Investment in people

Sonova and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
By investing in people, Sonova contributes to the SDGs 5 and 8. More information is provided in the corresponding section of this CR Report: Sustainable Development Goals.

Our employees are key to our success

At Sonova, our employees contribute to something greater than themselves – they transform lives. We work to enhance the quality of life for millions of people by bringing better hearing to those with hearing loss. Our shared corporate values – innovation, engagement, and responsibility – shape the culture that defines and unites us as a company across all brands and regions.

Global trends such as demographic changes, a limited availability of specialist talent, and the need to adapt quickly to shifting markets highlight the importance of a proactive staffing strategy for Sonova. We strongly believe that developing talent with the goal of ensuring internal succession is vital to sustainable success. Appointing internally to key positions while retaining and developing skilled employees helps to ensure that Sonova’s specialist knowledge and intellectual property remain within the company, sustaining our competitive advantage. In 2018/19, we were able to fill 53% of our open leadership positions with Sonova employees.

Internal leadership recruitment rate (ILRR)

Our conscientious treatment of our workforce, professional leadership culture, and proactive approach to employee retention over the past years have combined to keep our global employee turnover to a level of around 12%. The average tenure of our managerial staff is 8.3 years, while the total average workforce tenure is 6.3 years.

Employee turnover rates

This year, we conducted Sonova’s first anonymized employee survey, called HearMe. Around 90% of employees participated worldwide, providing valuable information about ways we can boost collaboration across the Group. Of respondents, 84% reported feeling engaged through their work (82% for men, 85% for women). The first concrete initiatives inspired by HearMe results have already been implemented, aiming to release untapped potential, identify key drivers of employee engagement, encourage effective leadership at all levels, and thus stimulate professional growth and business success.

Personnel figures

The number of employees increased in the current reporting year by 3.5% to a total of 14,734 full time equivalents. The additional 492 full time equivalent employees stem mostly from growth in operations in Vietnam and in our audiological care business in Europe.

Employees by region

Employees by employment contract

We are taking steps to further improve our local operating structure, strengthening the supply chain and consolidating some of the services provided by our hearing instruments business in the UK, Germany, and Canada. These measures are expected to produce a combined workforce reduction of about 250 employees, most of which is already reflected in the reported personnel figures.

Human resource organization

The majority of our employees are directly supported by a local human resources (HR) manager. At our corporate headquarters in Switzerland, we develop – in collaboration with our group companies – and monitor a comprehensive set of global human resource processes, standards, and policies, which are implemented locally in line with country-specific regulations and customs. We assess the impact of all our activities through a set of key performance indicators such as turnover, internal leadership recruitment rate, and depth of available in-house talent. Regular audits ensure compliance with internal regulations and local labor law, with the objective to provide excellent working conditions and monitor progress in all our locations. We estimate that around 7% of Sonova’s global workforce is covered by collective bargaining agreements.

Career development

We offer a flexible and inclusive work environment and an open culture that inspires personal growth and professional development. Line and HR managers review the competencies, performance, and potential of our employees through a yearly appraisal process. By setting individual and measurable goals, we promote a sense of accountability.

We believe that every employee deserves an individual development plan.  We therefore launched in spring 2019 an initiative that allows employees at all levels to define their development objectives under the appraisal process and discuss them with their managers in designated development conversations. The aim is to ensure that we invest in the fulfilment of each individual’s strengths and preferences.

Our global Succession Planning process allows us to mitigate the risk of losing expertise in key positions while identifying and developing promising candidates for internal succession.

Training programs

The Sonova Academy is our group-wide education platform. In close collaboration with selected external partners such as INSEAD in Paris, our Academy offers targeted programs and provides an opportunity for our leaders, managers, and best-performing talents to enhance their skills and competencies. The Sonova Academy also serves as a cross-business learning network that provides consistency and supports change throughout our organization.

