People – Our employees, partners and communities
How can we have a positive impact on the lives of the people we work with, our partners and wider society? Find out what we do to foster trust and promote diversity and inclusion, how we empower our employees to be their best and look after their health and wellbeing, and how we contribute to improving quality of life for the people and communities around us.
Overview of measures
- Strengthen activities to increase a culture of trust and psychological safety; maintain a high level of employee engagement. We offer a range of opportunities to engage in dialogue with our management, for example in regular Global Town Hall meetings.
- Establish a Diversity & Engagement Council; set diversity targets and ensure all policies and practices are inclusive.
- Create a global framework to enable all employees to participate in further driving our purpose; cooperate with external partners who share our ambitions in ethics, human rights and diversity.
| Material Topic | Our Ambitions / KPIs for 2022 |
| Human Capital Fairness | Assurance of 100 percent alignment with relevant Human Resources regulations, health and safety standards, and the freedom of association. |
| Equality, Diversity and Inclusion | Establishing a Diversity & Engagement Council by the end of 2022. |
| Offer a workplace that mirrors the diversity of society and is an Equality, Diversity and Inclusion role model. | |
| All policies and practices are inclusive and encourage diversity and equality by end of 2025. | |
| Attractive Employer | Grünenthal is globally recognised as an attractive employer via awards and certificates. |
| Employee Engagement |
Constantly improving a working environment where all employees feel valued, respected, included and empowered to do their best, bring great ideas to the table and develop their full potential. |
| Offer a wide range of learning and development opportunities, supported by learning experience platforms that can respond to individual needs and learning styles. |
Impact initiative: Circle of Trust
Trust is the foundation for engaging our employees and partners to create a positive impact on society. The establishment of a Diversity & Engagement Council to foster a culture of trust among employees, partners and the community is an important step in that direction.
Diversity & Engagement Council
Our guiding principles
- Diversity and Inclusion is a business imperative embedded in our company values and behaviours.
- It is our collective responsibility to respect and support diversity in the workforce and among the partners we work with.
- We recognise that effective teams are diverse teams where different views, ideas and experiences are valued and encouraged.
- Diversity and Engagement are essential to our innovation and success.
Our focus areas
- Maintain high levels of engagement throughout the organisation.
- Promote a more diverse and inclusive workplace.
- Strengthen Grünenthal’s Employer Brand and Employer Value Proposition.
- Leverage Diversity and Engagement in partnership with customers, suppliers, and communities.
Diversity drives innovation
Strong and diverse leaders are the foundation for an innovative business. We empower our employees to make a positive impact on the results we achieve and on the lives of the patients we serve. We do this by encouraging all of our employees to innovate in every possible way – whether by building our pipeline or implementing new ideas to drive performance along the value chain. It is fundamental to this process that we strive to harness different perspectives, talents and ideas.
Highlights 2021
500+
talented people joined our company worldwide
61%
of our senior leadership vacancies were filled by internal talents and successors
59
nationalities joining forces
28
countries across Europe, Latin America and the US
41%
women in leadership positions
Our commitment to our employees
As a global player in a fast-paced, ever-changing market environment, our business success is only made possible by our people. Their ambition, talent and commitment drive our efforts to strengthen our position as a cutting-edge pharmaceutical company. It is our goal to maintain high levels of engagement with our workforce and to strengthen our company as a Great Place to Work®.We promote a vibrant, high-performance culture that is founded on a shared set of values. These guide our behaviours and decision-making – as individuals and as an organisation. 
Development, empowerment and engagement
Empowered people are the driving force of business. At Grünenthal, we implement individual development plans that build on each individual’s strengths in close alignment with the company’s strategy. We also recognise and reward outstanding results and celebrate exceptional contributions each year with our Grünenthal Global Excellence Award.
Our regular employee satisfaction survey and leadership feedback survey provide us with continuous and actionable feedback. Employees can also tell us anonymously what they think about our culture and leadership approach through our Great Place to Work® survey. It gives us a clear benchmark of where we stand and allows us to track our progress.
Safety first
One fundamental aspect always remains important: safety first. We are continuously developing preventative measures to improve the level of occupational safety. With every step, however small, in the direction of education, we have the clear ambition of reaching zero accidents. This requires safe framework conditions and safe behaviour. Every accident is one too many. We actively search for unsafe situations 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 it with the other sites worldwide. Prevention is a worthwhile investment. Through this initiative and others, we aim to reduce accidents at work to zero. In 2022, Grünenthal reported no employee or contractor fatalities.
Health and wellbeing
No company can flourish without ensuring the health and wellbeing of its employees. We take a comprehensive approach, offering programmes and training across the countries we operate in. For everyone, maintaining and improving mental and physical health is essential. We support our employees with regular training workshops. For working parents, balancing family life and career is a daily challenge. We help by providing company childcare facilities at our headquarters and other childcare services at some of our other sites.
For more information about our people and culture, please take a look at our Grünenthal Reports 2022/23
Corporate Citizenship
Improving the quality of life for people and communities 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
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.
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.
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 1,788 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.