When people feel seen: A new kind of workplace

In 2025, we advanced a series of initiatives designed to strengthen belonging, fairness, and employee connection across all our sites.

Valuing experience: Sustaining the workforce of tomorrow

Octapharma Biopharmaceuticals in Heidelberg, Germany - and the company’s production site in Lingolsheim, France - made significant steps towards strengthening an age-inclusive workforce in 2025.

Age diversity is increasingly recognised as a strategic advantage, not a demographic challenge. Research from the OECD and the World Health Organization shows that age-inclusive workplaces benefit from higher engagement, stronger knowledge transfer, and improved organisational resilience - all crucial to sustaining productivity in ageing societies. The 2023 AARP Global Longevity Economy® report further found that companies with age -diverse teams experience up to 19% higher innovation revenue, driven by richer exchanges of perspectives.¹

The new senior policies adopted recognise experience as an enduring asset and reflect Octapharma’s broader commitment to fairness and care.

“By valuing senior talent, we preserve institutional knowledge, strengthen team cohesion, and ensure smoother transitions across generations,” says Dorothee Schaupp - Head of Human Resources at Octapharma Biopharmaceuticals - who helped shape the initiative.

“These measures go beyond compliance,” adds Sophie Klein, Director of Human Resources at the production site in Lingolsheim. “They help create a workplace where people of all ages feel seen, respected and part of something bigger.”

Inclusive onboarding connecting right from the start

In 2025, Octapharma laid out its redesigned global onboarding model to create a consistent and inclusive experience for all new colleagues through pre-boarding pages, buddy programmes, multilingual learning modules, and structured manager check-ins.

“Our goal was to make onboarding both globally consistent and locally personal,” explains Eirini Anagnostou, Group Manager Learning & Development. “Whether you’re joining in Stockholm or New Jersey, you should feel part of one Octapharma family.”

The new model also strengthens collaboration between HR and line managers - ensuring that every new employee feels guided and supported throughout their first year. Dedicated onboarding hubs provide easy access to key information and learning materials, while welcome messages from senior leaders reinforce Octapharma’s values and purpose.

To measure the impact of the onboarding experience, global surveys after three and twelve months capture feedback on engagement and integration, allowing HR and managers to continuously refine the experience. The result is onboarding as a living dialogue - not a one-time event.

Leadership that listens

In 2025, Octapharma also expanded its Inclusive Leadership programme, developed in collaboration with INSEAD, to strengthen how leaders connect across cultures and empower their teams.

For Chenxi Li - Global Medical Customer Manager for Critical Care - the programme was transformative. “I’ve always believed that leadership is about seeing and unleashing potential in others,” she says. “In a global role, collaboration across cultures is everything. Inclusive leadership is not just about fairness – it’s about performance and creating teams that truly work together.”

Chenxi works in project-based teams, and the programme helped her refine her leadership style - shifting from control to enabling others to contribute their ideas. “Diversity is not the goal; inclusion is,” she reflects. “True leadership is about creating space for others to speak up and be heard. Collaboration isn’t a slogan here; it’s how we work.”

The benefits extend far beyond individual growth. Teams are listening differently, engaging more openly across functions, and showing greater curiosity about each other’s perspectives. “When we collaborate with genuine trust and openness, everything else - performance, innovation, and growth - follows naturally,” Chenxi adds.

Through the Inclusive Leadership programme, Octapharma continues to foster an environment in which leadership and belonging go hand in hand - a key focus of the company’s long-term strategy and a reflection of its belief that inclusion is a catalyst for both human and business performance.

Fair growth: The power of calibration

To promote transparency and equal opportunity, Octapharma further refined its calibration process in 2025. The process aligns performance evaluations across business units and countries, reinforcing integrity in career progression.

By gathering leaders to review ratings collectively, the company has reduced the possibility of bias, and ensured consistent evaluation across all sites. “Calibration transforms integrity from a value into a practice,” says Gerda Brandt, Senior Director of Human Resources at Octapharma Vienna. “It ensures that decisions about people are grounded in facts, not perceptions.”

Calibration has evolved into a developmental dialogue in which managers exchange perspectives and refine their understanding of what high performance looks like across the organisation. “The process also provides a data-driven foundation for talent development and succession planning - ensuring the company builds a strong and sustainable pipeline of future leaders,” adds Charlotte Jernbom, Senior Director of Human Resources at Octapharma Stockholm.

Managers and employees alike report greater confidence in evaluations and career discussions - reinforcing a culture of transparency, fairness, and mutual trust across the organisation.

Listening to every voice

As our latest Global Employee Survey achieved our highest participation to date at 55 percent, one thing is evident: our people are eager to be heard. In 2025, we expanded the survey to include almost the entire Octapharma Group, a natural step in the evolution of our listening practices. Gathering insights from every site strengthens our ability to turn employee perspectives into meaningful action and shows that inclusion is not a slogan but part of how we work every day.

The results paint a consistent picture: colleagues feel respected and included, and they experience diversity and inclusion not as statements, but as daily reality. Leadership trust also stands out, with employees pointing to fairness, clarity and support when it matters most. In the words of Wolfgang Hofmann, Group Director Learning & Development: “These results reveal a culture which our people genuinely feel part of - and one they are ready to keep shaping with us.”

“Together, all of these initiatives have defined Octapharma’s 2025 engagement journey,” says Fany Chauvel, Group Vice President Human Resources. “By fostering fairness, connection, and trust across all teams, we’re building a culture in which every colleague feels valued and empowered to grow.”

References

^{1. AARP Thought Leadership. (2019). The Longevity Economy® Outlook: How People Ages 50 and Older Are Fueling Economic Growth, Stimulating Jobs, and Creating Opportunities for All. AARP Thought Leadership, Washington-DC. Accessed November 10, 2025. Accessible at: global-longevity-economy-report.doi.10.26419-2Fint.00052.001.pdf}