Attractive employer

Humana has 18,000 employees, all of whom strive to make a real difference for other people, every single day of their working lives. Most are employed as personal assistants, treatment assis­tants and assistant nurses, others, for example, as nurses, housing support staff and family-­based care consul­tants. Collectively, our employees possess both broad and in-­depth knowledge, and we work proactively to encourage the transfer of skills, both within and between our care areas.

Our ambition is to be the first choice for everyone who wishes to work within the care sector in the Nordic region. We want our employees to thrive, develop and stay with Humana. Recruitment is a key priority area, as is our proactive work relating to the work environment, investments in leadership development and skills development.
Providing care of the very highest quality requires both expertise and commitment. As care needs increase across the Nordic region, demand for employees within the care sector is generally also rising. The attractiveness of a care provider as an employer will, therefore, be a decisive factor in the quality of care and the chance that the provider will succeed.

In 2021 Humana received almost 90,000 job applications, an increase of 26 percent since 2017. In Humana’s annual employee survey, the employee satisfaction index (ESI) was once again high at 75 (75) , while the Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS) was +19 (+15). These are positive signs that our employee initiatives are paying off. It does not mean, however, that we intend to rest on our laurels – we will continue moving in the same positive direction.

Humana is working systematically to offer a safe and enjoyable work envi­ronment to our employees, both physi­cally and mentally. Our workplaces are spread geographically and vary depending on the nature of the opera­tion involved. Many people work at one of the Group’s hundred or so care units, at treatment homes or in an office environment. Humana’s more than 10,000 personal assistants have the assistance customers’ homes as their workplace.

Work environment policies

Humana’s code of conduct, work environment policy and diversity and inclusion policy set out the basic princi­ples for a safe and pleasant work environment. The Group­-wide work environment policies are supplemented by proce­dures and guidelines which have been collated and made available to all employees via the management system. These have been drawn up for each business area and operation and include procedures for the assessment and management of occupational health and safety risks, along with pro­cedures for preventing and managing crisis situations. Responsibility for the occupational health and safety within Humana rests with our managers and is clearly delegated.

The onboarding process for all our employees includes training relating to core values, sustainability and basic hygiene procedures. An example of a specific initiative aimed at improving the employees’ work environment is that we provide occupational health and safety trainings throughout the year. The focus of this training is on managing occupational health and safety issues in practice, carrying out risk assessments and ensuring a systematic approach to occupational health and safety.

Humana’s annual employee survey, WeYouMe, shows that a systematic approach to occupational health and safety is producing results. Amongst all employees, 75 (74) percent stated in 2021 that they felt very involved at work.

Lower levels of sick leave than within the public sector

During the year, short ­term sick leave within Humana amounted to 4.6 (4.1) percent, while long ­term sick leave amounted to 2.3 (2.0) percent (exclud­ing Finland for 2020). Overall sick leave during the year was 6.9 percent. The fact that short ­term sick leave went up compared with the previous year is primarily linked to the pandemic. Humana’s employees have lower levels of long ­term sick leave than those in public health and social care, which benefits not only the employees, but also customers and clients, the company’s productivity and profitability and, ultimately, taxpayers.

Good managers are very important with regards to employee job satisfac­tion and providing the right conditions for doing a good job. In 2021, Humana continued to invest in leader­ship, mostly through Leadership Lift. Leadership Lift includes a Group­  wide leadership programme, a web­ based manager school, a mentor programme and onboarding for new managers.

Within the framework of Humana’s manager school, we have covered topics such as occupational health and safety, gender equality, diversity and inclusion, workplace bullying, self­ leadership, difficult conversations and employment law. We have also held a number of courses to improve our managers’ digital knowledge, both by learning more about new digital working methods and by becoming more efficient in our digital support system. We have also reiterated the importance of protecting personal data through a new GDPR training course in Humana Academy’s learning portal.

Humana’s employees give our leaders high marks – the leadership index for 2021 was 79 (78).

Through Humana Academy’s learning portal, our employees have free access to quality­   assured professional devel­opment in areas such as occupational health and safety, customer interaction, quality, leadership and legislation. Around 100 of the courses are web­ based and can be taken as and when the employees need them. In addition, instructor ­led courses are offered for specific subject areas and roles. A total of 20,206 training courses were conducted throughout the Group during the year, most of them digital.

In order to promote the professional development of our employees, Humana encourages internal mobility, both within and between business areas and countries. Offering career paths enables Humana to retain capa­ble employees over a long time.

Humana has a proactive approach to promoting inclusion, gender equality and diversity. In this regard, the Group­-wide work relating to core values represents an important cornerstone.

Our core value leaders are appointed to continually bring to life the core values in Humana’s opera­tions. Issues relating to values are fre­quently brought up at workplace meetings amongst the various operations. During 2021, we stepped up our work relating to core values by appointing senior core value leaders within the business areas and working in net­works in order to promote good examples. Our annual core value week is a welcome feature to strengthen Humana’s culture further. Humana’s code of conduct is covered as part of the compulsory onboarding for new employees and forms part of every employment contract.

Gender equality at all levels

In its recruitment of managers, Humana strives to include candidates from both genders during the final phase. The proportion of women among top managerial positions in 2021 was 64 percent (65). In total, 70 (71) percent of Humana’s employees are women and 30 (29) percent are men. The company’s goal is to attract more men to areas that are dominated by women. Humana’s approach to gender equality has attracted attention externally, e.g. by the AllBright Foun­dation, which voted Humana the most gender­ equal company on the Swedish stock exchange in 2017 and 2018. In 2020, we made the top three, while in 2021 we recruited women to no less than 80 percent of the positions in Group management and, for this rea­ son, were not amongst the top posi­tions in the ranking. In 2021, Humana gained its first female CEO through the appointment of Johanna Rastad.  

One in three born outside Sweden

When it comes to diversity, Humana aims for at least 20 percent of our managers to have an international background. International background is defined as being born outside the Nordics, having at least one parent who was born outside the Nordics or having lived outside the home country for more than three years. At present, 20 percent of employees in Group management have an international background. We estimate that about one-third of all employees were born outside the Nordics or have parents that come from outside the Nordics.

Systematic efforts to counter harassment and discrimination

Humana works actively to counteract harassment, workplace bullying and discri­mination. Humana sees equal treatment as ­normal practice and believes that nobody should be discriminated against or harassed. Humana’s Code of Conduct is included in the obligatory introduction for new employees and in every employment contract. The efforts to be a more open and inclusive employer also include a collaboration with the Swedish Federation for LGBTQI Rights (RFSL). Parts of the Individual & Family operations have LGBTQI certification.

Offering a path to work

In Sweden, Humana offers jobs (for example, with employment subsidies) to people who are excluded from the labour market. This is done in collabo­ration with organisations like the Swed­ish Public Employment Service and Samhall. In 2021 we created 105 new jobs within the framework of this initia­tive, despite the ongoing pandemic. The aim was to create 200 jobs. Work­ing actively to create jobs for people excluded from the labour market is one of Humana’s corporate goals.