SOCIAL IMPACT

Tecan is very aware of the enormous responsibility it bears for its employees, who are the foundation of the company’s successful development. The basis for working with Tecan is an open, diverse and integrated culture that focuses on dealing with one another respectfully, with the same rights and opportunities for all employees. To ensure this, personnel policies are binding at all Tecan sites around the globe. National hiring rules ensure compliance with laws on, for example, gender equality and non-discrimination. Tecan managers and employees are also held to strict ethical guidelines. These ethical guidelines are established in the  and form part of the training requirements for all employees, and are included in the Global Human Resources Management Policy, an internal document accessible by and applicable to all of Tecan.

Employees’ health and well-being, be it physical, mental or emotional, is of high importance for Tecan. We acknowledge that work has an important impact on employees’ health. That’s why we are providing programs and services to promote a healthy work environment, prevent physical and mental illness and help employees maintain their health and well-being.

Globally, a program to help colleagues strengthen resilience in difficult times was added to Tecan’s online learning portal in 2021 and continued to be a resource in 2023. In 2023 a corporate leadership program connected to our leadership principles was launched to increase psychological safety within all teams. The program also included a session focusing on respecting oneself and one’s team by emphasizing the importance of rest and energy management in a continued challenging environment.

To support employees’ health and well-being, we are continuously improving our facilities. For instance, the facilities in Hamburg and Austria were improved in 2023 by refurnishing, increase natural light and installing air-condition in the laboratories and production areas. In our Männedorf headquarters, the office space has height-adjustable ergonomic workstations, abundant natural light, and free fresh fruit provided daily and free-of-charge. Our efforts to improve the working environment in our facilities have had an impact. In our 2023 global employee survey 73% of our employees confirmed that our facilities contribute to a good working environment, compared to 65% in 2021.

In different locations across the globe sports opportunities are provided, including standup paddleboards for use on Lake Zurich, tournaments for badminton, futsal and bowling in Malaysia, bike leasing in Germany and the UK, free yoga sessions in Männedorf, and regular badminton and a running competition in China. In another example of supporting health and well-being, our team in Japan established a health committee in 2023 which resulted in a collaboration with a physician who regularly provides appointments. Additionally, online stress checks for all employees have been initiated. In Malaysia, an appreciation day was organized to highlight the value of employees and thank them for their dedication, success and camaraderie throughout the year. Photos and videos of the day were shared on Tecan’s internal social media platform, bringing everyone closer to the event and so adding a further dimension of benefit from this special occasion.

Appreciation of Tecan’s efforts to nurture an inclusive, positive workplace culture has been reflected in the results of employee surveys carried out in 2020, 2021 and 2023, which led to Tecan’s certification as a Great Place to Work™ in Switzerland, the US and Germany. The certification follows independent, anonymous Trust Index™ surveys of all employees, providing a clear and accurate picture of the workplace culture. Participation in these surveys is very high, with 92% of all employees globally sharing their views in 2023. This high participation rate across all units and countries globally shows that our employees feel safe to raise their voices and that they feel heard. In 2023, all employees who joined Tecan through the 2021 acquisition of Paramit Corporation were included in the survey. Tecan’s overall trust index in 2023 was 71% with 74% of employees stating that Tecan is a great place to work.

Follow-up actions to the employee survey carried out in 2022 were grouped into the areas: Re-thinking Leadership, Opportunities for Innovation, and Compensation and Benefits. In response to employee feedback, the Management Board renewed its focus on Tecan’s leadership principles: courage, curiosity, and respect and brutal honesty in 2022. To ensure employees experience a positive evolution of workplace culture, a Leadership Development Journey was launched in 2023 to drive the implementation of the leadership principles. All Senior Leaders were invited to a two-day workshop in 2023 focusing on the leadership principle “respect and brutal honesty,” elaborating on how to build a psychologically safe environment. The program is continuing in 2024, focusing on the leadership principles "courage and curiosity". Also, Tecan’s Chief People Office and her guests have discussed the practical implications of our Leadership Principles in various People Podcasts. Demonstration of these principles is also included in the annual performance appraisal process to ensure discussion and implementation on all leadership levels of the organization. Outstanding leadership related to living Tecan´s Leadership Principles was celebrated for the first time in 2022 at the Global Leadership Conference with Leadership Awards, to highlight the qualities Tecan expects from all senior leaders. Leaders from global sites were nominated for these awards by their peers and recognized by the Management Board. These awards were bestowed again in 2023 and will continue in 2024. 