Our leadership development process is based on a portfolio of training programs:

Through intensive feedback, coaching, and experiential exercises, the program gives participants the chance to reflect on their personal style, to understand and to increase the impact they have on their company’s performance, and to plan how they will continue to develop as leaders at Sonova. In the reporting year, 211 employees have participated in around 4,700 hours of face-to-face leadership training courses.

A strong focus on customer service is also reflected in our training programs: we are convinced that a trusting personal relationship, founded on expertise and understanding, is the best way for customers to reap the full benefit from their hearing solution. A new Sonova Academy in Germany will open in summer 2019, offering face-to-face and online training to further develop the ability of our hearing health care professionals to deliver the best service and customer experience.

We measure the success of the career development process in two ways: each line manager assesses development planning and employee progress, while Sonova tracks the internal promotion rate and participation in the training programs.

Traineeship programs

Sonova has an excellent network of research collaboration with various leading universities around the world, where students can participate in joint studies and other activities. We offer them the opportunity to work in our organization as a member of one of our Research and Development teams, either in an internship, or as part of their Bachelor’s, Master’s, or PhD thesis work.

Our talent acquisition process also targets the most sought-after group of professionals in our industry: experts in audiology. To support our constant need for top audiologists, we offer an international Audiological Traineeship program, with training placements in the US, Canada, and Switzerland. This program is an opportunity for ambitious audiology graduates to benefit from a one-year formal development and rotation experience, where they will have the opportunity to work with our talented audiologists in various business units (Audiology, Marketing, Customer Training, Sales, and Research) before starting on their career path with Sonova.

At Sonova we conscientiously support and invest in Switzerland’s effective dual training system, which links formal education with in-company training, providing both theory and necessary practical experience. The number of our apprentices has doubled since 2013, and we train more than 40 apprentices at our headquarters. The range of Sonova apprenticeships is highly diverse, offering training in twelve professions, from polytechnician through logistics clerk to cook. In recent years three apprentices with disabilities successfully completed an apprenticeship at Sonova.

New hire rate

Diversity and inclusion

Sonova has subsidiaries in over 30 countries and a workforce of over 14,000 dedicated employees representing a broad mix of experiences and backgrounds. We consider this diversity to be key to our success, since it fosters innovation and helps us understand our global customer base. All facets of diversity are important to us; we strive to create an inclusive environment where everyone – regardless of age, gender, language, ethnic origin, religion, culture, sexual orientation, or health status – can contribute and realize their full potential. Our commitment to diversity is recorded in our Code of Conduct and is binding for all our employees.

As the world’s largest hearing care provider, Sonova campaigns for equal opportunities and a better quality of life for people with hearing loss. It is our vision to create a world where everyone enjoys the delight of hearing and lives a life without limitations. By offering the most comprehensive range of solutions to treat all major forms of hearing loss, we aim for our consumers to feel fully included in society. To help us reach this challenging goal, our workforce and work culture need to reflect the values of diversity and inclusion.

Building a diverse workforce

Our employees bring different skills and characteristics to the table, depending on their age, gender, origins, and personal background. We are convinced that our success as a company largely depends on the extent to which we are able to realize the benefits of this diversity. A variety of perspectives is essential to best meet the many and various needs of our clients and to make a convincing case for the company over the long term with innovative products and services. We therefore make it a priority to recruit and develop a wide range of people who share our passion and bring in new skills, viewpoints, and experiences.

Employees by gender

Employees by age

To guarantee a balanced mix, we have a special focus on recruiting and promoting women and employees from different cultures in leadership and executive positions. By striving for gender balanced representation in filling open positions, we aim to achieve a 35% proportion of women in upper management within four years.

