(English) Best Practices

The Research and Production center of the Łódź University of Technology "ICHEM" is a manufacturing company, established in Łódź in 1988 and operating in the field of dietary supplements and medical devices. ICHEM currently employs 110 qualified employees,

who pursue the company's goals with passion and commitment. ICHEM implements its business objectives based on accordance with the adopted Quality Policy. Over the past few years, the company has been focusing most of its attention on the well-being of its employees and community involvement.

Over the past few years, the company has conducted numerous pro-social activities. It has built positive relations with its employees, helped various organizations, and engaged in a number of initiatives having a positive impact on the environment. The company's dynamic growth caused the management to recognize the need for sustained and planned CSR activities, contributing to both increasing the company's competitiveness and improving its image. The goal set by the management was to systematize and increase the effectiveness of activities in this area.

ICHEM has implemented measures to improve relations within the company and treat employees in the best possible way. As the company grew, there was a need to continually improve the satisfaction of stressed employees. First, the company did a compensation audit and employee satisfaction survey to determine a starting point for further action. It also improved internal communication. The remuneration audit made it possible to objectively assess the company's functioning principles, components and forms of remuneration, and provided management with answers to the question of whether the remuneration system is effective and contributes to raising labour efficiency. In turn, the survey of attitudes and opinions among employees took place in the form of a dialogue and enabled the staff to influence the employer's actions and decisions. On this basis, a corrective and development action plan was created. On the other hand, the anonymous survey concerned, among other things, the price of relations with superiors, the company's image, the level of satisfaction with remuneration, ties with the company, work organization and relations with co-workers. The next step was to launch a platform for communicating with staff and streamlining the employee management process.

By implementing the company's sustainability strategy, the company has managed to achieve such results as:

• measures to increase the efficiency of

material and energy,

• reducing waste and streamlining production processes,
• use of renewable energy sources,
• training projects,
• financing a company sports team,
• cooperation with universities in Łódź,
• internships for the unemployed,
• financial and material support for organizations

public benefit.

CSR activities aimed at employees not only improved cooperation with the workforce, but also improved the company's image as an entity that cares about human capital. They also had a positive impact on increasing the efficiency of the production process, which depends very much on employees and their productivity. In the future, the company intends to continue its CSR activities and develop further ones, in accordance with the goals and directions set out in the in the developed strategy.

The Research and Production center of the Łódź University of Technology ICHEM has been awarded the CERTIFICATE OF BUSINESS RELIABILITY for the years: 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014.

At the referenced company, one of the key areas of action urgently needed to be implemented was human resources management and raising the level of satisfaction of the company's employees. It was important that everything was done in a balanced way that treated all employees equally. The company's responsibility in this area is to work on the aspects that are most important from the employees' point of view, such as the level of compensation, the quality of communication, the atmosphere in the team, the relationship with superiors and work planning.

An important aspect, if not the most important aspect in carrying out such changes, is respect for workers' rights. At the same time, these changes contribute to improving the company's production-related performance.

ICHEM. (n.d.). CSR. Retrieved from: https://www.ichem.com.pl/pl/csr/

ICHEM. (n.d.). O nas. Retrieved from: https://www.ichem.com.pl/pl/o-nas.html