Equity, Diversity & Inclusion
In 2022, the Group launched our Unity@Uniphar umbrella initiative, designed to promote an inclusive culture and unite people across our business. As part of this initiative, we launched two employee resource groups – our Women’s Alliance and our Rainbow Alliance. The concept behind global employee resource groups is to create a community of support and empowerment for the people directly concerned and the people who would like to join them as allies. We want to encourage women, members of the LGBTQi+ community and their allies to connect and support each other across teams, businesses and geographies, regardless of how they identify, and where they are based.
Uniphar is also committed to an ongoing focus on developing our global talent pool and building a more diverse leadership team for the future. As at 31 December 2022, women accounted for 27% of senior management and 65% of total employees. This demonstrates an increase in female representation at both senior management level and across the global workforce during 2022.
Diversity was also a key topic at Board level during 2022, as the Chair and Company Secretary embarked on a shareholder engagement programme with investors. Diversity is a key area of focus for many of our investors. Although 25% of the Directors on the Board are female, the Board is cognisant that this falls short of the Balance for Better Business guidance of 33% female representation by 2023. In light of this, they have set a target of 33% female representation on the Board by the end of 2023. In January 2023, the Board also approved a Board Diversity Policy to formalise and expand on their commitment to diversity. The policy sets out the Board’s commitment to diversity in succession planning, to ensure an inclusive and diverse Board.
Actions we have taken to date to promote ED&I and those we intend to roll out across the Group are set out below.
Gender Pay Gap Reporting
Since 2022, organisations employing more than 250 people are required to publish information on the gender pay gap under The Gender Pay Gap Information Act 2021. A gender pay gap measures the difference between the average earnings of all women and men across the business, irrespective of the work they do, expressed as a percentage of men’s earnings. In accordance with the Republic of Ireland and UK Government Gender Pay Gap Regulations, we have published our Gender Pay Gap reports for 2022 here.
Health & Safety
The health and safety and wellbeing of our people is paramount to Uniphar. With large operational facilities across various locations, it is essential that we adhere to the highest standards of health and safety throughout the organisation, ensuring that best practice is adhered to at all times.
Uniphar provides training courses on a regular basis, including training on Good Distribution Practices (GDP), manual handling and first aid. We monitor and investigate all safety concerns and analyse this data, in order to continuously improve.
The number of reported health and safety incidents increased during 2022, with motor vehicle incidents accounting for 47% of all recorded incidents across the Group in 2022. We believe this increase in reported incidents reflects the increased emphasis on health and safety reporting across the business. We are committed to continuing to improve our health and safety risk assessment processes and incident reporting, and embedding more detailed health and safety KPIs across our businesses. This is a key area of focus for the Group for 2023.
Wellbeing
In 2022, our focus on wellbeing continued as we looked to continue to support our teams and keep our colleagues healthy and mentally well. During 2022, we implemented a wide range of initiatives to support our teams across the Group, including the roll out of our employee resource groups and a webinar on change management, resilience and support networks hosted by ‘Tackle Your Feelings’.
Like many workplaces, the emphasis on work-life balance continued, following a return to some normality during 2022 after the Covid-19 pandemic. It is fundamental that our people feel supported in achieving this balance and our Hybrid Working Guidelines assist those who can avail of hybrid working to find that balance.
We were also delighted to re-open our Group headquarters in Citywest in April 2022, following a significant re-design and refurbishment project. The space is designed to facilitate a more flexible working model with plenty of bright spaces for collaborative working and connecting with colleagues. The incorporation of plants and greenery into the design concept adds to the modern aesthetic of the redesigned workplace.