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Operational excellence leadership
Safety and environmental risks are lower, but continue to be a key focus area
Vopak continues to give safety the highest priority as we care about people and the environment. In addition, incidents can also affect our license to operate and harm our reputation. Through various programs during 2010 focusing on leadership, safety awareness, safety behavior and bottom-up improvements, our safety attitude has further progressed. Also our terminal health assessments (THA’s) stimulate continuous improvements. Our ambition and targets are aimed at realizing further enhancements in the near future.
Safety is non-negotiable. It is the cornerstone of our business operations, and is also required of our contractors. Our safety KPI’s improved compared to last year. Despite the high level of activities, and the number of expansion projects at existing terminals (Brownfields), we assessed a decreasing trend in the safety and environmental risks. Exceptions to this decreasing trend are the contractors’ Lost Time Injuries (LTIs) in the Oil EMEA and Latin America divisions. We continue to emphasize the importance of health, safety and the environment through internal communications, training courses on visible leadership and the sharing of best practices.
Clear sustainability vision and targets for the near future
During 2010, we further aligned our strategy and goals on sustainability with the overall Vopak strategy and we already managed to achieve further management commitment, energy savings and more attention to the development of our people. The section about Sustainability on this website provides further details on this strategy and on the certification of the internationally recognized guidelines of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) to a C+-level. More importantly, the journey to a higher compliance level indicates Vopak’s commitment to be truly focused on people, planet and profit.
Risk of insufficient number of people and of people without the right competencies
Vopak is a rapidly growing company, meaning that in future years we could be short of sufficient and capable people in key positions. As a company with worldwide operations and as a leader in the independent tank storage market, we always face the possibility that our people will be approached and recruited by competitors or customers. A number of measures are being taken.
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- We aim to take on sufficient people to cover the expected outflow, by offering a balanced remuneration package and environment in which new employees can develop quickly within the organization.
- Our HR strategy has been further aligned with our three strategic pillars. Further development of HR instruments is on the agenda, including Leadership Fundamentals, talent management, performance management based on a worldwide talent management strategy, leadership and management development, and further improvements to the HR organization with more efficient processes and a supporting HR information system. Our succession and personnel policy for senior management is coordinated centrally.
- Previous surveys showed that our employees are prepared to make every effort. Their satisfaction is high, as is their pride in the company and their willingness to stay. All in all, we are trying to retain what is good, and implement improvements if required. This applies to matters such as salary, personal development and opportunities for growth, and work pressure. Our employee satisfaction survey will be continued.
Further, we face the challenge of balancing continuous improvement/growth projects with the potential high work pressure that results from that. Through clear priority setting and support in the personal development of our employees, we aim to realize a balanced match with our high performance ambition.
Integrity, availability of IT systems
The integrity of ‘fit for purpose’ IT systems might be impacted by increasingly aggressive IT viruses (cyber war), affecting our service reliability but also the safety at our terminals. Our current security IT governance is already set up to mitigate this risk, but through the full implementation of ISO27001 we will be even better protected and prepared to timely resolve most issues.
Insurable risks
Vopak’s Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) approach offers insight into the potential threats the company could face. Our insurance policy aims to strike the right balance between arranging insurance cover for the Group’s risks and financing them ourselves, and transferring those risks to external insurance companies. The principal factors underlying our insurance policy are risk tolerance and risk transfer costs. On this basis, Vopak has purchased worldwide insurance cover for risks, such as product and third party liability, fire and business interruption. Vopak’s insured risks are partly covered by a Vopak captive reinsurance company and by transferring risks to the insurance market. The financial credit ratings of the insurance companies involved are reviewed on a regular basis and, where appropriate, risks are spread across multiple insurance companies.
