Advancing our people

Sonova and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
Through this strategic area, Sonova contributes to 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

The success of Sonova stems not only from our innovative solutions, but our people and our culture. Across our business and brands, we all share one vision: to create a world where everyone enjoys the delight of hearing and lives a life without limitations. This unifying vision, taken together with our corporate values, forms the foundation of our culture and creates a common understanding of how we work to create the best possible result for all our stakeholders. 

Number of employees

The number of employees decreased in the current reporting year by 4.5% to a total of 14,508 full time equivalents. The difference of 676 employees compared to the previous year stems mostly from acceleration of structural initiatives aimed at optimizing our non-customer facing functions such as general and administrative activities, logistics, and back office, as well as streamlining the Audiological Care store network.

Employees by region

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Employees by employment contract

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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 30% of Sonovaʼs global workforce is represented by an independent trade union or covered by collective bargaining agreements.

Employee engagement

This year was the third in which we conducted HearMe, Sonovaʼs anonymized annual employee engagement survey. The survey is conducted together with an external provider. More than 90% of employees participated worldwide, providing valuable information about ways we can boost collaboration across the Group. Of respondents, 83% reported feeling engaged through their work (81% for men, 84% for women). 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 thereby stimulate professional growth and business success. In 2020/21, a dedicated global cross-functional team was set up to drive continuous improvement in processes that create increased employee engagement.

Our priority target is to achieve an employee engagement rate equivalent to that of high performing companies by 2022/23. The current employee engagement rate of 83% means that we are currently four percentage points below the benchmark level of high performing companies (87%), which we plan to achieve by 2022/23.

Employee engagement

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Talent 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 should have an individual development plan. We therefore launched in spring 2019 an initiative that allows employees at all levels to define their own development objectives under the annual appraisal process and to discuss them with their managers in dedicated development conversations. The aim is to ensure that we are investing effectively in the advancement of each individualʼs strengths and preferences. In 2020/21, we set the new target that over 95% of employees should have a development plan by the end of the 2022/23 financial year. The target covers all employees at Sonova worldwide, except those with job roles in production/assembly. For these employees, other skill-related growth paths are identified. At the end of 2020/21, over 80% of employees had a development plan.

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.

Talent attraction and retention

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 Sonovaʼs specialist knowledge and intellectual property remain within the company, sustaining our competitive advantage. In 2020/21, we were able to fill 69.7% of our open leadership positions with Sonova employees.

Internal leadership recruitment rate (ILRR)

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New hire rate

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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 15.1%. The average tenure of our managerial staff is 9.1 years, while the total average workforce tenure is 5.9 years.

Employee turnover rates

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Leadership Development programs

Our leadership development landscape is based on a portfolio of different programs:

Through intensive feedback, coaching, and experiential learning, these programs give participants the chance to reflect on their personal style, to understand and to increase the impact they have on their performance, and to plan how they will continue to develop as leaders at Sonova. In the 2020/21 reporting year, around 1,900 individual leaders participated in a total of 6,840 hours of leadership development training.

Learning & Development

SonovaLearning is our group-wide education platform for all employees. It also serves as a cross-business learning network, promoting consistent actions and enabling change throughout our organization. SonovaLearning offers targeted programs, giving all our employees the opportunity to enhance their skills and competencies. We support the programs with an e-learning information platform, launched in 2019, which is accessible at all times. Over 2,500 employees accessed almost 37,000 pages and articles on it during the 2020/21 financial year. In addition, mandatory trainings available on the e-learning platform ensure that our employees have the expertise to do their work correctly and according to relevant rules and regulations.

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. The Sonova Academy in Germany opened 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 Sonovaʼs Group HR 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 Bachelorʼs, Masterʼs, 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 can 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 Switzerlandʼs 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. Sonova supports education and training for young people with disabilities. In recent years, several apprentices with disabilities have successfully completed an apprenticeship at Sonova.

Diversity and inclusion

Commitment

As a leading provider of innovative hearing solutions, Sonova stands for equal opportunity: it is our vision to create a world where everyone – without distinction – enjoys the delight of hearing. By offering the most comprehensive range of solutions to treat all major forms of hearing loss, we aim for our consumers and employees 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.

As an employer, Sonova actively fosters diversity and inclusion. We value the diversity of languages, background, ethnic origin, disabilities, culture, beliefs, gender identity and/or sexual orientation among our employees, which reflects the diversity of our stakeholders and the communities in which we operate. Our commitment to diversity and inclusion is included in our Code of Conduct and is binding for all our employees.

We know that diversity and inclusion is essential for our success and for our employees to thrive. We are committed to providing equal hiring, development, and advancement opportunities. We strive to create an environment in which all employees feel safe, valued, included, and empowered to do their best work, realize their full potential, and bring innovative ideas to support our customers and businesses. We know that each employeeʼs unique experiences, perspectives, and viewpoints enhance our ability to deliver the best possible medical devices, services, and support to our customers, consumers, patients, and business partners.

