Caring
Safety and inclusion in the workplace
A safe and inclusive culture where each employee is treated with respect is the foundation of a workplace that attracts and retains the best people.
Health and safety (H&S) is a top priority at Alfa Laval. We are continuously working to improve our H&S performance and monitor this closely. A new strategy and roadmap was launched during the year with a strong focus on Safety Culture, competence development and strengthening existing methods and tools.
Progress on safety targets
The Alfa Laval Group safety target is to be below 1.5 in LTIFR (“lost-time injury frequency rate”) before the end of 2025 with a milestone of 1.8 at the end of 2024. The vision and long-term target remains. In 2024, the total number of LTIs decreased to 73 (90) with 2,751 (3,650) lost working days, and an LTIFR of 1.8 (2.45). This is a significant achievement and we reached the milestone for the LTIFR reduction target. The lost time injuries were mainly related to slips, trips and falls, lifting and failure to use personal protective equipment.
Ensuring good health and well-being
At Alfa Laval, we believe that health and well-being are essential to both individual and organizational success. During the year, we began a project to explore this area, starting with a workshop that brought together diverse stakeholders. The goal is to identify key needs and develop initiatives that support the physical, mental, and emotional well-being of Alfa Laval employees.
Substitution of hazardous chemicals
The reduction of hazardous chemicals is important for the health, safety, and well-being of Alfa Laval employees. This remains a prioritized focus area and part of our continuous improvement efforts across all units. The substitution of hazardous substances is guided by internal procedures and the Alfa Laval Group Restricted Substance List, which serves as our primary tool for managing the use of hazardous chemical substances.
In 2024, Alfa Laval initiated work with reducing the use of Substances of Very High Concern (SVHC) according to the EU REACH Candidate List reported by our sites. During the year, we also actively phased out all chemical products reported in 2023 that contained unauthorized substances. No new unauthorized substances were reported for 2024.
Putting
safety first
Since Alfa Laval’s products are often sold as units which are then integrated by customers or third parties, Alfa Laval has little control over on-site installation. This can lead to poorly or incorrectly installed equipment with potential safety risks during operation by the customer and future servicing by Alfa Laval.
Alfa Laval’s Mid Europe Service team concluded that one of the most effective ways to address such unsafe working conditions is to have Alfa Laval more involved earlier in the installation process. This requires properly trained Alfa Laval employees that can engage with customers on safety issues in their installations.
Since 2022, Mid Europe Service has provided training to more than 60 sales staff on how to identify potential safety hazards and possible solutions. The approach has proven so successful, that in 2024 training has been extended to service partners as well. They have also begun producing supportive material, such as one page fact sheets on product safety, as well as promoting the initiative via their social media channels.
Overall, the initiative shows a shift from reactive problem solving to being proactive and preventing problems before they happen. The new approach is greatly appreciated by customers and end-customers alike, since it contributes to improved workplace safety for their own employees as well.
Health and safety priorities
In 2024, Alfa Laval has maintained a strong focus on the three main areas of safety: people (safe culture), safe technology, and safe processes. To support this, we have begun the implementation of an updated Health & Safety (H&S) strategy and roadmap. This strategy places particular emphasis on strengthening safety culture, enhancing leadership, and advancing competence development. Alfa Laval is also focused on further embedding existing tools and methods to continuously improve safety performance across all levels of the organization.
Safe culture
Promoting behavioral change is necessary to create a culture focused on safety in the workplace, which concerns all employees. Managers have a particularly important role in leading the development towards a better safety culture and acting as safety role models. All employees must also take responsibility for their own health and safety.
Throughout the year, Alfa Laval continued to focus on key behavioral aspects to further strengthen our safety culture. A significant emphasis was placed on visible leadership, with leaders actively engaging with employees to discuss safety matters and model safe behaviors. In certain areas of the organization, additional efforts were made to improve safety reporting, with leaders taking a active as role models and emphasize the importance.
One notable initiative was the introduction of “Safety Stand Downs”. These focused sessions brought together employees and leaders to pause operations, review critical safety protocols, and address key safety concerns. The Safety Stand Downs provided a valuable opportunity for leaders to engage directly with teams, reinforce the importance of maintaining a safe work environment, and encourage open dialogue about safety issues.
Additionally, greater emphasis was placed on safety communications throughout the year to raise awareness and foster a deeper sense of involvement across all levels of the organization. Efforts were made to improve how we communicate safety-related matters, ensuring that employees are well-informed and actively engaged in forming a strong safety culture.
Steps were also taken to enhance the onboarding process for new employees, ensuring that everyone joining Alfa Laval receives a comprehensive and safe introduction to their roles. By reinforcing safety from day one, we aim to give new team members the confidence and knowledge they need to work safely and contribute to ongoing safety efforts.
Safe technology and equipment
An important part of Alfa Laval’s safety work is to ensure safe machines and equipment. Risk assessments are therefore carried out regularly to identify hazards and measures to reduce risks.
Safe processes
During the year, the focus has been on fully implementing existing tools and methods, with particular emphasis on six key tools launched over the past two years. These tools were prioritized to ensure effective integration into daily operations. As an example, Alfa Laval also continued to implement relevant major hazard directives to guide and enhance safe working processes.