Based on survey results, it was also decided that the 2021 "fall forward" initiative would continue in 2023: employees are encouraged to take well-calculated risks, not to be afraid of failure but to learn from experience, communicate learnings transparently and move forward fast. The third 2022 Management Board-led initiative in response to employee feedback looked at how Tecan rewards employees for their work, going beyond simple, financial compensation and looking at the total rewards package. While this initiative continues, there were some milestone achievements in 2022. A notable change was in flexible working arrangements, designed to help employees to balance their professional and private responsibilities. The existing arrangements for flex time and part-time working were complemented by 10 days working from anywhere and learning hours. The impact of this was seen in the 2023 employee survey, in which 69% of employees confirmed that they feel encouraged to balance their work life and their personal life compared to 60% in 2021.

In the 2023 employee survey 60% of the employees confirmed that effective measures were implemented following the last employee survey compared to only 54% in the 2021 survey. In future, employee surveys will be carried out globally every two years, with the goal that by 2025, increased engagement survey participation and trust level scores are achieved, compared to the 2021 baseline.

One of Tecan’s strategic initiatives is to build, empower and strengthen people in order to achieve their maximum potential. Via the Learning@Tecan program Tecan offers a wide range of trainings built upon its values of trust, highest standards and ambition. Trainings are offered both internally and externally and they are conducted in various forms such as instructor-led, virtual, and self-learning. Employees may choose from a variety of courses around topics like Leadership & Culture, Skills Learning and Exchange@Tecan. The Learning@Tecan Program constantly evolves to meet the changing needs of employees and the organization. It is also adapted to the local needs across the different sites and organizations around the globe. In 2023, Learning@Tecan implemented a new interface to allow for scalability and facilitate the learning and engagement of all learners worldwide.

Tecan operates in highly regulated markets such as the diagnostic sector. Therefore, ongoing professional and continuing training is a key requirement critical to business. Due to strict industry-specific requirements, Tecan must comply with requirements and guidelines set forth by various supervisory authorities and must also demonstrate that its employees possess the required knowledge. Aided by an SAP-based system, Tecan ensures that training processes are carried out to a sufficient standard throughout the company. Each individual employee receives a personalized training profile, enabling employees and line managers to check and update the current training status. It also ensures that information on training levels is available electronically at all times for audits. Tecan is working continuously to develop and improve this learning system. It is intended to provide an effective performance record and offer employees the best possible training opportunities.

In 2022, Tecan was able to extend training opportunities by offering all employees access to a leading online training platform, and 20 hours of paid working time in which to pursue their personal development. In 2023, 80% of our employees took advantage of the opportunity and spent an average of 58 minutes per month on the online platform. Trainings conducted by Product Management, mandatory trainings assigned via the online Learning Services Organization platform, and external trainings organized and financed by line managers are also among the development opportunities provided at Tecan.

To further embed and scale our Leadership Principles a Senior Leadership Development journey was started in 2023. In the first year the focus was respect and brutal honesty. In 2024 the focus will be courage and curiosity. The aim is to offer senior leaders the opportunity for transformational development to strengthen and deepen their leadership skills. Further it ensures that our leaders, as a senior leadership team and as individuals, take ownership in further shaping Tecan’s culture.