D&I Strategy

In 2020/21, Sonova began implementing its enhanced global diversity and inclusion strategy. This is built around five pillars:

Governance

We have set up a global Diversity and Inclusion Council, chaired by Sonovaʼs CEO with representatives from regions and key diversity dimensions. The Council sets targets, establishes accountability for target achievements, ensures that the necessary resources are in place, and regularly monitors progress.

Targets

We set diversity and inclusion objectives and measure our progress toward achieving them, while ensuring their alignment with other strategic business objectives. We monitor the composition of our workforce, where appropriate and legally permitted, along various diversity dimensions such as age, gender, nationality, or ethnic origin.

Hiring and development

We stand for equity, equal opportunity, diversity, and inclusion in the workplace – in all our operations. We foster an environment that attracts and retains the best talent, mitigates biases, and encourages the contribution of diverse ideas, backgrounds, and perspectives to build the best team. We create opportunities for training, development, and progression, helping and encouraging our employees to develop to their full potential.

Training

We train our employees and leaders on general topics in diversity, inclusion, and bias mitigation. We also train colleagues on how to embrace diversity and contribute to an inclusive Sonova culture in their specific functional roles.

Communication

We drive active and transparent communication on diversity and inclusion to foster an inclusive culture, encourage role model behavior, and emphasize the high relevance of diverse and inclusive teams as a core element of our values and business strategy.

Progress and actions

Sonova has put special emphasis on recruiting and promoting women and employees from different cultures to leadership and executive positions. As part of our ESG commitments, we set in 2020/21 the following diversity and inclusion targets:

We are proud that today, across all management levels, women hold 49% of all positions involving staff responsibilities and 34% of key positions are held by women. In lower and middle management, the ratio of women is around 57% – these are good conditions to reach our ambitious gender diversity targets in upper and senior management through professional succession planning, individual development plans, and gender-balanced representation in filling open positions. In 2020/21, 39% of all our external hires to lower, middle, upper, and senior management positions were women, as were 47% of all our internal promotions to management positions.

We actively support the compatibility of pursuing a career and raising a family by promoting flexible working models such as home office, flexible working hours, and part-time work in leadership positions. Our terms of employment guarantee our employees in Switzerland several additional family-related benefits, including 16 weeks of maternity leave, four 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. In the US, among other countries, we have breast feeding rooms at our offices.

The positive trend towards gender balance in senior leadership levels gives us confidence that we are on the right track. To fully leverage the potential of our internal talent, we will further strengthen our efforts to remove unconscious barriers throughout the talent management cycle and keep a diversity focus in talent development.

Women in management positions

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In 2020/21, employees had the opportunity, through our global HearMe employee engagement survey, to voluntarily self-identify as belonging to an underrepresented group within their team or organization – in terms of age, gender, language, ethnic origin, religion, sexual orientation, health status, or any other category. Out of all respondents, 17% of employees self-identified as belonging to an underrepresented group.

Below is a breakdown of our global workforce over the past three years by gender and age.

Employees by gender

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Employees by age

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To advance on our journey of diversity and inclusion, we are actively addressing the role of unconscious biases. In September 2020, we began roll-out of unconscious bias training for all leaders across the organization. At the end of the financial year 2020/21, around 72% of leaders have already participated, with 21% approaching completion of the training. Follow-up webinars are scheduled for after the first training cycle. In addition, we launched an unconscious bias awareness e-learning course for all employees, which will also be part of the mandatory onboarding program for new joiners. Diversity and inclusion has also been included in our senior leader training and our Code of Conduct training covers its key aspects. We recently conducted a diversity and inclusion training program for our Corporate Communications team which covers unconscious bias in language and imaging and proposes concrete steps to build diversity and inclusion into our communications.

In 2020/21, as part of our HearMe annual employee engagement survey, we calculated and benchmarked Sonovaʼs diversity and inclusion index. 80% of respondents reported a favorable result, representing a positive trend to the two previous yearʼs diversity inclusion scores of 78% in 2019/20 and 76% in 2018/19.

One of the diversity and inclusion strategyʼs key pillars is to establish governance through dedicated bodies and responsibilities. In 2020/21, we set up the regional Diversity and Inclusion Councils Americas, EMEA, Asia, and Oceania, followed by national task forces. The Councils’ main focus to date has been on analyzing the regional results from the HearMe employee engagement survey and defining diversity and inclusion priorities for the respective countries. The regional Councils will provide quarterly updates and discussion points to the global Diversity and Inclusion Council.

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. Womenʼs networks, initiated by our employees, have been established in Canada, the US, Germany, and Switzerland. Since hearing loss should not stop anyone from striving for excellence and innovation nor thriving at Sonova, we have also set-up a global Hearing Loss Resource Group which has been actively engaged in providing input and making our processes more inclusive.

