Our people
In our role as a responsible employer, Mölnlycke’s work to establish a culture of care for our colleagues starts with safety. We achieve our vision of becoming a sustainability leader in our industry with a healthy, safe and engaged workforce which embraces diversity and inclusion. Our ambition is to achieve zero injuries and harm by reaching a leading level of Occupational Health & Safety (OH&S) standards, performance and capability.
OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH & SAFETY (OH&S)
In order to deliver consistent long-term performance and strengthen our safety culture, Mölnlycke invest in visible safety leadership programmes, global employee training programmes and engagement initiatives, as well as maintain an integrated Environment, Health and Safety (EHS) management system.
Our corporate EHS management system drives continual improvement in all aspects of OH&S, including setting global standards, ensuring root cause analysis of all lost time incidents, high potential incidents and near misses, training, annual site improvement plans, and performing internal and external audits. Mölnlycke also incorporates learning across the organisation through monthly dedicated global EHS team meetings and best practice sharing. Our management system covers all of our manufacturing locations, is certified to the ISO 45001 standard, and is regularly audited by an accredited body to ensure continued conformance.
Improving safety performance is based on having robust processes in place and being consistent in applying and improving these processes at all our locations. The core elements of our OH&S excellence programme focus on people safety, process safety, health and well-being, as well as people and physical security.
Security at Mölnlycke is focused on ensuring the safety of people, information, assets and critical business processes against wilful security risks both on site, and whilst travelling. The level of standardisation of procedures, processes and training for personnel dealing with security at all our locations will continue to increase.
We encourage and empower all of our employees to actively contribute to creating a positive OH&S culture. Health and safety committees, composed of managers, safety responsibles and works council or employee representatives, are established at all our manufacturing locations and headquarters. These enable inclusive consultation and participation on the topics of OH&S systems, evaluation and improvement. The committees follow local regulations regarding agenda and frequency of meetings.
We strongly encourage our employees to raise their concerns should they experience or suspect misconducts (breach of the law, of the Code of Conduct or of Mölnlycke policies and procedures). To do so, employees can use the Ethics Hotline (online and phone) which is supported by an external vendor. We have developed policies and procedures to ensure concerns raised by employees are investigated confidentially. Furthermore, Mölnlycke does not tolerate retaliation against employees raising their concerns in good faith, supporting or participating in investigations. We proactively seek to address risks of retaliation by reaching out to employees who are identified as potentially exposed; we integrate more awareness in training and communication to make sure employees can recognise retaliation and know how to react.
Our OH&S performance is continually tracked and reported on a monthly basis, with thorough checks to ensure data quality. Our main KPI for safety is the lost time injury rate1 for employees. We report incidents to local authorities in accordance with national legislation.In 2022, there were zero fatalities as a result of work related injury or ill health, either among Mölnlycke employees or contractors. Mölnlycke also believes that work-related ill health2 is an important aspect of OH&S; therefore incidents are tracked and analysed, and targets are set to improve performance. This will become a KPI from 2023.
1. Based on one million hours worked.
2. The term ‘Ill health’ indicates damage to health and includes diseases, illnesses, and disorders, including those that are stress related.
DIVERSITY, EQUITY AND INCLUSION
We value and celebrate the diversity of our employees, recognising that it fuels creativity, fosters innovation, and enhances our problem-solving capabilities. Being diverse makes us better in understanding the needs of our customers, allowing us to provide them with best-in-class solutions.
We are committed to creating an inclusive environment where every employee can be their authentic self and feel a sense of belonging regardless of their cultural background, mindset, personal styles, previous experiences, age, gender, religion, language, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, education, occupation, socio-economic status or any other unique trait. We empower and support employee resource groups, where employees come together to support a cause through sharing their experiences, providing mentorship, and advocating for positive change.
We believe that all employees have the right to equitable compensation, benefits, and opportunities for development and advancement. To achieve this we ensure that our internal processes are fair and equitable through continuous analysis and feedback sharing.
We strive to create an inclusive and equitable workplace where we consistently recognise, leverage, and celebrate the power of diversity.
In 2022 annual culture survey we achieved global response rate of 87% and an overall engagement score of 80% Letting everyone thrive
By embedding and fostering diversity, equity and inclusion in the way we do business, we become a stronger partner to healthcare professionals and suppliers around the world and better able to provide patients with inclusive solutions that meet their needs.
We are committed to creating an environment where every employee in every country has a sense of belonging and is self-authentic regardless of their culture, age, gender, religion, language, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, education, occupation and socio-economic background. All employees also have the right to equitable compensation, benefits and opportunities for development and advancement.
Mölnlycke US has business resource groups that provide professional growth and leadership development, such as the Professional Women Alliance, African American Resource Group, Veterans, and Be You.
To strengthen diversity, equity and inclusion in 2022 we have:
- identified and eliminated unconscious bias in the company’s people processes
- increased employee engagement with rigorous action planning and specific emphasis on improving well-being of employees
- strengthened leadership diversity through inclusion of gender balance review in our annual talent reviews.
Safety first and on everyone's mind
We encourage and empower all our employees to contribute to a positive OH&S culture. This year Mölnlycke colleagues at the Mikkeli manufacturing site established a ‘safety pledge’ board, displayed in the main entrance area (see picture). All employees contributed to the safety pledge and publicly committed to achieve the objective of zero injuries and harm, by never compromising their individual safety or the safety of their co-workers to get the job done, actively looking for hazards, promptly reporting them, and taking appropriate action to warn others, as well as act as safety role models also outside work.
Timo Saahko, General Manager, Manufacturing Finland explained: ‘A pledge is a practical and visible way to say this is something I am ready to commit to, whether someone else returns the pledge or not. I am willing and ready to prove that this is important to me. Employees came together in their teams to discuss safety and were encouraged to post individual safety related commitments, with the first pledges given by Mikkeli’s leadership team. The board is a living, changing piece of art and a sample of our creativity and commitment. We all are very proud of our safety pledges.’
Making sure everyone is heard
We go beyond offering employment conditions compliant with local labour laws and employment regulations in the countries in which we operate and focus on creating a positive impact on all employees’ wellbeing. For example, Mölnlycke Malaysia offers 120 days maternity leave, far more than the standard 98 days required by law in that country. The company also offers greater rights to short-term incentives while on maternity leave.
The Gloves Business Area in Malaysia is at the forefront of promoting a culture of responsiveness and catering for the diverse needs of employees representing various religions, genders and age groups. For more than a year, informal meetings to listen to employees’ needs and wishes have been taking place between operators at all four Malaysian factories and the Gloves Operations and Sourcing Leadership team. As a result, a lactation room for nursing mothers with all the necessary equipment has been set up. This is very appreciated as women constitute 65% of total Malaysian workforce. The new factory in Kulim Hi-Tech Park also boasts a gym and a futsal (indoor football) hall with the potential to organise tournaments.
We have also launched an employee assistance program, run by a third party, to support employees in dealing with issues like stress management, anxiety, legal and financial questions, relationship difficulties and family issues.
As a result, the Business Area Gloves employees achieved an engagement score of 90% in the 2022 annual culture survey, already substantially exceeding the company target of >80% by 2025.
