30 BIOGAIA SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2021 Materiality and risks BioGaia strives to promote a physically and mentally healthy environment in the workplace, to enable the employees to thrive. Inadequate skills, lack of motivation, high stress levels and a lack of loyalty are perceived as the greatest risks in the context of employee well-being. These aspects increase the risk of poorer health and higher sick leave. Through systematic work and preventive efforts to improve well-being among employees, BioGaia is reducing the risk of losing valuable expertise, which in turn may impact the company’s capacity to deliver high-quality products. BioGaia is actively working to engage and inspire its employees to be the best version of themselves, to benefit both employees and the business. How work is conducted BioGaia’s culture is a strong motivating factor for the employees and lies at the heart of what drives the business. It is summarised as “Do good and have fun”. In 2020, new core values were developed based on a large management team effort with a comprehensive values study among employees. This work resulted in the following three core values: Innovation We strive for breakthrough solutions that make a difference in people’s lives. Collaboration Trust, helpfulness and curiosity define our way of working. Passion We are committed and put our hearts into everything we do. The foundation of the efforts to secure workplace health is BioGaia’s Code of Conduct and the working environment policy. BioGaia also has an employee handbook that offers guidance for working at the company, and explains where employees can turn with questions and problems. The handbook also describes the different types of employment benefits. Regular activities are organised by BioGaia AB to boost employee well-being. These could be various types of Employee well-being (GRI 3-3) physical exercise or social events. For example, in the early summer of 2021 online yoga classes were held over a six week period for all employees and during the autumn some 60% of BioGaia AB’s employees accepted a challenge to increase everyday exercise in competition with other companies. Progress and priorities going forward Work establishing the values continued during the year. The pandemic restricted opportunities for face-to-face meetings with dialogues and discussions, which again affected work with the corporate culture in 2021. However, efforts to embed the values in the organisation resumed during the autumn with face-to-face workshops and the intention is to continue to build a strong, value-driven leadership culture over the next few years. During the autumn of 2021, the &Frankly employee tool was introduced to enable the follow up of softer values. It aims to use simple, anonymous employee surveys to measure engagement in areas such as leadership and well-bein. BioGaia aim to use these pulse surveys, which will. be carried out at least once per quarter, to follow up and continuously improve well-being and culture in the company. Discussions are continuing about the best way for BioGaia to work following Covid-19 to create the best possible balance between work and leisure, and to ensure an inclusive and inspiring working environment. During the year, decisions were taken to test a hybrid model whereby employees are allowed to work three days from the office and two days remotely each week. During 2021, there was a slight increase in employee turnover at BioGaia AB, 11.3% as compared to 7.3% in 2020. One contributing factor to the rise in employee turnover may be BioGaia’s initiative to increase sales directly to consumers, which entailed a greater need for new capabilities in areas such as digitalisation, sales and marketing to consumers. A decision to move existing operations for BioGaia AB in Lund to Eslöv, next to BioGaia Production, which aimed to strengthen collaboration with the subsidiary, may also have been a contributing factor. Sickness absence was generally still low, but slightly higher than in the previous year, at 2.3% compared with 1.9%. Benefits offered to employees1) include: Free medical examinations every second year for employees under the age of 50 and every year for employees over 50 Extra healthcare insurance and full salary from the first day of sick leave2) Preventive healthcare subsidy Counselling as needed, regardless of whether it concerns private or work-related problems The offer to top up parental salary for a period of six months as a supplement to compensation from the Swedish Social Insurance Agency 1) These benefits are mainly offered to employees in Sweden and local differences may exist for employees outside of Sweden 2) The majority of employees live in Sweden with a widespread state-provided healthcare system and the benefits BioGaia provides are additional to this. A healthy workplace CONTENTS
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