Being a responsible employer

2021 in numbers

  • 697 Number of employees
  • 680 Number of FTEs
  • 35% Share of women
  • 65% Share of men
  • 225 19 Women Permanent employees Temporary employees
  • 413 40 Men Permanent employees Temporary employees
  • 214 30 Women Full time employees Part time employees
  • 429 24 Men Full time employees Part time employees
  • 6.1% Sick leave total Total
  • 3.6% Sick leave long term
  • 2.5% Sick leave short term

Our employees are the foundation of our success. Valuing and ensuring their wellbeing is a core sustainability pillar for Scandza. Our main priorities are to provide safe and healthy working environments, to be an inclusive organization, and to make sure our employees are given the opportunity to evolve and excel every day.

The Board of Directors holds overall responsibility for our employee’s health, safety, and well-being, and to ensure that all operations are carried out in accordance with applicable laws. The HR director is responsible for the development and implementation of overarching policies and procedures. The top managers in the Management Group hold the responsibility for their business area respectively, ensuring that all business is conducted in accordance with applicable laws and regulations, as well as the Company’s policies and strategies. The CEO reports directly to the Board.

Health and safety

Scandza has a zero-accident policy. The health and safety of our employees has the highest priority and Scandza aims to continuously maintain, improve, and develop healthy working environment conditions.

Our Code of Conduct and CSR Policy provides guidelines for responsible business conduct. Our Health Safety and Environment (HSE)-handbook provides an overview of routines, functions, KPIs, targets, and applicable laws and regulations on HSE-issues. These are all monitored in our management system, which is externally and internally audited annually, and complies with applicable laws and regulations. All employees and others working at facilities controlled by Scandza are covered by our management system.

Introduction to the governing documents and training in HSE is a part of the onboarding process for all our employees. The process is tailored to the tasks of the employee, and it is the closest manager who is responsible for providing adequate training. Additionally, all safety representatives and members of the working environment committee are given a 40-hour HSE-course. All managers are given individual HSE-training.

Production sites have a designated safety representative, additional HSE-training for the managers, and HSE task forces in case of an event. We place great emphasis on exchanging knowledge and experiences across our sites to enhance the health and safety in our production processes. To do so, we have established a working environment committee and a cooperation committee, which each meet four times a year.

Emergency procedures and contingency plans are maintained by Scandza’s head office and are held in each of the local offices and production facilities. General risk evaluations are carried out for specific activities at a company-wide level. There is a local responsibility to carry out the specific risk evaluations relevant to individual sites.

Our approach to identify hazards, reduce HSE-risks, investigate incidents and promote health is explained in the figure below. Health and safety assessments of all sites are carried out annually, and each production site adjusts their response to the nature of production at that site.

The identification of these work related hazards, posing risks to our workers, are identified through our annual risk mapping and incorporated into our management system. We seek to reduce risks of hazards through training, and we are continuously adjusting our procedures according to risk assessments. We monitor the health and well-being amongst our employees and offer various types of health promoting initiatives, such as gym memberships.

All our employees are covered by our health insurance which includes medical, mental, and physical services. All incidents are reported in our management system and followed up according to the procedures in our HSE-manual.

 

“In 2021, we had a decrease in the sick leave rate with 0,1 percentage points from 2020, ending at 6,1%.”

We implemented several measures in 2021 to reduce sick leave and injuries. Among other things, we participated in a national IA (Inclusive Working Life) industry program, made training videos for production employees with a focus on quality work and HSE, and conducted health surveys and follow-up of individual employees in collaboration with the company health service. We have system support with routines for follow-up of sick leavers and employees of several departments and shift managers in the production units for closer follow-up from the immediate manager.

We will continue our work on ensuring our employees’ health, safety and well-being. We monitor these issues closely and follow up any opportunities for improvement diligently.

We invest in our people

In Scandza, all employees make a difference. As an employer, it is our responsibility that they are equipped to succeed and maintain a work life balance. One of our key competitive advantages is the entrepreneurial mind-set of our employees, and the responsibility they are given every day impact our business. Our company culture is based on trust, which is reflected in our management approach and system governing our employees. We strive for our employees to be motivated and ensure they have relevant competence required in our organization.

