constant curiosity and an interest in new things in everyday working life. Emmi uses structured onboarding programmes for new employees that help them navigate the company’s environment, perform their new duties and continuously acquire new skills.

Excellent leadership beyond an individual’s specialist area

Emmi strives to create a working environment in which all employees feel welcome, valued and inspired, and can access a wide range of development opportunities. Managers play a key role in shaping this work culture. With this in mind, Emmi has been making targeted investments in global leadership development since 2012.

Emmi’s Excellent Leadership initiative launched in 2018 provides tailor-made leadership training for various management levels across the Group. These programmes, which consist of individual self-learning modules and interactive formats, form the foundation for leadership within the Emmi Group. The programmes are specifically included for the onboarding and individual development of managers. The training includes an in-depth examination of Emmi Group’s management principles, the strategic positioning of each manager’s role and the practical reflection and application of individual management styles. This is reviewed annually in the development discussion and adapted to current requirements.

Emmi cultivates interdisciplinary competencies through the biennial Management Practice development programme. Selected managers and specialists from middle management develop their personal, social and professional skills beyond their specific specialist areas. Targeted skills development takes place through individual coaching, focused subject matter contributions and collaboration on a strategic corporate project within small interdisciplinary groups.

Talent development across departments and countries, and succession planning

As part of the strategic Talent & Succession Management (TSM) initiative, Emmi’s HR team works with management to identify talented individuals and key positions across the Group, and systematically plans succession solutions. This enables the Emmi Group to develop and safeguard the relevant skills of today and tomorrow. It also enhances the company’s appeal as an employer, both internally and externally, strengthening employee engagement and loyalty. Great importance is attached to the topics of continuous learning and cultivating a growth mindset.

Apprenticeships as an important pathway for young skilled workers in Switzerland

There is a wide variety of career opportunities at Emmi. Emmi employs staff for industry-specific roles, such as dairy technologists and food engineers, as well as for more general roles, such as commercial employees, logistics specialists and IT experts. Finding suitable employees can be challenging depending on the country, especially for industry-specific job profiles. Apprenticeships are therefore of great importance to Emmi. In Switzerland, Emmi therefore invests in training junior staff in industry-specific skills through apprenticeships.

Country-specific models for future academic professionals

Emmi also increasingly needs employees with an academic background. Skills in food science, economics, business information technology and logistics are in demand. Emmi therefore offers internships and trainee programmes for university graduates as entry opportunities in Switzerland, Italy and the Netherlands.

3.4.3 Developments in the year under review

Progress towards target achievement

By 2027, 100% of Emmi Group employees are expected to have a personal development plan in place. At the end of 2024, this figure was 68% across the Group (57% in the previous year), with significant differences between the three divisions. In Switzerland, 86% (71% in the previous year) of employees already have a development plan. This figure is 70% (51% in the previous year) in division Europe, while in division Americas around 58% (50% in the previous year) of employees have a development plan. The progress made by all divisions in terms of target achievement is attributable to the significantly increased engagement and ongoing focus on development in day-to-day work. It is also due to increased management focus and the emphasis on the relevance of the topic, the numerous Group-wide and locally offered training and learning opportunities as well as the talent and succession management process supported and structured by HR. In 2025, the aim will be to maintain the high visibility of the topic, to make managers and employees more aware of their tasks and responsibilities in terms of employee development, to provide support with suitable tools, and to support the development and implementation of new training and learning opportunities

Across the Group, only 26% of the total 2,408 vacancies at Emmi in 2024 were filled by internal applicants. This remains virtually unchanged compared to previous years. This number is expected to increase to 50% by 2027. There are currently significant differences between the divisions, not least due to the different growth rates and the commissioning of new production sites. In the year under review, 39% (25% in the previous year) of vacancies in Switzerland were filled with internal candidates, 36% in division Europe (30% in the previous year) and 23% in division Americas (26% in the previous year). To boost the rate of internal recruitment, Emmi will strengthen succession management in 2025 by actively tracking internal talent and further expanding talent pools.

With regard to strategic talent development and succession planning, 175 talent review meetings were held in the year under review to discuss 4,140 employees and their development.

Emmi measures progress by means of the following performance figures:

Methodology for non-financial figures 2024

“Development” theme of the year put into practice

During 2024, the theme of the year – Development – played an important role within the business. Many activities and initiatives in the areas of learning, growth and development were launched throughout the Group during the year under review, including the Sustainability Day on 5 June 2024. On Sustainability Day, inspiring stories of progress were shared, ideas were exchanged and new learning strategies and methods were introduced. The success of linking Sustainability Day with the focus topic “Developing employees” is also reflected in the key figures collected for all divisions.

