Employee volunteering
Novo Nordisk’s vision to defeat diabetes is at the heart of the company’s employee volunteer programme TakeAction!.
The TakeAction! programme, launched in 2003, encourages employees to integrate the company’s Triple Bottom Line approach into their own work lives. The programme provides an opportunity to engage in voluntary activities and a forum for sharing best practice. All activities are developed and carried out by Novo Nordisk employees during working hours. Activities support the company’s business objectives while achieving social and/or environmental objectives in the communities in which the company operates.
TakeAction! is coordinated by corporate headquarters, which provides participants with campaign materials, tips, tools, guidelines and best practice sharing. It also runs one corporate-wide event each year and presents the yearly TakeAction! Award for an activity that has had a major impact at various levels. The real action, however, takes place locally – in affiliates, at sites, or in the various departments at corporate headquarters.
Performance 2006
TakeAction! activities are as varied and creative as the people who make them happen. These are just a few examples from 2006 of how employees are living the Novo Nordisk values:
Switzerland: teaching children about health
During a ‘health week’ at a local school, eight Novo Nordisk employees at the Swiss affiliate became temporary teachers, inventing entertaining and health-related activities that integrated into the school’s curriculum. This activity was part of the TakeAction! School Challenge.
Tunisia: supporting a colleague living with diabetes
Novo Nordisk employees at the Tunisian affiliate pooled their resources to buy an air-conditioning unit for their colleague Zuheira. She has type 1 diabetes and found it difficult to eat properly during a heatwave in the Tunisian capital of Tunis.
United States: books for homeless children
In Princeton, New Jersey, Novo Nordisk employees regularly support HomeFront, a local organisation that assists homeless families. In 2006 a book drive netted more than 700 ‘gently-used’ books for a HomeFront preschool and summer camp.
Thailand: awareness of the elderly
The entire staff of Novo Nordisk Thailand helped raise diabetes awareness at a community centre for the elderly in Bangkok. Blood glucose was monitored, advice given on diet and exercise, and the day ended with games and a traditional Thai ‘water blessing’.
Israel: healthy holidays
Israeli employee donations funded Passover meals for 18 needy families in which one or more members have diabetes. Employees not only paid for 18 shopping trolleys of food – they helped the families to shop, giving advice on what products were most suitable for a person with diabetes.
Activities and funding overall
The total number of social and environmental activities amounted to 42 in 2006, and Novo Nordisk employees worldwide raised more than 346,000 Danish kroner for various causes. Policies and guidelines serve to ensure that TakeAction! initiatives are conducted in compliance with the standards and practices to which Novo Nordisk adheres.
TakeAction! Award
Each year, a TakeAction! Award honours the best activity of the year. In 2006, the award was given to Germany, where almost 100 employees organised a large diabetes youth summer camp. More than 650 young people with diabetes took part in the German TakeAction! initiative, which not only encouraged the participants to live their life at full speed but also increased diabetes awareness among key opinion leaders.
The Novo Nordisk School Challenge
Launched in 2005, the Novo Nordisk School Challenge encourages employees to visit their local schools and teach children about healthy living in collaboration with the local class teacher. The programme is part of the company’s ‘Young Voices Changing Diabetes’ initiative. A School Challenge website provides online educational materials, tips and ideas on how to get started, and background information on healthy living and prevention of type 2 diabetes.
In 2006 the School Challenge programme placed a special focus on ‘science theatre’, which combines role-playing and drama exercises with exciting physics and chemistry experiments. The School Challenge framework for this classroom activity is a storyline called ‘Professor Jumpalot’s Mission’.
Worldwide, more than 46,500 children from 21 countries participated in a Novo Nordisk School Challenge activity in 2006.
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.
