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CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY
Diversity – a natural part
of international operations
A significant factor in Trelleborg’s
value creation is the expertise
and diversity of its employees.
Alongside the fundamental rules against
special treatment and discrimination in
the Code of Conduct (see page 46), the
company values knowledge wherever it
is found, with no other criteria than the
fundamental view that all people are
equal and have the same rights. Trelleborg
works to achieve a balanced mix of ethnicities,
ages and genders in its operations.
Ethnicity. A basic rule is that the company’s
management and other managers
should have a local presence, which
naturally leads to ethnic diversity in the
management of a company that operates
in more than 40 countries.
At the end of 2015, management
(senior management team and those in
senior positions in the business areas) at
levels 1–3 of the company comprised 10
different nationalities.
Age. A core issue for all knowledge organizations,
including Trelleborg, is the ability
to recruit young talent. Attracting younger
people to white-collar positions is also
important due to the expected number of
retirements over the next ten years. As a
result, Trelleborg is focusing on younger
generations – employees born from 1980
and onwards – which commenced with a
survey completed by about 80 percent of
employees in this age group. A follow-up
series of workshops focused on issues
highlighted by this age group: feedback
on work performed, knowledge sharing,
personal development, new technology,
community involvement and social events.
Trelleborg has initiated special training
for managers on how to manage
employees from different generations.
Gender. In an engineering company like
Trelleborg, efforts to achieve a gender
balance present challenges that require
work at all levels. At higher Group and
business area levels, men still are in
significant majority, however gender
distribution is more balanced in the
business operations. Efforts to achieve a
gender balance throughout the operations
take the form of actively seeking women
candidates for all executive and managerial
positions, and for all of the Group’s
training and development programs,
particularly its leadership programs.
Gender distribution in senior positions
Distribution of gender in leadership positions
Share, %
100
80
60
40
20
0
Level 2 Level 3
Level 4
Men, % Women, %
Level 5
Gender distribution at management levels 2-5 in
Trelleborg’s units where the average is 24 percent
(September 2015), the same proportion as for
women in the organization as a whole (refer to
Note 3, page 92). The proportion of women is
highest at level 5. Level 2 corresponds to business
area presidents and Level 3 to employees who
report to a business area president.
The proportion of women in Group management
is 9 percent (9) and on the Board of Directors 33
percent (25).
Professional development is characterized by diversity
2015 was an eventful year for Trelleborg
Group University (TGU), the
Group’s joint training organization.
A large number of seminars and
programs focused on professional
development and diversity were
conducted. The proportion of training
courses initiated and implemented
locally is growing. More and more
programs are being arranged in the
U.S. and Asia, where an increasing
proportion of Trelleborg’s employees
work.
One trend in TGU that became
obvious during the year was greater
diversity among participants. Between
10 and 16 nationalities were represented
in a range of activities and
programs conducted by TGU during the
year, which included the introductory
seminar for new managers, the
Trelleborg International Management
Program (TIMP) and the Graduate
Program.
“Some 16 nationalities were represented
at our introductory seminar for
new managers in December 2015, and
we saw a higher proportion of women
– 17 percent – among the participants,”
says Carina Nesbitt, who is responsible
for training at Group level.
“Although the percentage of women
participants increased in all of our
activities, we want to continue raising
the proportion of women to achieve a
more balanced mix. Another initiative
to increase diversity is the new Sales
Excellence program, which will be
implemented locally in a total of ten
languages across 21 countries.”
The Mentoring for Accelerating
Performance and Innovation program
is yet another diversity initiative. The
program was launched 2015 and
focuses on younger generations and
different nationalities.
52 Annual Report 2015 Trelleborg AB
GRI: LA10*, LA12*