Diversity
Novo Nordisk is committed to promoting diversity and ensuring equal opportunities in the company. This is not only an expression of our social responsibility, but also a strategy to ensure future business success. Diversity is important to Novo Nordisk because it allows us to better understand customer needs, attract and retain talented people, and operate more effectively in a global business environment. Diversity fosters an international mindset that enhances innovation as well as our ability to work cross-culturally and expand into new markets. It also gives us a better understanding of the society in which we operate.
Performance 2006
The objective of Novo Nordisk’s diversity strategy is to strengthen our position for sustained international growth by reinforcing the organisation’s ability to benefit from the opportunities of increasingly diverse societies. Since 2003 the strategy has been targeted at three main areas:
- Communicating the importance of preventing discrimination and complying with legislation on non-discrimination
- Attracting and retaining ethnic minorities in Denmark
- Increasing the number of women in managerial positions
In addition, Novo Nordisk has established a number of initiatives designed to communicate the value of diversity to all of its employees.
Below are the 2006 performance highlights in each of the focus areas.
Compliance
An important element underpinning our strategy is preventing discrimination and promoting equal opportunities within the organisation. We make an ongoing effort to follow developments in equal opportunity legislation. In 2006 the Danish non-discrimination law was revised to include age and disability among the categories of discrimination. This change has now been integrated into the company’s recruitment guidelines, and managers have been made aware of the change.
Ethnic minorities in Denmark
Novo Nordisk wants to attract more employees with an ethnic minority background in Denmark in order to more accurately reflect the increasingly diverse society in which we work. As a step in this direction, in 2006 Novo Nordisk in Denmark hired a number of university graduates and trainees with ethnic minority backgrounds. In addition, an extra effort was made to recruit university students with an ethnic minority background to work in part-time student jobs for Novo Nordisk. Such initiatives provide access to the diversity that Novo Nordisk seeks to encourage within the organisation.
Novo Nordisk shares Denmark’s goal of promoting greater integration of ethnic minorities into society. To this end, in 2006 Novo Nordisk established a mentoring programme for persons from ethnic minority groups in Denmark. A group of 19 Novo Nordisk employees from a wide variety of positions volunteered to become mentors, helping the mentees with such tasks as job-seeking and educational planning. This is a pilot project, the object of which is not specifically to secure employment with Novo Nordisk but to promote integration in Denmark.
Women in management
The small number of women in Novo Nordisk’s management is a barrier to the company’s goal of greater diversity in the organisation. A study by the US-based consultancy group Catalyst was undertaken in 2003 to gain greater insight into how to address this challenge. Since then, Novo Nordisk has launched a range of initiatives designed to encourage an increase in the number of women in management positions.
In 2006 the initiatives included a company-wide summit on the topic of women and leadership. Alumni from the company’s Greenhouse and Lighthouse talent development programmes were the primary participants in this international event. Conference results included recommendations to Executive Management on how to encourage more women to seek managerial positions. Another outcome of the conference was the setting up of an internal ambassador network that will help shape company initiatives relating to this issue.
Novo Nordisk is a member of a business forum established by the Danish Minister for Gender Equality. The forum gives HR consultants and staff from a variety of Danish companies the chance to exchange ideas and experiences on how to promote women in management positions. As part of this networking, Novo Nordisk co-hosted an open seminar in Copenhagen on the subject of women and leadership, partnering with the Danish Minister for Gender Equality. At this meeting, major focus was placed on how cultural factors affect perceptions of female leaders in various countries. About 250 people participated in the seminar.
The participation of women managers in the Lighthouse and Greenhouse talent programmes is one way in which Novo Nordisk is seeking to increase gender diversity in management.
There has been a slight increase in the number of women recruited to these programmes. In addition, the percentage of women in management positions has also increased since the end of 2003, particularly at department manager level. While these increases cannot be directly attributed to ongoing initiatives, they are a positive sign of change.
Communicating about diversity
It is an important part of the company’s diversity strategy that all employees are aware of the value of diversity for the company. Communication initiatives have been ongoing, but will have greater emphasis in 2007. Examples include the following:
- A film featuring five Novo Nordisk employees of diverse backgrounds sharing their experiences and challenges was produced for Novo Nordisk in 2005. The film was shown to groups of employees in 2006, and wider distribution is planned for 2007.
- A special publication on Novo Nordisk’s diversity initiatives will be produced in 2007 and is directed at both internal and external audiences.
- The company’s HR staff is a key target group for strengthening the mindset on diversity and ensuring that actions and attitudes to encourage diversity are incorporated into everyday HR activities. In 2006 Novo Nordisk’s Corporate People and Organisation held four awareness-raising workshops for HR corporate staff.
Other diversity initiatives attracting multicultural talent
To broaden the base of talent recruitment from universities around the world, and thus increase diversity among Novo Nordisk employees, Corporate People and Organisation is now actively seeking best practice from graduate programme managers in the company's affiliates. A networking meeting of gradutate programme managers was held in March 2006 at which participants exchanged ideas on how best to promote Novo Nordisk as a preferred employer. The meeting will be held again in 2007.
Greater job opportunities for the disabled
Since 2003 Novo Nordisk has had a broad partnership with the Danish Council of Organisations of Disabled People. The shared goal is to contribute to the creation of greater employment opportunities for the disabled. One result was the setting up of an information and job portal for the disabled in collaboration with other Danish companies. In 2007 another initiative within this partnership will aim at raising awareness among Novo Nordisk employees of the needs of this group. This will entail visits to the company by disabled persons to talk about their jobs and to convey the message that disabled employees can be a benefit rather than a hindrance to business.
Novo Nordisk's approach
The foundation of Novo Nordisk’s approach to diversity is guided by the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. People seeking employment with Novo Nordisk, or those already employed with the company, are not discriminated against because of their background in respect of gender, sexual orientation, age, disability, marital status, religion, colour, race, ethnic origin or political orientation. Novo Nordisk works to ensure equal opportunities with regard to recruitment, conditions at work, remuneration, training and promotion, and termination of employment.
Novo Nordisk’s Equal Opportunities and Diversity Strategy is supported by a number of implementation measures as described below.
Implementation of Novo Nordisk’s diversity strategy
- Business areas have an action plan to promote equal opportunities and diversity.
- Diversity training for managers consititutes part of their overall management training.
- An internet-based diversity and equal opportunities toolbox aims to raise awareness of equal opportunities issues among all employees.
- There are equal opportunities guidelines for managers and a code of conduct for all employees.
- A senior policy (for employees in Denmark) is integrated in Novo Nordisk's general human resource policy describing issues such as development and maintenance of qualifications, competences, productivity, flexibility and job satisfaction.
Ensuring diversity and equal opportunities is included in the company's Balanced Scorecards. All senior vice presidents must develop an action plan for identifying and addressing diversity issues relevant to their part of the organisation.
Employee surveys
eVoice, the annual employee survey of the working climate, measures how Novo Nordisk employees perceive the level of diversity and equal opportunities within the company. In the 2006 eVoice survey, participants (representing 79% of total employees) responded with an average score of 3.9 on a scale of 1 to 5 (with 5 being the highest score), indicating their level of agreement with the statement ‘People from diverse backgrounds have equal opportunities (hiring, promotion, training etc) at Novo Nordisk, regardless of gender, race, way of thinking etc’.
This page has been assessed by PricewaterhouseCoopers as part of its assessment of Novo Nordisk’s statement that it reports ‘in accordance’ with GRI. Please refer to Audit and assurance for a full description of the nature of assurance offered.
