This article was first published on 7 November 2022.
The article was updated on 9 August 2023, to reflect data as published in our 2022 annual report.

We find it important to create a pleasant safe work environment for our employees. Employee engagement is part of the “Our People” category of our ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) strategy. At Fagron, we focus on the following five topics when it comes to our employees:

• Diversity
• Employee engagement
• Health & Safety
• Human and labor rights
• Training & development

Below, we will discuss our approach towards employee engagement.

Sustainable engagement

We find being a good employer important, and we believe in the positive impact on company performance of engaged employees. By measuring sustainable engagement and requesting transparent feedback from our employees, we can set the right priorities, understand our employees’ needs and respond to those needs.

Sustainable Engagement is the intensity of the connection between employees and Fagron. We measure sustainable engagement based on three factors:

• How involved employees feel in decision-making processes.
• How many employees feel that they have access to the resources they need in order to be able to perform their work properly
• How energetic employees feel, based on physical, interpersonal, and emotional well-being at work.

Global Employee Survey

Since 2016, we have conducted a Global Employee Survey once every two years. Part of this Global Employee Survey is a Sustainable Engagement Score. To measure the three factors of sustainable engagement we use a number of standard questions from Willis Towers Watson.

In 2022, we conducted the fourth Fagron Employee survey and 89% of our employees participated! The Sustainable Engagement Score of these employees was 84%, a slight improvement in comparison to the 2020 score of 83% and in line with the global pharmaceutical sector norm.

What do we do to improve employee engagement?

Based on the results of the 2020 employee survey, an action plan was developed for the years 2021 and 2022. This action plan focused on internal communication, employee well-being, and training and development.

By improving internal communication, we hope that employees feel even more involved in decision-making processes. We have introduced a global communication tool (Workplace), and an internal communication matrix was implemented to ensure that communications to the different target groups are made in a consistent manner and via the appropriate communication channels.

Regarding employee well-being, various initiatives were taken, particularly locally, and the general awareness of well-being at and outside of work was increased with the program, “Fagron Feel Good”.

In terms of training and development, among other things, an onboarding program was launched in Latin America. Based on that program, an onboarding program was developed for all Fagron in 2022. This program is being rolled out in steps in 2023.

Based on the 2022 Global Employee Survey, we have set priorities for the next two years. These include leadership (inclusive management culture and feedback culture), compensation & benefits, and the onboarding process. We are currently working on translating these priorities into action plans for each region.

Follow our ESG journey

We are working non-stop to realize our targets and want to be transparent about our results and activities. Annual progress can be followed in our most recent annual report. We also report on progress during the year in the news segment on our website and on LinkedIn.

If you have any questions or suggestions on what we could do to improve, you can reach us at ESG@fagron.com.