Nutreco  |  Culture Change Project

Nutreco is a R&D and manufacturing company of high end animal feeds for poultry, swine and beef as also aqua feeds for salmon, shrimp, Tilapia and more. It has a manufacturing presence in 35 countries and employs over 12.500 FTE.

Throughout the years Nutreco, then stock listed, has acquired many companies, all maintaining their own management teams and brands. The One-Nutreco program was initiated, gearing towards one company, one brand, standardized HR, Finance and IT processes and procedures. There was also a mixed bag of various values and cultures, but not the same. After the 4 values (Innovation, Capable, Collaborative and Caring) were determined, a global culture change program was put in place.

Together with a HR manager and a HR assistant (with a marketing background), we crafted a global approach towards the culture change program which consisted of a big bang kick-off. All employees in all countries participated in cross functional and cross job-level full day workshops. Workshops included games, break-out groups, comparisons of top-tier company values etc. Gadgets, virtual post-its followed post kick-off. Per location Culture Champions were installed (reporting into the Country Manager on the topic), monthly regional calls, buddy system and more. Project in full swing for a year, Culture Champions in place for 5 years. Annual performance cycle adjusted to include culture/values in the appraisal and the bi-annual 360 for senior management (400 managers) was based on the behaviors that were defined around the values.

The outcome of all the activities is that the values became an integrated part of the business, that the organization lived by values and that they became part of our day-to-day language.

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