Danfoss’ global “Safety First!” program established in 2015 is our systematic approach to a safe workplace. Focus is on clear, aligned procedures and processes to ensure a safe working environment and prevent accidents across all Danfoss sites. The program enhances the focus on safety for all Danfoss employees, visitors, and all other people working within or for Danfoss.

Safety shoes and safety glasses are mandatory for anyone entering the shop floor in any Danfoss factory worldwide or even performing gardening or outdoor maintenance work. Hearing protection is also mandatory for employees working with machines with high noise levels and safe walkways have been identified and marked in all factories.

Programs for general safety awareness, safety leadership, powered industrial vehicles, are being implemented in all segments while previous programs focusing on hand & finger injuries, trips & slips, and machine safety are maintained.

The Lost Day Rate (LDR) in 2019 was 28 (the number of days of absence, by LTIs per million hours worked). This is a significant decrease from 57 in 2018. In 2019, the injured employees were absent for a total of 1,223 days, corresponding to an average absence of only 13 days on average per Lost Time Injury.

Danfoss launched the global “Speak up for Safety” campaign in June 2019 to increase focus on potential hazards. We encourage employees to report all potential hazards in their working area so that the cause of potential incidents can be removed.

Once the potential hazards are identified we prevent accidents from happening, and we will make Danfoss an even better and safer place to work. By running the campaign, we demonstrate a “we respect, value and care” culture for ourselves and the people in our lives who depend on us to return home – our families, friends and loved ones.

The engagement from our employees in the largest safety campaign ever run within Danfoss has been massive. More than 5,000 hazards were identified and removed in just six months making incident prevention an integrated part of the safety mindset at Danfoss.

The health and well-being of our employees is important to ensure a good work-life balance and high productivity. Danfoss strives to have a culture where employees develop and thrive in all work-related relationships. It is required that all employees should be able to reasonably balance professional demands and personal resources to prevent long-term stress, and experience that efficiency and well-being go hand in hand.

We want our employees to stay mentally fit. In Danfoss, we support culture, where well-being and the prevention of stress are considered a task to be mutually solved by managers and employees, which is handled through an open dialogue.

Our global Medical Health Center advises our employees on travel medicine, vaccination programs and general health issues. The Medical Health staff – consisting of a company doctor, nurses and consultants – support our operations and supervise the security and emergency response teams at our locations.

Being different makes us challenge the status quo and inspires us to engineer a better tomorrow. We believe that the diversity of our employees is a competitive advantage because of the creativity, innovation, and local customer understanding it nurtures. To make sure the mix of people works, we strive to create an inclusive work environment where people of all backgrounds are treated equally, respected, and valued for who they are.

The RISE project: developing our diverse workforce

We develop our diverse workforce in an inclusive and collaborative work environment. This year, the RISE project came to life in Danfoss Asia Pacific Region. The program is designed to develop and challenge our people by giving them the opportunity to take on special projects outside their usual job tasks and cooperate with colleagues from other areas of the business.

During a six-months period, five different teams in the region worked together on projects across functions and national borders to gain new experiences and insights. Through cross-team collaboration, the teams worked, among other things, on projects to improve customer loyalty and service delivery.

We, too, believe that a diverse and inclusive workplace fosters creativity, innovation, and a broader perspective in decision-making, optimizing our performance. Therefore, we are determined to increase the percentage of female leaders to 25% by 2022 and 30% by 2025.

Gender composition in the Board of Directors

Section 99b of the Danish Financial Statements Act (FSA) requires that corporate entities of a certain size and type report on the gender composition in management. Danfoss aims at a gender composition in the Group's Board of Directors, which reflects that of the rest of the Group, and has a target of having at least one female member of the Board of Directors, who is elected at the Annual General Meeting (AGM). Danfoss meets this target. In 2019, the Board of Directors had three female members, one AGM-elected and two employee-elected. Furthermore, the Board of Directors consists of people with diverse backgrounds in terms of professional skills, nationality and age.

Gender composition targets similar to that of the Board of Directors have been implemented in the relevant subsidiaries of a certain size and type. Danfoss meets the gender composition target for the Board of Directors of Danfoss Power Solutions ApS, but not of Danfoss Power Electronics A/S (Danfoss Drives), Danfoss International A/S and Sondex A/S, as the composition of the boards did not change during the year. However, Danfoss Drives has a female board member elected by the employees. In these relevant subsidiaries, the gender composition target for the Board of Directors is expected to be met in 2021.

It takes great leadership to attract and develop talents and create a great performance culture. Leadership is one of the most important enablers for achieving our long-term goals and to be successful, people managers must understand the strategy and the role they play in making it happen. We invest in our people managers and regularly ask our employees how their immediate manager is leading performance. The feedback helps us spot what works well and where improvements are needed to continue to have a strong performance culture.

We want to attract the most skilled talents to Danfoss. Through cooperation with many universities worldwide, we get in touch, learn from each other and discuss our sustainable growth journey.

There is no better way to kickstart a career than by being part of our two-year development program as a postgraduate. The participants can look forward to working across our global organization to learn from colleagues with different skills and cultures. Along the way, they build a network, which can benefit them throughout their career.