New initiatives for learning through experience

The Emmi 70–20–10 development programme focuses on learning in everyday working life. A number of initiatives were rolled out across the Emmi Group in the year under review that further strengthened this approach. As part of its transformation, Group Supply Chain has turned to new, agile ways of working. Enquiries, problems and challenges can now be handled more efficiently by the team thanks to better use of swarm intelligence and cross-functional collaboration. The mediamatics apprentices at Emmi IT in Switzerland now support other employees as service providers in creating or editing videos, editing images or designing documents graphically. This allows the apprentices to apply and expand their knowledge and skills in real customer projects instead of depending on practice tasks. They also learn how to deal with pressure, interact with customers and communicate precisely. Pasticceria Quadrifoglio in Italy uses voluntary job rotation to align all managers and employees with the strategy, including the vision, mission and values. Interested employees change jobs for one day and work with colleagues from at least two other departments. Emmi UK has introduced an internal platform on which people with specific problems are brought together with people who can provide targeted help and empowerment in this area.

Successful launch of the Finance Academy

The Finance Academy initiative aims to strengthen financial knowledge and expertise across the Emmi Group, particularly among employees who do not work in the financial sector. To support this, the Group is aiming to develop a common financial language, create an understanding of the drivers of value creation and thus create the basis for more informed decisions. A tailor-made learning programme and an e-learning programme have been developed for this purpose. During the first wave of the roll-out in 2024, the focus was on the management teams and their direct employees from all Business Units across the Group. In total, around 400 employees were trained in this way. The initiative will be continued in 2025, and the group of participants will be expanded.

Excellent leadership needs to be learned

During the year under review, 89 managers successfully completed the Group-wide Excellent Leadership training course. The Management Practice 2024 development programme was then launched in spring 2024, involving 16 mid-level managers from nine different Emmi Group countries. The programme will be completed in the first quarter of 2025.

In addition, the new leadership development offering entitled “Emmi’s Cup – how to develop yourself and your employees” was launched during the year under review. Managers should be made aware of the importance of developing their employees, expand their skills and mindset, and become familiar with supporting tools and aids. Over a two month-period, managers receive support through a combination of self-study and synchronous learning sessions guided by trainers. In Switzerland, 46 managers took part in this newly launched training during the year under review. As part of its annual development programme, the Logistics Switzerland division worked together with all managers on the training content of the Emmi’s Cup, enabling them to deepen their development skills and adapt the content to their needs.

Emmi Dessert Italia conducted training for shift managers during the year under review. The 14 participants each underwent four training sessions in two groups on people, the working environment, products, performance and machines. In addition, a project management training course was launched in September 2024, which was attended by 23 people.

Swiss apprenticeships in demand like never before

Emmi Switzerland was able to advertise and fill more apprenticeships in 2024 than ever before. 59 out of the 67 apprenticeship places advertised were filled (previous year: 42 out of the 50 advertised apprenticeships were filled). Emmi Switzerland has been offering an Interactive Media Designer apprenticeship since 2024. In doing so, Emmi is supplementing its training offering and responding to the growing importance of digital media and technologies in the professional world. Of the 37 successful apprentices who completed their apprenticeships at Emmi Switzerland in 2024, 26 (70%) remained with the company. At the end of 2024, Emmi Switzerland employed 145 apprentices, who are supervised by around 40 instructors.

Successful initiatives for young academic professionals

In Switzerland, Emmi employed six interns and ten trainees during the year under review. Five trainees successfully completed the programme in autumn 2024 and all (100%) have taken up permanent positions within the Emmi Group. Counting from 2011, 73% of former trainees are still employed by Emmi. At Emmi Dessert Italia, four trainees are currently completing the programme. Since 2020, nine trainees have successfully completed the programme, of whom seven (78%) are still working for the company.

A trainee programme was introduced in the Netherlands during the year under review. The trainees complete four six-month internships over the course of two years, one of which is abroad. The focus is currently on the specialist areas of general management and supply chain management. Two trainees initially started the programme.

3.4.4 Outlook

In line with the 2025 theme of the year “Growing together”, the agenda will focus on learning, growth and further development. Emmi continues to focus on the two Group initiatives: Excellent Leadership and Talent & Succession Management. The Excellent Leadership conceptual framework, which is currently being revised, is expected to be finalised and communicated. A new onboarding concept is being developed and rolled out across the Group. In addition, a tool for measuring maturity levels and continuous improvement in leadership conduct is expected to be introduced. To support this, a pilot project including performance measurement is planned for one division and one subsidiary. This will serve as the basis for adjusting and aligning the concept for broader implementation across the Emmi Group. In parallel, a competence model is being developed for the Emmi Group. Through a variety of initiatives, managers and employees are being made more aware and empowered with regard to employee development. The Finance Academy is to be further developed in a second project phase. Measures to maintain the acquired level of financial awareness are expected to be developed, in-depth sessions conducted, and a shorter e-learning course developed so that new employees can be introduced to the topic more quickly in future.

Finally, another key initiative is planned in the area of Commercial Excellence. Emmi aims to enhance sales and marketing competencies across the Group and promote greater knowledge sharing.

3.4.5 Further key figures on Emmi Group employees

Methodology for non-financial figures 2024

Methodology for non-financial figures 2024