Sonova also provides reasonable accommodation in its job application procedures for individuals with disabilities, and to find alternative ways for individuals with disabilities to perform essential job functions.

Occupational health and safety

Sonova promotes and provides a safe and healthy workplace. Occupational health and safety are integral to our activities. 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. Sonovaʼs operations have a relatively low exposure to health and safety risk. Most 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. Employees who work with chemicals and hazardous substances, or come into contact with them, are regularly trained in their safe handling.

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 right after the accident.

In 2020/21, we recorded a lost day rate (LDR) of 32.5 (2019/20: 26.0) and lost-time injury frequency rate (LTIFR) of 2.4 (2019/20: 1.4). The increase in the LDR and LTIFR stem from a higher number of injuries and total lost days, combined with a decrease in total working hours due to COVID-19. The severity of the incidents (average number of lost days per injury) has continuously reduced over the past three years. Generally, the absolute number of injuries is low at Sonova, and small changes in it can have a significant impact on the key performance indicators. The most common types of accidents were behavior-based, such as slips, trips or falls. The root causes of each work-related injury are strictly investigated, regular local internal health and safety audits are carried out, and action plans are implemented, such as intensified local training and awareness raising activities to further reduce exposure to work-related health and safety risks. No occupational illness or disease cases have been registered in the past three years, leading to an occupational illness frequency rate (OIFR) of zero. There were no work-related fatalities.

The LDR, LTIFR, OIFR and work-related fatalities reported in the table above cover 23% of our global workforce. The selection of the facilities follows a risk-based approach, and includes e.g. the operation centers in Switzerland, Vietnam and China, as well as the operation and distribution center in the United States, and the regional European service centers in Spain and the United Kingdom. We strive to reduce further the number of lost days due to work-related injuries and have defined an internal reduction target covering all the sites mentioned above. Each site has a designated person responsible for local implementation of the health and safety program. Gender-specific indicators are not considered relevant on an aggregated level. Sonova does not record health and safety statistics for contractors since we engage only a small number of contractors and licensees. We operate within a highly integrated business model: all operation centers are owned by Sonova.

Occupational health and safety

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The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of the health and safety topic. For Sonova, our first priority is protecting the health and safety of our global team, followed immediately by assuring that our operations can continue while complying with emergency regulations. Employees who are in contact with hearing care patients or consumers work according to the instructions of the relevant authorities and give maximum priority to safety, health, and hygiene. In countries with high infection rates, employees whose presence at the workplace is not absolutely necessary work from home whenever possible. At our offices, production sites and stores, a strict sanitary and safety protocol is in place to protect our people and avoid any further spread of the virus. Group management is helping our individual companies to execute their COVID-19 plans and contingency measures.

Employee wellbeing

Sonova is committed to foster employeesʼ health and wellbeing. Our Group companies and operation centers take specific prevention and health promotion measures to help maintain and enhance each employeeʼs capacity for productive and fulfilling work. Sonovaʼs global Body & Mind initiative aligns and supports its various prevention measures. The health initiative rests on four main pillars:

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. As an example, health coaches at our operation centers lead employees in three-minute break-time exercises to reduce muscle tension. Some employee wellbeing activities at Group companies were adapted due to COVID-19 restrictions. Among examples of local activities in 2020/21 were virtual coaching sessions on stress management, resilience, ergonomics, and emotional agility, virtual yoga classes, and healthy breakfast options and salad buffet for employees where working from home was not possible. Some offerings, e.g. at headquarters in Stäfa, were reduced or postponed in light of COVID-19 related restrictions, including sports groups and sports events run by employees, the use of sports changing rooms with showers, free medical check-ups, or a health awareness day.

Responsible reorganizations

At Sonova, we are committed to treating our workforce responsibly. In the event of major reorganizations, such as restructuring, relocation, outsourcing, or mergers and acquisitions, we strive to reduce negative impacts on our workforce, ensure employment security, minimize compulsory redundancies, and mitigate the consequences for those made redundant.

We apply such measures on a case-by-case basis and depending on local conditions. At our headquarters in Stäfa, for example, the applicable measures include early retirements, internal mobility, financial compensation, re-training or outplacement services, case management, extended notice periods, and hardship funds.

In the past three financial years, there were no significant job cuts at Sonova affecting more than 1,000 employees or more than 5% of the total global workforce annually.

In July 2020, in line with the Groupʼs overall strategy, Sonova announced the acceleration of its structural optimization initiatives, which aim to optimize non-customer facing functions such as general administration, manufacturing, logistics, and back office. The initiatives also included streamlining the Groupʼs Audiological Care store network by combining certain store locations to improve efficiency while protecting sales. Whenever possible, employee number reductions were carried out through natural attrition. Total related job cuts affected less than 5% of the total global workforce in the 2020/21 financial year.