Personal, Friendly, and Fair.
With a Can-do Attitude.

That's the Jacobi Spirit.

As a company, our geographic spread is wide. Rather than having a central HR department tasked with everything, there are appointed individuals around the world that work together and form the ‘HR Community’. For this article we sat down to talk to Daniel Raj. Daniel is part of the global HR community or ‘GHRC’ that oversee HR matters globally here at Jacobi Group.

Daniel, thanks for taking the time to sit down with us. Getting straight to it, as a company what can we as a company offer to new talent?

We can offer people the benefit of our experience as a company and our people's wealth of experience too. As a growing company, we rely on the experience of some of our people and the sharing of that experience to help inspire the next generations of individuals. Aside from this, we believe that we can make people feel proud that they work in this industry. Through our community engagement programmes and our approach to corporate social responsibility we look to grow together and, as we often say, do well by doing good.

Another term that we truly believe is that here at Jacobi ‘people make the difference’ and that’s not just our people internally but also the people we work with and the communities we operate in. This mutual relationship we believe installs passion in our work.

That sounds like a really noble way to go about the business, Daniel – great! A few years back a lot of companies were mostly focused on aspects such as sales and profit, whilst those are important elements of business, it’s fair to say we have seen an increased focus on sustainability. Would you say that’s true of Jacobi?

That is absolutely the case here at Jacobi. Sustainability for us rests on three pillars which cover people, product, and planet. Across these three areas we are always looking to promote a sustainable approach, not just for the environment but in all terms of the sustainability spectrum.

For example, when it comes to people, we have a lot of different initiatives and programmes going on in several areas, from labour practices and working conditions to personell development schemes. We want people to be happy and satisfied. We want people to feel that the company they work for genuinely cares about how they are in their day-to-day jobs.

On new recruitment, what type of jobs and opportunities can we offer?

There is a large range of different types of job roles that we have to offer, from technical and strategic administrative positions to specialised chemical engineering roles and process manufacturing, mechanical, electrical. It’s very dynamic.

We also have some very specialist roles that belong to people who are experienced in the sciences and social sciences. There is a lot of amazing talent and people from different backgrounds that help serve different needs of the company. The one shared attribute that everybody has though, is the right attitude.

As a company, we put a lot of focus on attitude. You have to have the right attitude to learn and grow. Skill and knowledge can be taught, but a can-do attitude is critical.

Can you tell us a bit more about the attitude we’re looking for?

Ah good question. It's the Jacobi attitude. We are a flat organisation, we are a matrix structure, and we are not hierarchical. That is to say that either you or me, or even a new employee who has joined just yesterday, can get in touch with our CEO, Remko, at any given point in time. We have an open culture. Nothing is going to stop emails from one person to another.

We believe in creativity and giving people the ability to succeed. We don’t want people to just stop if they hit a barrier. We want them to open up and ask for help and so that is the kind of environment we provide.

This is why we want people who are open-minded, people who have a 360 view and are able to see the bigger picture, particularly when it comes to diversity, and help themselves and others grow.

We are speaking about more than 20 countries with different cultures. How do we adapt our way of working to such a vast range of social norms?

We allow them to be. Differing backgrounds mean differing practices too. When we speak of diversity, inclusiveness is equally important. We respect each other’s practices and focus upon achieving something and not the path. We believe in our people, and we trust and train them.

Let’s discuss the Jacobi spirit. Is there a Jacobi spirit? We believe there is.

There definitely is. It's hard to find the exact words for it, but it’s definitely there. Jacobi people show a lot of humour. I don't doubt that they challenge others but it's in a reasonable way and it feels human. People here are personal, friendly, and fair. And there is a strong can-do attitude. Somehow, it's a natural part of our history as a growing company.

How does someone build a great career for themselves at Jacobi?

When a new person joins us and asks this question, I say Jacobi will build a great career for them. All they have to do is have trust and put in their hard work. Jacobi will, regardless of who the person is, if they have the spirit to learn and grow with utmost passion, build them as a future leader.

With the different kinds of programmes that we run for people, starting from the skill gap analysis and then providing them with training, we don't restrict people. We provide all kinds of training to everyone, whatever they want to do, and if their competency is right then we provide many, many more trainings. We enhance their skills and we will ensure they become a leader, an expert.

We have developed so many HR programmes that guide people through that process to become a future leader. If you look at the last 10 years, we have been able to improve the skills of a huge number of people. People tend to stay with us quite a long time.

Do we have stats to back this up?

I have the statistics of retention. And we see people who have been with us for more than two years tend to stay for longer.

It helps that our company is one of the major players. We are a big company, and we can provide the right environment for people to grow. It’s important that we are a global company but most important that our workforce is diverse. If we had the same facilities in 20 different countries full of robots, it wouldn’t be the same, it’s because we have different people in different areas with the right attitude that makes us so special.

With new innovations and technologies permeating our industry, what opportunities are there in Jacobi in the longer term?

Innovations are critical. Especially within the sustainability area. As part of our Go Green initiative, we are really focusing sustainable development and sustainable engineering and so this area will offer huge opportunities.

From a people point of view, if someone has been involved in the creation of energy from waste materials, or a similar project, we’d be very interested in hiring them. This sort of experience aligns with our sustainability journey and outlook.

“The Jacobi spirit is strong and ever growing parallel with the company itself,” said Johanna Lennartsson, Global Head of Human Resources. “I’m incredibly proud of our people and the attitude and determination they show us on a daily basis and, along with the rest of the GHRC, will continue to help them to grow, learn and progress as the world of activated carbon welcomes new technologies.”

A big thank you to both Daniel and Johanna for taking the time to talk to us. It’s certainly true that people really do make the difference, and here at Jacobi, that means everyone. We all have a part to play, from those in operational or administrative roles, right up to our senior management.