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 act on the company’s Triple Bottom Line in their work life. The programme provides an opportunity to engage in voluntary activities in the local community or to do volunteer work in developing countries. 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 a forum for best practice sharing. It also runs corporate-wide activities 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, and offices around the world.
Performance 2007
TakeAction! activities are as varied and creative as the people who make them happen. Here are just a few examples from 2007 of how employees live the Novo Nordisk values:
In Brazil, focus on schoolchildren
To celebrate the first United Nations-observed World Diabetes Day on 14 November, 2007, Novo Nordisk Brazil focused on reaching schoolchildren with messages about preventing diabetes. Some 70 employees from the Montes Claros site invited pupils, teachers and principals from 24 local schools to create human circles symbolising the UN Resolution on Diabetes. About 2,500 children took part.
Each school gathered at the Montes Claros central square and presented a spectacular show by forming human circles connected by blue colours. The winning school received a sporting goods kit.
Afterwards, 3,500 participants – including the Novo Nordisk employees, the schoolchildren and another 1,000 people from the local community as well as the mayor of Montes Claros – took a 50-minute walk to mark the fight against the diabetes pandemic.
Novo Nordisk employees arranged free health checks in collaboration with pharmacist, nurse and physiotherapist students from local colleges. They carried out 2,599 glucose tests and 210 blood pressure measurements, along with a number of foot examinations.
When the participants returned to the main square of Montes Claros, Novo Nordisk’s TakeAction! volunteers performed a children’s play from the School Challenge repertoire. In the closing performance, a Novo Nordisk band played the School Challenge song “Take a step each day” in Portuguese.
Rally in rural Ukraine
Employees at Novo Nordisk Ukraine carried out a ‘Changing Diabetes’ rally in the remote Cherkassy Region, a rural community 350 km away from the capital to spread awareness about diabetes.
Awareness of diabetes is low in the region due to inadequate information on the condition. The local population must travel long distances to see a qualified specialist. Often, diabetes is diagnosed too late when patients with severe diabetes complications are admitted to hospital. Most non-traumatic amputations are due to diabetes.
Between 8 and 11 November, each of the seven teams from the Ukrainian affiliate travelled an average of 476 km a day in order to change this situation. The 29 employees loaded 14 cars with medical supplies and spent three days on the road, giving lectures and conducting health screenings. State and health care authorities supported the initiative.
A total of 1,199 persons attended the lectures and 1,300 blood glucose tests were performed, revealing 357 cases of elevated glucose levels. Persons with excessive blood glucose levels were immediately referred to doctors.
Activities and funding overall
The total number of social and environmental TakeAction! activities amounted to 66 in 2007, and Novo Nordisk employees worldwide raised almost half a million Danish kroner for various causes through the World Diabetes Foundation. 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 2007, the award was given to Australia, where employees organised a range of fundraising activities to support The Royal Childrens’ Hospital in Melbourne in establishing a diabetes clinic at the National Hospital of Paediatrics in Hanoi, Vietnam The activity raised 26,000 US dollars and also funded education of local nurses in diabetes management.
The Hanoi hospital's Endocrine Clinic currently sees 170 children for management of type 1 diabetes. However, there are no trained diabetes educators in Hanoi, and there is no dietician with specialist knowledge. Endocrinologists had limited access to the latest developments in the field of diabetes and the ward lacked essential equipment.
Over the course of four months, Novo Nordisk employees raised money through raffles, garage sales, movie nights, e-bay auctions and by creating, publishing and selling an employee cookbook.
The funds covered the cost of necessary medical equipment that the department urgently needed. In addition, the funds enabled a visit from a team of Australian health professionals to educate nurses at the Hanoi hospital on diabetes management, and to provide better resources so that doctors and nurses can stay up to date with advances in diabetes management.
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 2007 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’.
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