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 2007
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. In 2007, Novo Nordisk continued its commitment to three target areas originally set in 2003:
- 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.
This year also witnessed the re-alignment of the diversity strategy to better address the challenges of our business. Diversity in the organisation stimulates engagement and innovation. Novo Nordisk puts great emphasis on enhancing opportunities for current and future employees and creating an inclusive environment where individual differences are valued and respected. Therefore, our various boards and committees will be aligned in the future to more closely reflect our global presence. There are several specific initiatives that drive diversity within Novo Nordisk, including a focus on women in leadership positions and further embedding diversity into the People Strategy.
In 2007, a conference reviewed diversity initiatives at various strategic affiliates, including China, Japan, US, Brazil and South Africa. This conference also launched a global network that will guide strategic diversity development, share best practices, and raise awareness of the importance of diversity to our business growth and innovation.
Below are additional 2007 performance highlights:
Compliance
An important element underpinning our strategy is preventing discrimination and promoting equal opportunities within the organisation. Novo Nordisk make an effort to monitor the changes in local, regional, national, and supra-national equal opportunities regulation and adjust novo Nordisk’s policies to comply whether a local or corporate level. In 2007, our South African affiliate made a concerted effort to align with the recent “Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment” legislation, which seeks to transform the social and economic legacy of the apartheid era.
Diversity in the People Strategy
At Novo Nordisk, diversity is important in all our functions. Diversity in our product line helps to ensure a growing presence in the marketplace. Diversity of our customer base is a reality of our global reach. Diversity of our employees helps us to manage and understand what we as a company need to do to sustain our growth and provide a workplace of choice.
The results of globalisation and the impact of demographic changes compel us to link diversity and the People Strategy. Embedding diversity into the five People themes will help to ensure that the goals and objectives of the Strategy are achieved.
- To ensure that our future leaders reflect the global world in which we operate, we must make diversity an important part of talent and leadership development.
- To ensure equity throughout the organisation and to minimize subjective ratings, objective measurements must be required of our performance management.
- To ensure that we are able to attract talented people to our organisation around the globe, we must look to all sources of talent, discovered and yet-to-be discovered.
- To ensure an engaging workplace, we must value, respect and use all our differences – maximizing every employee’s potential and contribution to the organisation.
- To ensure organisational effectiveness, diversity must be guide design of the organisation, helping us to build cultural competencies and cross-functional strengths.
Whether it is expansion in China or shifting markets in Brazil, our business drivers are clear. Diversity can help in achieving the success we are striving for by helping HR professionals in all areas of the people life cycle achieve their targets and build a workplace of choice around the globe.
Women in management
The percentage of women in management at Novo Nordisk remains small compared to our overall gender composition. Not merely a challenge in Denmark, attracting, retaining and developing women into management positions can support our growth around the globe. To this end, several initiatives have been launched to help Novo Nordisk achieve its goal of greater diversity and inclusion in the workplace.
In 2007 Novo Nordisk Inc., the US affiliate in Princeton, New Jersey, hosted a conference to help women in Novo Nordisk navigate personal development, career advancement, and work-life balance. The WINN (Women in Novo Nordisk) Conference included workshops on effective communication, building networks and defining success. One outcome is an energized network of professional women in the company determined to help each other meet the challenges women face in the workplace.
In addition to female talent attraction initiatives, development and promotion are vital to increasing the number of women in management positions. The participation of women managers in the Lighthouse and Greenhouse talent programmes is one way in which Novo Nordisk is seeks to accomplish this goal.
There has been a steady increase in the number of women recruited to these programmes. While the precise impact of their participation has not been measured, the number of women in management positions is increasing.
Gender in management
Communicating about diversity
It is an important part of the company’s diversity strategy that all employees understand the value of diversity for the company. Communication initiatives:
- A new intraweb site has been developed that consolidates all the various equal opportunity and diversity web pages into one easy-to-access location. The site also provides links to the diversity sites of affiliates. This site will be enhanced throughout 2008, providing news, employee stories and vital diversity information.
- A special publication on diversity in Novo Nordisk will be produced in 2008 and is directed at both internal and external audiences. It will feature stories on our diverse employees and information on how diversity links to our business success.
- Communicating effectively with all stakeholders, both internal and external, will be given higher priority in 2008.
Stakeholder Engagement
To ensure that the Novo Nordisk diversity strategy is relevant to the business and meets the needs of underrepresented constituents, it is important to engage in constructive dialogue and build networks among various stakeholders. Our internal stakeholders include employees across organised groups, functional areas, levels and job descriptions. Our external stakeholders include our customers, competitors, NGOs and various groups in society. In 2007 Novo Nordisk began to expand our outreach to stakeholders, including:
- Participating in and sponsoring a five-day diversity conference in Copenhagen, Denmark organised by the Danish Red Cross.
- Participating in a “Mainstreaming Diversity” laboratory organised by the European Alliance for Corporate Responsibility on behalf of the European Commission.
- Engaging with and participating in various organisations throughout Europe and the world, including Danish Human Rights Institute, CSR Europe, Mindshift, Catalyst and others.
Stakeholder engagement will continue to be a priority for 2008 as we build closer ties within our business and around the globe.
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, have the right not to be 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 will be supported by a number of implementation measures as described below.
Implementation of Diversity at Novo Nordisk
For Novo Nordisk’s diversity strategy to be effective, implementation is key. Important focus areas in 2008 include building systems of accountability and creating relevant goals. In 2008, we will also:
- Develop a Global Diversity Strategy that links our business drivers to our diversity needs.
- Develop key performance indicators that will be included in the balanced scorecard.
- Facilitate and support of the creation of affiliate and functional area diversity strategies and programs.
- Re-enforce the Equal Opportunities Guidelines.
- Monitor compliance with our equal opportunities policy and all relevant laws and regulations.
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 2007 annual employee survey of the working climate, eVoice, participants responded with an average score of 4.0 (out of a possible 5), indicating their level of agreement with the statement “My work gives me the opportunity to use and develop my competences/skills”. Employees were asked to indicate to what degree they agreed with a set of statements. These included: “Novo Nordisk is leading the fight against diabetes,” “Novo Nordisk’s results within the social and environmental area are important to the future of the company,” and “I know how my job contributes to the success of Novo Nordisk.”
This page has been reviewed by PricewaterhouseCoopers as part of its assurance of Novo Nordisk’s non-financial reporting. Please refer to Audit and assurance for a full description of the conclusions and the nature of assurance offered.
