Knauf

About Knauf

Knauf began as an idea from two brothers and has grown into a global industry leader spanning 90 countries, multiple brands and with more than 41,500 employees worldwide. Through our people and state-of-the-art plants, we produce high-performing solutions ranging from drywall systems, and plasters materials all the way to external thermal insulation composite systems.

Company culture

Knauf has been operating in the UK for the past 30 years, growing in people and turnover year on year. We have a high amount of long servers who have been with us from day one. However, the way we work and how we do things has evolved. Through innovative initiatives, to drive our culture and engagement in all our people activities from hire to retire, we strive to ensure that everyone’s journey here at Knauf is empowering, by creating a sense of belonging. Safety and wellbeing have been a crucial focus to ensure that no one leaves work worse than when they came in. It is our unwavering dedication to promoting employee well-being, professional growth, and work-life balance that makes us different. Over the past few years this has included an onsite counsellor, as well as bespoke wellbeing offerings, because we recognise that not everyone’s needs are the same. We have created a workplace where every voice is heard, valued, and respected.

We recognise that our culture goes beyond internal practices, positively impacting communities and society at large and that is why we offer every employee 3 days volunteering leave.

Employee benefits and perks

Our innovative Planned Retirement Scheme embraces our aging workforce’s wealth of experience by facilitating seamless knowledge transfer to successors and apprentices. It fosters rewarding mentoring experiences for retirees, whilst promoting reverse mentoring, fostering a culture of continuous learning and growth within Knauf. This initiative not only preserves invaluable wisdom, but also cultivates a dynamic environment where diverse perspectives thrive.

Other Benefits:
Birthday Day Off
Health Care Cash Plan
Tech and Cycle Scheme
Volunteering Days
16 weeks sick pay
Income Protection
Enhanced Maternity Pay
Fertility Paid Leave
EAP
Onsite Councillor
Agile Working
Competitive pension contribution
Free Feminine Care Products – available at all sites

Career development and growth

Our people strategy is to ensure that we are a great employer for great people. This is evident in our robust training. With a sustainable succession target aiming for over 70% of leaders and specialists developed internally, our commitment to nurturing talent is unwavering. Complementing our established processes, we have three leadership programs which are tailored to aspiring managers through to experienced leaders. Our Aspiring People Manager Programme was developed in-house, preparing those identified as our next people managers for the role before they move into it. Additionally, the introduction of a new Global Learning Management System provides employees with on-demand access to a diverse range of courses, further enriching our learning culture.g and development initiatives.
Year on year we grow our apprenticeships scheme, offering a wide range of opportunities. Further adding to our social value with our work experience offering.

EDI (equity, diversity & inclusion) initiatives

In 2023 we focused on educating and promoting Dignity at Work throughout our diverse workforce at Knauf. In 2024 we will build on this with our ‘Every Word Matters Campaign’. The campaign encourages all employees to think carefully about how they communicate with their colleagues and if they are not sure of the words they are about to use, to pause before they say or write it. The onus being on creating inclusivity in our language, as well as with our actions. Improving Equality, Diversity and Inclusion involves an ongoing journey of education and growth for us all.

Having rolled out our Global Purpose at Knauf, the purpose is to ‘make tomorrow a home for all of us’. A large part of the purpose is about ED&I and forms a key global ambition. We rolled the company purpose out to all employees in workshops, reaching employees face to face on plant communication days and at our commercial conference. The sessions included ED&I practical activities to bring to life how we are all different but have commonalities we wouldn’t have expected. We also implemented Knauf Futures, a programme that celebrated different generations working side by side.

Every year we celebrate a number of awareness campaigns. Further, we are one of the founding partners of the Construction Inclusion Coalition (CIC) which was established in 2023 by leading organisations in the industry that want to make a positive change to improve equity, diversity and inclusion across the sector.

Disability Confident Employer Certification – Level 1

Sustainability / environmental stewardship

Our global sustainability strategy aligns with our aspirations, emphasising employee’s roles in environmental and social contributions. Customer focused initiatives like the ‘take it back scheme’ for recycling plasterboard underscore our commitment to sustainability and innovation, benefiting both our customers and the environment.