We implemented several measures to ensure the right competence in 2021. Among other things, we started management training for department heads and shift managers, we conducted meetings for all shop stewards and employee representatives, and had vocational training in companies for our own employees with completed theory and practical tests. All blue collar workers have training plans and a competency matrix to ensure the right competence for all blue collar workers.

Scandza believes that our success comes from keeping talent and developing competency in the organization. We will continue this work through regular dialogue with our employees and providing training and education for our teams to perform to the best of their ability.

We value diversity

In Scandza we believe in diversity in every sense of the word. We do not accept, in any form, harassment, discrimination, intimidation or other behaviour that may be regarded as disrespectful or threatening. This applies to all employees in all phases of their employment – from recruitment and throughout their Scandza career. Scandza encourages women and men equally, to take parental leave and compensates for a significant salary gap during the leave. Scandza had no incidents of reported discrimination in 2021.

At Scandza, we live and breathe for our iconic brands. Many of the brands we produce ourselves in our 9 factories in Norway and Sweden. About 65% of our employees work with the production of our brands in our factories or in our warehouses. The remaining 35% of employees work with marketing, sales, quality and administration / management. Much of the production work in the factories is physically demanding and the majority of these employees are men.

In Scandza in 35% of the employees are female. In the group management 100% are men. To create a better balance is crucial going forward.”

Women
Men
Gender balance
244
453
Temporarily employment
3%
6%
Maternity and paternity leave
18 weeks
7 weeks
Part time employment
4%
3%
Involuntary part time employment (3)
0%
0%

In our survey of activities related to discrimination and obstacles to gender equality, we see that there are many different initiatives in the different production units. However, we see that there is a risk that we will not be able to capture feedback on issues around gender equality and discrimination at an overall level.

At the office level (positions related to marketing, quality, controlling, staff and administration), we see an even distribution of women and men, but then this balance is not reflected in the group management, nor at the management group level. Lack of diversity in management teams is generally a risk with regard to gender equality and something we are working to improve.

In recruitment processes, we ask recruiters to include both men and women in the final phase. Throughout interviewing we request that both a female and male recruiter are present to counter gender biases in the recruitment process. In 2021 Scandza recruited 36 women and 53 men. 

Salaries and wage determination for employees who work at our factories are linked to collective agreements that regulate minimum wage, seniority supplement, supplement for trade certificates and other wage supplements. In local wage settlements, all factory employees will receive the same allowance so that there is no individual wage determination.

An analysis of wage differences between women and men was carried out in 2020. The study revealed some individual cases of wage differences between women and men in comparable groups. This was adjusted afterwards. We are planning to undertake a new analysis in autumn 2022.

In 2021, we implemented several language training programs of our own employees at several of our production facilities. We have active collaboration with NAV and the use of instruments to include people with disabilities, such as work trials.

ARP (4)

HES-work

The activity duty for employers can be described as HES-work (health, environment and security work) in the field of equality and anti-discrimination. All Norwegian employers are obliged to work actively, targeted and systematically to promote equality and prevent discrimination in the workplace. Employers in private enterprises with more than 50 employees must: 

  • Work with equality and discrimination and map wages and involuntary part-time work every other year
  • Explain gender equality and the work with equality and non-discrimination in the annual report. 

Please see our appendix “Likestillingsredegjørelse Scandza 2021 revidert” for our full ARP report in Norwegian.

Click here to open the ARP report.

1All our part time employees have been offered full time employment

2Based on data per 31.12.2021. These do not include seasonal workers.

3The main rule for our employees is that they are permanently employed in a full-time position. The part-time positions that we have are based on the employees’ choices and rights to work part-time. Those who work part-time have the opportunity to move to a full-time position at their own request.

4https://www.ldo.no/jobbe-for-likestilling/i-arbeidslivet/Aktivitets-og-redegjorelsesplikten/employers-activity-duty-and-the-duty-to-issue-a-statement/