Diversity, equity and inclusion

We are committed to promoting a strong sense of inclusion and belonging among our employees. Therefore, we approach diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) with the same purpose as our other global business objectives and aspirations. While we have always been a diverse organization – we currently span 65 countries and have about 63,000 employees from 141 nationalities – we recognize that our success depends on our ability to foster equity and inclusion. In addition, our DE&I approach fuels our efforts to make positive impacts in the communities where we live and work. We expect our leaders and managers to be mindful and considerate in how they attract, hire, retain, and promote their people. We aim to help every employee maximize their potential, regardless of their gender identity, culture, ethnicity, race, religion or creed, sexual orientation, nationality, socioeconomic and family status, language, disability status, age, mindset, faiths, military service, or political conviction.

We strive to create equitable outcomes and identify and eliminate any barriers that may hinder our employees’ contributions or their access to opportunities or career advancement. Ultimately, we believe diversity inspires progress and strengthens our ability to innovate in all areas of our business.

Roles and responsibilities

The Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer is responsible for our global DE&I strategy and for steering its related activities. In this role, she reports directly to the Chair of the Executive Board, whose Board responsibilities include Group Human Resources. In addition, we have established a centralized Diversity Council comprising high-ranking executives from all our business sectors and selected Group functions.

Our commitment: Industry-wide initiatives and regulations

Our Social and Labor Standards Policy categorically states that our company does not tolerate any form of discrimination, physical or verbal harassment, or intolerance. To underscore our commitment to equality, fairness, inclusion, and tolerance in the workplace, we also participate in industry-wide initiatives:

• Women’s Empowerment Principles
• Inclusion Action Plan of the German Mining, Chemical and Energy Industrial Union (IG BCE)
• Equal Opportunity Charter
• German Diversity Charter association (signatory of the Charter and member of the association)
• CEO Letter on Disability Inclusion

Strategy implementation

In 2023, we continued driving our global DE&I strategy. We accelerated the impact of our national DE&I advocates in our 18 major countries and developed tailored roadmaps for each market. We also published our Premier DE&I Report, providing detailed evidence of our strategy implementation and initiatives.

In 2021, we pledged to our people, partners, patients, and industry to intensify our DE&I efforts and set robust aspirations. In 2023, we demonstrated that we are on track to meeting our 2030 goals.

Gender equity

We developed measures to achieve a more balanced gender structure at various hierarchical levels of our business. We are making consistent progress and have increased the share of women in leadership (roles 4+) to 39% (2022: 38%) and senior management positions (roles 6+) to 29% (2022: 27%) while maintaining a 44% proportion of women in our global workforce (2022: 43%). This means our share of women in leadership has increased by 12 percentage points since 2015. Building on these efforts, we aim to achieve gender parity in leadership positions by 2030. Moreover, we are committed to fair and equitable pay for all employees. Our Executive Board comprises two female members (our CEO and CFO) and three male members, bringing the share of women to 40% (2022: 20%)..

Culture and ethnicity

With 23% (2022: 24%) of our employees based in the United States and 27% (2022: 27%) of net sales coming from the United States it is crucial that we become an employer of choice among underrepresented racial and ethnic groups in this market. Therefore, we plan to increase the share of employees in U.S. leadership (roles 4+) who are members of underrepresented racial and ethnic groups from 23% (2022: 21%) to 30% by 2030.

Additionally, due to our current performance in Asia, Latin America and the Middle East and Africa (MEA), accounting for 39% (2022: 40%) of our Group sales, we aim to increase the global share of nationals from Asia, Latin America and MEA in leadership positions (roles 4+) from 17% (2022: 16%) to 30% by 2030.

In 2023, we developed an Action Plan on Culture, Nationality and Ethnicity as well as a toolkit for leaders and HR to accelerate our progress as regards these aspects.

Inclusion

Beyond our aspiration to foster specific types of diversity and equity, we are accelerating our efforts to create a genuinely inclusive culture for all employees. To achieve this, we rolled out training courses to help leaders reflect on how they can lead more inclusively. All leaders will be encouraged to complete these courses over the coming years. At the end of 2023, 92% (2022: 64%) of our leaders had participated in this training program.

Committed to fair and equitable pay

Our commitment to pay equity is a crucial aspect of our DE&I strategy. To create transparency around unexplained pay gaps and identify their underlying root causes, we started a gender pay equity analysis in 2021. In the first step, we analyzed ten of our largest countries, covering approximately 80% of our total workforce. In 2023, we extended the analysis to all countries, except North America which is planned in 2024. The identified adjusted gender pay gap continues to be less than 1.5%, which is below benchmarks in the industry. We have developed a plan for a recurring analysis to continuously monitor pay data and to take effective actions as needed. These include individual adjustments based on the results of the analysis, as well as educating our HR community on the topic and taking other steps to ensure we make equitable and unbiased pay decisions.

Ensuring fair treatment for all

We do not tolerate any form of discrimination in our company, as stipulated with binding effect in our Code of Conduct and Social and Labor Standards Policy. In January 2024, we published a new position paper on disability inclusion to complement our existing papers on DE&I, non-discrimination and non-harassment. In addition, we have established various reporting channels to ensure employees have a clear point of contact should they experience harassment or discrimination in the workplace or any other violations of our standards. Their first points of contact are their supervisors, HR or compliance teams, and they can also make anonymous calls to our compliance hotline. In the reporting year, our HR Business Partners involved in HR-related compliance case investigations participated in a training and upskilling program to equip them with enhanced employee relations and investigation skills. In 2023, 30 (2022: 20) alleged cases of discrimination or harassment were reported via the compliance hotline and other channels, seven (2022: seven) of which were confirmed on our global reporting platform and appropriate action was taken.