Passion for people
Respect for the equal value and rights of all people is fundamental to Coor. Social responsibility for us is about taking responsibility as an employer and engaging in social development at the local level.
Employee engagement
Coor’s employees have a strong drive to continually improve our service delivery to the customer. Coupled with a structured innovation process, this highly developed culture of improvement makes it possible to realise identified improvements. To leverage the full potential of our employees, it is essential that everyone knows that they are seen, that they matter and that they make a difference for Coor. At Coor, we refer to our efforts to build employee engagement as Passion for People.
Read Coor's Diversity & Inclusion Policy
Read Coor's Human Rights Policy
Coor seeks to ensure responsibility in all stages of our value chain. Our stakeholder groups must be confident that the goods and services Coor supplies originate from value chains that safeguard human and labour rights.
The report published on this website is Coor's description of our work with human and labour rights. Through this report, we want to be transparent and give all our stakeholders an insight into our operations and our commitment to sustainability, social responsibility and ethical business practices. Through this report, we hope to give you a deeper understanding of our company's values, principles and efforts to contribute to a sustainable future. We are proud of the efforts we are making for transparency and accountability, and we hope that this report will be useful to you as a stakeholder.
This specific report is published at the end of the first half of 2023 and is part of Coor's ambition for increased transparency and preparation for increasing reporting requirements. Parts of the content will be included in the group's annual report to describe progress and the need for a separate report in the future will be evaluated.
Every year, Coor Awards celebrates the incredible people that work at Coor. Coor Awards are presented in six categories that reflect the areas that are important to Coor and our continued success: Employee of the Year, Leader of the Year, Sale of the Year, Improvement of the Year, Environmental Hero of the Year and Guardian Angel of the Year. Candidates are put forward on all markets where Coor is active, and the final winners are announced in a formal ceremony at Coor’s annual leadership forum.
Winners Coor Awards 2022
- Employee of the year: Timo Manninen, Coor in Finland
- Leader of the year: Tanja Helland, Coor in Norway
- Improvement of the year: Dejan Trailovic, Coor in Denmark
- Guardian angel of the year: Michelle Lagelius Hammar and Ellinor Olsson, Coor in Sweden
- Environmental Hero of the Year: Ewa Praetorius, Namka Sahovic and Eva Herrey, Coor in Sweden
- Sale of the year: Maria Thörn, Coor in Sweden
Meet some of our employees who have been presented with Coor Awards
“We are like a big, happy family”
Tanja Helland was HR Director at R&K Service when it was acquired by Coor in 2021. One year later, she was named Leader of the Year at Coor Awards ceremony.
It was in 2011 that Tanja Helland took up the role of HR Director at the Norwegian family-owned company R&K Service, which provides cleaning and restaurant services. Ten years later, the company was acquired by Coor. Merging two different companies is not always easy, but the integration was successful. From the outset, Tanja Helland communicated clearly to her team that everyone needed to have an open and positive attitude to the changes that would be made when R&K Service was acquired.
“Becoming part of a large corporate group like Coor requires a more structured approach and different working methods than when you work in a small family-owned company with short decision paths,” Tanja Helland says. “The most positive thing about being part of Coor is that there are a lot of people with different skills here who can provide support and help. And we can also benefit from innovation and a structured approach to improvement that we didn’t have access to before at R&K Service. I believe we have a greater chance of long-term success in the industry together with Coor.”
Tanja Helland is a real pillar of the organisation in Stavanger. She remembers birthdays, makes sure that all visitors are served lunch and is always available for questions and discussions; she knows R&K Service, and nowadays Coor also, inside and out, and is passionate about her colleagues succeeding in their roles. The door to her office is always open to colleagues when they need something.
"Imagine that someone noticed what I do, who I am"
Tarik Benali was named Employee of the Year at the Coor Awards: “I was very surprised, happy and proud”.
Tarik has been working at Coor since 2013 and as group leader for cleaning at Equinor Fornebu in Norway, one of Tarik Benali’s most important duties is to create a good work environment for Equinor’s employees by ensuring that their work environment is clean and pleasant. But he is also responsible for making sure that the 11 people in his own group are happy and enjoy their work, and in that regard he certainly succeeds, so well, in fact, that he was named Employee of the Year.
In the words of the jury, Tarik “always shows dedication to his work and creates a wonderful atmosphere wherever he is.”
“Being named Employee of the Year was really thrilling. Imagine that someone noticed what I do, who I am. I was very surprised, happy and proud,” Tarik says.
Why do you think they decided to give the award to you?
“That’s hard for me to answer, but my colleagues say that I am always there for them, ready to help, and have a cheerful spirit.”
It is just over 12 years since Tarik moved from his native Morocco to Norway for love. He joined Coor in 2013, and worked at Equinor Fornebu even then. He started at Office Support and then moved on to cleaning, and today he is a group leader.
What is the most important aspect of your job?
“Everything is important, I think. My colleagues and the tasks to be done. I enjoy working with my colleagues and I want everyone to feel that we are a team.”
2020 turned out to be a remarkable year. Equinor Fornebu’s office was closed, but Tarik and his team continued to clean and tidy the building on a regular basis. Now the office has opened again, but there is naturally still some concern about what the future holds. Tarik is wondering how his job situation and his family will be affected, and what the long-term consequences will be.
“Because of COVID-19, it is somewhat of a challenge to think about the future, what it will mean for us as a company and for our customers. I hope that we are now returning to normal life, slowly but surely. It would be exciting if cleaning becomes more robotised in the future, and if Coor and our clients take part in that journey,” he says.
