Novo Nordisk Gets a Jump Start on International Women’s Day
Novo Nordisk's new WINN2 network supports progress on the company’s Diversity Aspiration.
Bagsværd, Denmark, March 8, 2013 /3BL Media/ - On 1 March, Novo Nordisk celebrated International Women’s Day early with the launch of a new career network – WINN2. The new network stems from the original WINN network (Women in Novo Nordisk) which aims to advance and develop women in management positions to drive business performance. But unlike the original network, WINN2 was created for women at earlier stages of their careers.
“Women represent half of the world population and half of the employee population of our company,” says Annelise Goldstein, vice president, Diversity and Inclusion, Novo Nordisk. “If we do not have women represented at all levels of the organisation then we are missing out on a huge talent capacity.”
The WINN2 network is just one of Novo Nordisk’s initiatives supporting progress on the company’s Diversity Aspiration made in 2009. The aspiration calls for all senior management teams be diverse in both gender and nationality by 2014. With less than one year remaining, the company reported that 66% of senior management teams have met the diversity target in 2012.
Since making the aspiration in 2009, the percentage of women enrolled in Novo Nordisk’s two corporate talent programmes – the Greenhouse programme for managers with further potential and the Lighthouse programme for exceptional vice presidents with potential for more senior positions – has increased from 21% to 29% and 30% to 46% respectively.
“I think we have made great progress. Our underlying numbers are getting better and better, and I believe that we will come very close to reaching our aspiration,” says Annelise Goldstein. “But at the same time it’s important to make sure that we always hire the best candidate for a given job.”
Novo Nordisk uses the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a guide in framing its diversity and inclusion strategy and works to ensure equal opportunities with regard to recruitment, conditions at work, remuneration, training and promotion, and termination of employment.
Watch Novo Nordisk’s Diversity video
About Novo Nordisk
Headquartered in Denmark, Novo Nordisk is a global healthcare company with 90 years of innovation and leadership in diabetes care. The company also has leading positions within haemophilia care, growth hormone therapy and hormone replacement therapy. For more information, visit novonordisk.com.
Novo Nordisk strives to conduct its activities in a financially, environmentally and socially responsible way. The strategic commitment to corporate sustainability has brought the company onto centre stage as a leading player in today’s business environment, recognised for its integrated reporting, stakeholder engagement and consistently high sustainability performance. In 2013, Novo Nordisk received the Pharmaceuticals and Biotechnology industry group top ranking on Corporate Knight’s list of Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations. For more information, visit novonordisk.com/sustainability.