We actively support the compatibility of pursuing a career and raising a family by promoting flexible working models such as home offices, flexible working hours, and part time work in leadership positions. Our terms of employment guarantee our employees in Switzerland a number of additional family related benefits, including 16 weeks of maternity leave, two weeks of paternity leave, and the possibility of purchasing additional vacation time. In all our production sites, where shift work is standard, employees returning from maternity leave can choose to work at between 50% and 100% of their previous level during their first year back. We operate our own day care center at our headquarters in Stäfa and financially support lower-salary employees in Stäfa and in our production center in Vietnam to help pay for day care. We are proud that today, 48% of all positions involving staff responsibilities are held by women. In lower and middle management, the ratio of women is 55% – these are ideal conditions to reach our ambitious gender diversity targets in upper and senior management through professional succession planning and individual development plans.

Women in management positions

Sonova also provides reasonable accommodation in its job application procedures for qualified individuals with disabilities, or to enable otherwise qualified individuals with disabilities to perform essential job functions.

Advancing our culture of inclusion and innovation

Inclusion is a foundation of our corporate culture, and an integral part of how we benefit from the diversity of our workforce. We embrace the differences that make each of our employees exceptional. We are committed to creating a safe, positive, and nurturing work environment where all people feel appreciated, respected, and taken seriously. We are convinced that this promotes thoughtful and valuable dialog and fosters innovation.

In this context, we are actively addressing the role of unconscious biases and expectations: we have started training courses to help recognize and prevent stereotypical (often unwitting) role expectations from affecting HR processes and thus hindering our efforts to increase diversity in senior leadership functions. In December 2018, the whole management board participated in training session to learn how we can make better decisions by being aware of our biases.

In 2018, we have for the first time calculated and benchmarked Sonova’s inclusion score, as part of our employee engagement survey.

To raise awareness and continuously advance a culture of inclusion, we also support expanding employee networks, providing platforms where people can connect and learn from one another. Women’s networks, initiated by our employees, have already been established in Canada, the US, Germany, and Switzerland.

A continuously improving gender balance in upper and senior leadership, along with our first-time selection to the Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index, shows that our commitment to equality and to a comprehensive diversity and inclusion strategy is bearing fruit.

Employee wellbeing

Sonova is committed to foster employees’ health and well-being. Our group companies and operation centers take specific prevention and health promotion measures to help maintain and enhance each employee’s capacity for productive and fulfilling work. Sonova’s global Body & Mind initiative aligns and supports its various prevention measures. The health initiative rests on four main pillars:

Three-minute break-time exercises at our operation center in Suzhou to reduce muscle tension.

Our group companies are responsible for implementing Body & Mind measures locally and for continuously refining programs in all the four areas: nutrition, exercise, relaxation, and medical care. Examples of activities and best practice across Sonova globally in the 2018/19 financial year included:

Occupational health and safety

Sonova has established an effective occupational health and safety culture that supports and protects our employees. We regularly monitor and analyze the potential health and safety risks of our operations and implement both legally-required and voluntary occupational health and safety programs. Sonova’s operations have a relatively low exposure to health and safety risk, but we are committed to continuous improvement here as elsewhere. We operate within a highly integrated business model: all manufacturing centers are owned by Sonova. We engage only a small number of contractors and licensees.

Each incident is investigated to determine its cause and take steps to prevent any reoccurrence. Our low exposure to health and safety risk is reflected in the figures for the past three financial years reported in the table below. Any incident that requires external medical health care is considered as a work-related injury. First-aid level injuries are not included. Any work-related injury that results in the company employee not being able to return to work the next scheduled work day/shift is considered as a lost-time injury. Lost days refer to working days, not calendar days, and begin the day after the accident. In general, injuries and lost work days are not caused by the manufacturing processes; they are more likely to be sustained during activities such as movement of goods.

Occupational health and safety indicators

The injury rate (IR), lost day rate (LDR), lost-time injury frequency rate (LTIFR), occupational illness frequency rate (OIFR), and work-related fatalities cover the Sonova manufacturing centers in Switzerland, Vietnam and China. Gender-specific indicators are not considered relevant on an aggregated level. Sonova does not record health and safety statistics for contractors.