Social and governance performance

Labor practices & human rights

At December 31, 2018, the total number of employees was 6,427, compared with 6,245 in 2017. The employee absence rate was 2.1%, on par with the 2017 performance.

Novozymes promotes equal opportunities and strengthens diversity in the global workplace. At December 31, 2018, 30% of senior management (directors and higher) were women, up from 26% in 2017.

Occupational health & safety

Despite our continuous focus on building awareness and keeping employees safe and healthy, the frequency of occupational accidents increased to 2.4 per million working hours in 2018, compared with 1.6 in 2017. 

Innovation

Novozymes is committed to delivering bioinnovation and launched eight new products in 2018. In 2018, Novozymes had 1,041 active patent families, which comprise the number of inventions that have active patent applications or active patents. See more details about our new products in This is Novozymes.

Business ethics

In 2018, Novozymes reinforced its commitment to its business integrity principles. 99% of Novozymes’ employees completed business integrity training in 2018, on par with 2017.

As in 2017, there were no breaches of competition law in 2018.

The number of investigated fraud cases decreased to 34 in 2018, compared with 49 in 2017. None of the investigated fraud cases had a material financial impact.

Community engagement

In 2018, Novozymes engaged approximately 302,000 learners, compared with approximately 188,000 in 2017. The increase was due to expansion of our 2017 projects across regions and addition of new projects.

Customer engagement

Novozymes conducts an annual customer satisfaction survey and tracks progress on its Net Promoter Score (NPS), which is assessed on a scale from -100 to +100. In 2018, we received an NPS of +50, compared with +39 in 2017, which confirms our solid relationships with our customers.