People – How we work with employees, partners and communities

We are taking action to foster trust and promote diversity and inclusion. Our employees are empowered to be their best and look after their health and wellbeing. And we make meaningful contributions to improving quality of life for individuals and communities.

As part of our materiality analysis, we have identified four key material topics within our ‘People’ field of action: Human Capital Fairness, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, Attractive Employer and Employee Engagement.

Human Capital Fairness

Healthy employees and safe working conditions are the basis for our success. To achieve this, we rely on comprehensive health measures and the highest safety standards.

Our sustainability ambitions
Assurance of 100% alignment with relevant Human Resources (HR) regulations, health and safety standards and freedom of association.

How we bring our ambitions to life

Young independent woman relaxing on grass in park

Health and wellbeing

Maintaining and improving mental and physical health is essential for everyone. We provide our employees with regular training, as well as health services and programmes that support physical, psychological and social health. We help working parents to balance family life with their career by providing company childcare facilities at our headquarters, as well as other childcare services across sites worldwide.

Physical health

Grünenthal employees at Headquarter warehouse in safety gear

Safety first

We have the clear ambition of reaching zero accidents at work. This requires safe framework conditions and behaviour. At our production sites, for example, manufacturing employees spend time every month observing the safety behaviour of their colleagues and providing constructive feedback. We analyse each accident and share the findings with the other sites worldwide. In this way, a wide range of initiatives at Grünenthal aim to eliminate workplace accidents.

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

We stand up for diversity, equality and inclusion. We want to increase diversity and equality in our company, and equip our leaders to act as role models for an inclusive environment.

Our sustainability ambitions
Offer a workplace that mirrors the diversity of society and takes a leading role for equality, diversity and inclusion.
All policies and practices will be inclusive and will encourage diversity and equality by the end of 2025.
Move closer each year towards achieving gender parity in leadership and executive positions.
Increase the diversity of our workforce.

How we bring our ambitions to life

28

countries.

63

nationalities.

>600

new colleagues in 2022.

LGBT, pride, rainbow flag as a symbol of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer pride and LGBTQ social movements in June month

Impact Initiative: Circle of Trust

We are committed to fostering a culture of trust among employees, partners and communities. Our Diversity & Engagement Council defines strategic goals that are linked to the overall Grünenthal business strategy and our cultural mission. It also governs associated initiatives and monitors the impact.

Portrait Sarah Harris Global Lead People Engagement and Development

“We are continuing our journey to enhance our diversity mix and build an inclusive work environment.”

Sarah Harris

Initiative Lead, Global Lead People Engagement and Development

Grünenthal Spain Diversity Awards

Diversity and Engagement Strategy

Our Diversity and Engagement Strategy brings together existing local and global events and initiatives ranging from Pride talks through to local Diwali celebrations and graduate recruitment. By focusing on three pillars, the Diversity and Engagement Strategy provides a clear plan with global commitments to truly empower, inspire, support and engage all of our people, partners and communities.

Three pillars of our Diversity and Engagement Strategy

Enhancing our diversity Driving conscious inclusion Positively impacting our local communities
Enhancing our talent pool through attraction, retention and enablement of diverse talent. Creating psychological safety and belonging through our people processes and leadership. Inspiring younger generations, partnering with diverse suppliers and supporting through volunteering.
+90%

of our Great Place to Work® survey participants in 2022 confirmed fair treatment at our company irrespective of gender, race or sexual orientation.

34%

female share of employees in executive roles in 2022 (vs. 19% in 2018).

Attractive Employer

We want to create the best possible conditions for our employees in their professional and private lives. We provide an environment where people can thrive in rich and varied roles, offer growth opportunities and an extensive range of benefits.

Our sustainability ambitions
Grünenthal is globally recognised as an attractive employer through employer awards and certificates.
Maintain or improve employee engagement scores including Great Place to Work® and Trust Index.

How we bring our ambitions to life

24

In 2022, we were certified as a Great Place to Work® in 24 entities across 19 countries, including our headquarters and all of our production sites.

81%

of our participants of the Great Place to Work® survey in 2022 stated that Grünenthal is a great place to work.

Grünenthal Petra Eich Corporate Design and Executive Events

“Our hybrid working model allows flexibility for working remotely or in the office – which helps to ensure a good work-life balance.”

Petra Eich

Corporate Design & Executive Events Headquarters

Employee Engagement

Fostering a high-performance culture and living our Values & Behaviours is the key to our success. We regularly request feedback from our employees to enable continuous improvement.

Our sustainability ambitions
Constantly improving a working environment in which all employees feel valued, respected, included and empowered to do their best, bring great ideas to the table and develop their full potential.
Offering a wide range of learning and development opportunities, supported by learning platforms that can respond to individual needs and learning styles.
Increasing the participation in local community events (measured through number of hours volunteered).

How we bring our ambitions to life

Working at Grünenthal is about living our values and contributing to the evolution of our company culture every day. We think and act with the patient in mind, we acknowledge that people make the difference, and we join forces to create value. This is how we foster employee engagement.

Results from our Great Place to Work survey 2022

81%

state that their job has special meaning – it’s “not just a job”.

82%

say they feel they make a difference at Grünenthal.

88%

feel a sense of pride when they look at our accomplishments.

Colaboradores Mural Grünenthal Ecuador Todos por un mundo sin dolor

Corporate Citizenship

Improving quality of life for people and communities beyond our core business is an important part of our Corporate Responsibility Programme. We have a long tradition of supporting projects and charities that deliver a positive impact.

Support for people affected by the war on Ukraine

Support for people affected by the war in Ukraine

In March 2022, we donated €400,000 to the Red Cross to support humanitarian relief efforts in Ukraine and Eastern Europe. In addition, Grünenthal partnered with Action Medeor and the University Hospital RWTH Aachen to provide urgently needed pain medication to the region.

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Hands holding up in the sky

Helping flood victims in Germany

In 2021, thousands of people in Germany and neighbouring regions were affected by devastating floods. We set up a relief programme to provide immediate support for people who urgently needed help and donated €400,000 to other relief efforts.

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Second chance for a tree to grow

Support for a food bank through recycling in Spain

In a unique project that combines recycling with support for people in need, our team in Madrid, Spain collected more than 26,000 kilograms of paper for recycling from the office and then donated the same weight in food to the Food Bank Foundation of Madrid. The partnership with this organisation has been in place since 2013.

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