*Excluding fatality
Embedding Human Rights
Alfa Laval is committed to doing business in an ethical and transparent way and expects the same of business partners. The Alfa Laval Business Principles set out fundamental rules of behavior that all employees should adhere to when conducting business and express Alfa Laval’s cornerstone commitment to Human Rights. Its four topics – caring, committed, transparency and planet – describe the way we act within society while achieving our business goals. Our commitment to Human Rights is part of the “caring” business principle and describes how we care about all individuals’ equal rights and opportunities, including their safety and well-being.
Human Rights due diligence
Alfa Laval is committed to preventing and mitigating negative Human Rights impacts by adhering to recommended due diligence frameworks, including the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises and Responsible Business Conduct. These frameworks also guide the embedding of our commitments into Alfa Laval policies and management structures. Throughout 2024, we have continued to advance efforts to integrate Human Rights due diligence into Group-level policies and procedures. This involves implementing steps to identify, assess, prevent, mitigate, cease, monitor, and report on impacts.
Developments in 2024
A new, cross-functional Human Rights network was launched within Alfa Laval in 2024. This network was established to provide a platform for internal stakeholders to regularly share and discuss highlighted updates and ongoing developments in prioritized activities, relating to improvements in Human Rights due diligence processes.
During the year, an important focus has been on providing training and raising awareness about Human Rights. An introductory training on Human Rights and responsible business conduct was launched to support the Alfa Laval Human Rights policy that was published in 2023. Building on the introduction, a training on Human Rights due diligence has been developed to help the organization better understand the due diligence concept and how Alfa Laval can address this responsibility.
Human Rights due diligence framework
Diversity, equity and inclusion
As a global organization that aspires to innovate and develop disruptive technologies, Alfa Laval embraces diversity. By fostering an inclusive culture and empowering employees, we can benefit from different perspectives and help generate fresh ideas.
Diversity, equity and inclusion are high on the agenda at Alfa Laval. To support the vision of an inclusive workplace, we have targets and ongoing activities to promote a safe, inclusive culture both within our company and in our relationships with external partners.
At Alfa Laval, the workplace should be characterized by a set of behaviors and unique values that make people feel valued, respected, and involved. They reach their full potential based on competence, experience and performance. All traits and elements people bring to the workplace help to build strong and diverse teams.
Ambitions
Our ambitions towards 2025 are:
35%
employees to be women
25%
managers to be women
<70%
homogeneity in senior management team
Progress on inclusion and diversity targets
In 2024, Alfa Laval had women comprising 23 (22) percent of our total employee base and 23 (22) percent women representation in our managerial population, which is still well below our target levels. For new hires, the proportion of women was 33 (33) percent in the white-collared talent pool, showing our commitment to increase the representation of women in the company.
Being an international company, Alfa Laval aims to be a highly diverse and inclusive organization. In 2024, homogeneity in group management, from a gender and citizenship (nationality) perspective, was 70 (71) percent, in line with the target.
Taking action
There is no single recipe in making the change to become a truly inclusive and diverse workplace, which is why Alfa Laval has built its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) strategy on a long list of initiatives, including awareness and change management, education and training, culture and leadership, people processes, targets and data, and communication.
Many of these activities are local initiatives driven by the business, HR, and/or employees themselves, while receiving full support from management. As an example, in recent years the Talent Acquisition Team in Tumba, Sweden along with the business, has been working proactively to promote underrepresented employees and implement more inclusive hiring practices.
Networking
Internal and external networks can help raise awareness and support individuals in their professional development. At Alfa Laval, several diversity networks and employee resource groups have been initiated by employees and supported by the company. Examples include “W@lfa Women network” that started in Tumba in 2017 and has since been expanded to our sites at Lund, Eskilstuna, and Ronneby in Sweden. In 2024, W@lfa opened its first activities in Søborg, Denmark. Beside W@lfa, other networks for female employees include “Top Woman” in Lain America and “HER Power” in China.
In Sweden, Alfa Laval has initiated a partnership with “Teknikkvinnor”, an external network reaching over 35,000 women with a technical or engineering education. The network is focusing on developing a more thorough understanding of how diversity contributes to company success, why inclusion is important to create a diverse environment, and strengthening managers’ ability to have inclusive communication. This partnership opens the door for Alfa Laval to use the network to advertise job openings and be seen as an employer who promotes and values diversity.
Another example of the power of networking, is Alfa Laval in the US leveraging their relationship with Women In Manufacturing (WIM), an organization whose mission is to support women who have careers in manufacturing organizations. Through WIM, Alfa Laval employees are able to take advantage of both educational and professional networking opportunities.
Learning
During 2024, Alfa Laval continued its education and training activities for leaders and employees globally on diversity and inclusion themes in our “Pure Leadership” training series. All employees are now offered access to the “Culturewizard” in the Alfa Laval Learning Portal in which they can learn and practice cultural awareness including in sessions such as “Overcoming implicit bias”, “How do you gain a global mindset?”, “Global inclusive course”, and “Becoming an inclusive leader”.
Communicating
Communications is crucial in keeping DEI high on the agenda and keeping up the momentum by showcasing initiatives and underlining the importance of having an inclusive and diverse workplace among leaders and employees in the whole organization. Communication activities focused on sharing to the broader audience the many initiatives via testimonials from participants in trainings, workshops, networks and to showcase local initiatives.
Listening
In 2024, Alfa Laval conducted its employee engagement survey “VOICE” to allow all employees to make themselves heard and contribute to making Alfa Laval an even more inclusive and attractive workplace. This year as many as 89 (86) percent of Alfa Laval employees completed the survey and the score on engagement increased further from 78 to 79, indicating a high level of engagement and a record number of employees making their voice heard.