Energy and passion earned Hanifa the title of Employee of the Year Coor
“Hanifa is a highly creative, positive and inspiring colleague and saleswoman – a model member of the Coor family! Hanifa has a strong sense of morals and always has the customer’s best interests in mind. She is also an ambassador for Coor in every way. A truly dedicated enthusiast of star quality. Hanifa loves her job and Coor as an employer, and that is obvious to everyone.”
Those are the words of the jury which named Hanifa Subasic Employee of the Year 2018 at the Coor Awards. Hanifa herself believes her success is largely due to her ability to see all her colleagues and a desire to make everyone’s work as good and simple as possible.
“Receptionist, cleaner, project manager – for me it makes no difference who you are at Coor. I like to ask my colleagues what I can do to make their work easier, and then I pass it on to the customer. That way, we can meet the customer’s needs as well as our own. I make things happen and I want everyone to feel that they really enjoy being here. It’s a combination of caring about everyone and loving what we do.”
Hanifa started working at Coor as an Account Manager for Vasakronan and then became a Project Manager for E.ON. She is mainly responsible for managing relocation projects – vacating old offices and starting up new ones.
Hanifa says that it is the work itself that motivates her in her job.
“I believe in all our services. We make life much easier for our customers by making their workplace more enjoyable. I also feel that we have a high level of service internally and a broad pool of skills, which enables us to help each other. If there is something I can’t do, there’s sure to be a team behind me that can. Because of that, nothing is impossible for us at Coor.”
Leader of the Year braves the language barriers
“With her own experience as a cleaner, great respect for her colleagues and an ability to communicate that crosses the language barriers, Sølvi Hansen has been named Manager of the Year.”
Sølvi Hansen works as a service manager for cleaning services at the Danish Police. She is in charge of a team of 73 employees from a whole host of different countries and backgrounds who work across a wide geographic territory on Funen and a large chunk of Jutland.
Being available and accessible is an art and sometimes a balancing act. A lot of the communication is done by phone and by text message, but she also has time for physical meetings at the customer sites. A challenge for Sølvi is the Danish language, as she herself is from Norway.
Why do you think you in particular were named Leader of the Year?
“I really understand my colleagues and treat them with a lot of respect. But I also demand results. It’s exciting, and there are always things happening when you are dealing with people on a daily basis, and I have a strong “service gene” that makes me want everyone to be happy.”
Danish is not your mother tongue. How has this affected your work as a leader?
“I have personal experience of getting my languages mixed up, and I think this has helped me to relate to and understand colleagues with a different linguistic background. Sometimes body language is not a bad idea; I often use body language to show how to carry out tasks.
A safe and secure working environment
All employees should be able to work in a good and safe environment, both physically and psychosocially. Coor’s efforts to promote health and safety are based on identified risks and general legal requirements. Coor’s health and safety management is well implemented, governed by the executive management team and developed continuously through the Health & Safety Committee, which consists of the national and Group health and safety managers. The executive management team and national management teams take part in safety inspections in several different areas to identify risks. This is a very important and appreciated effort.
We strive for shared responsibility achieved by perceiving occupational health and safety as a common value. Occupational safety is a matter for me, for you and for us as a team.
At Coor, we live by a fundamental rule: “If we cannot do the work safely, we shall not do it at all.”
Systematic and ongoing work is taking place to further strengthen the safety culture within work environment and achieve established targets through training initiatives and campaigns. One example is Coor’s Life Saving Rules, which you can read more about below.
All employees are encouraged to report observed risks. Risk observations, incidents and injuries are reported directly to the relevant manager, after which a follow-up and analysis of preventive measures is conducted.
The results help us to identify operations where there is a need for training and preventive measures. The most common categories of injuries reported were falls from the same height, falls from high heights and stab/cut injuries.
Examples of initiatives
- Operational monitoring of safety inspections, risk surveys and assessment of injuries to develop targeted risk prevention activities.
- Escalation processes to deal with injuries in all countries.
- Collaboration with customers on safety inspections, training, and supplier meetings.
- Internal and external audits in accordance with the ISO 45001:2018 health and safety standard.
Coor will continue its training activities to raise the level of Safety culture in the company, and to establish a common view and enhanced safety culture in our day-to-day activities.
No one who works at Coor should be at risk of injury. We have a clear vision to achieve zero work-related injuries, and it goes without saying that all employees should have a safe work environment. Everyone at Coor, managers as well as employees, take responsibility for preventing and avoiding injuries.
The Bradley curve
We are using the Bradley Curve to make assessments, prioritize right initiatives, and follow progress.
Coor's Life Saving Rules
When the rules are followed, serious incidents and injuries can be avoided, and lives can be saved.
Coor’s Life Saving Rules can be compared with a Code of Conduct for health and safety. The rules are based on the most common risks and injuries encountered in Coor’s operations and help us to understand how we should act in situations where there is a risk of injury. Coor’s Life Saving Rules address falls, work at height, falling objects, traffic situations, energy isolations, foreign substances, extreme heat and threats.
Coor Society Program
At Coor, we believe in giving something back to the societies in which we operate. Coor Society Program helps to promote sustainable development by simplifying the integration of new employees, and helping those who need assistance and support. To realise this objective, each country runs its own initiatives through local networks. Some of the ongoing projects include: language courses for employees who have recently arrived in the country, opportunities for Coor employees to participate in further education courses alongside their work, mentorship for entrepreneurs in suburban areas, help to join the labour force for the long-term unemployed and help with homework for children and young people in deprived neighbourhoods.