Tecan focuses on developing its top talent and future leaders through the global talent management program Next Gen Tecan, initiated in 2019. The aim of this 18-month-long program is to offer nominated employees a broad experience within Tecan. In addition to workshops focused on different aspects of personal and professional development, the program includes personal mentoring from one of the Management Board members. The second phase provides an opportunity to get to know Tecan better, including deep dives in different departments, sites and regions. The third phase focuses on concrete projects, each sponsored by members of the Management Board. Since the beginning of the program, 20 colleagues have completed it successfully and some have already taken on larger responsibilities or roles within Tecan. The program continues and in 2023 we had 12 new participants.

To foster personal growth and career development, Tecan maintains a mentoring program that is available to all employees. In addition to the general program, special programs such as diversity mentoring are offered. The mentoring program can help employees in meeting their career goals, get practical advice, encouragement or support, and further develop capabilities and personal skills. Overall, it supports networking within the company and has a positive impact, improving leadership and social competencies. 

Tecan’s annual performance review process is offered to all (100%) our employees. Our Line Managers are strongly encouraged to seek employee input and provide regular feedback regarding performance outside of the formal review process.

Tecan participates in providing high quality apprenticeships, to train future generations. There were 18 people enrolled in Tecan’s Swiss and Austrian apprenticeship program in 2023, contributing to UN SDG 8.6, to “substantially reduce the proportion of youth not in employment, education or training.” 

Excluding apprenticeships, on average Tecan employees enjoyed an estimated 49 hours of training per employee in 2023, with a total of more than 14,000 hours spent on Learning@Tecan courses, amongst 33 types of trainings.

Tecan strives to create an innovative and positive workplace culture, enabling Tecan to have a beneficial social impact and strengthening business performance. It is well-known that a diverse and positive working environment improves motivation and performance, when everybody feels safe and can bring their full self to work it increases productivity and innovation. As a global and highly innovative company serving research and clinical markets, it is important to Tecan to create an environment of trust where everybody can make their voice heard, an additional example of putting our corporate values into action. A well-defined Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) program is a key part of this effort. 

In 2023 an important milestone in Tecan’s DEI journey was achieved as we developed a vision, a strategy framework and a roadmap with actions for 2024. The DEI vision defined aims at achieving Tecan's purpose by embracing uniqueness, providing an inclusive and psychologically safe environment where our actions drive equity to ensure our employees can feel a sense of belonging and make an impact. Tecan’s efforts as an employer support UN SDG 5.1, to “End all forms of discrimination against all women and girls everywhere” and contribute to UN SDG 5.5, “to ensure women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic, and public life”. They also support UN SDG 8.5, “to achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all women and men, including for young people and persons with disabilities, and equal pay for work of equal value.”

Tecan conducted employee engagement surveys in 2020, 2021 and 2023 and attained particularly high scores on questions related to diversity and inclusion in 2023. 84% of employees said that people at Tecan are treated fairly regardless of their race or ethnic origin, sexual orientation, age or their gender. Employee feedback confirmed that Tecan is succeeding in its aim to offer a positive culture and a workplace free from discrimination, in which each employee has equal opportunity to reach their full potential.

The strong message from employees that they feel secure to be themselves and can have a direct impact on progress at Tecan has been reflected in our articulation of what makes us special as an employer, “Stay unique and make it count.” This statement is directed both to current and future employees in all our global locations. 

Tecan’s commitment to diversity and inclusion is incorporated in the Code of Conduct, Human Rights and Responsible Business Practices policy, and Supplier Code of Conduct, all of which are found on tecan.com, as well as in Tecan’s internally available Employment Principles. In cases where these policies are contravened, employees and other stakeholders can report this anonymously via Tecan’s independent third party whistleblower service, as described in the Governance section of this report. In 2023, six whistleblower hotline reports were made covering various topics, with one DEI-related case, in which investigations are ongoing.

To create a solid foundation for a successful DEI program and continue building a positive inclusive working culture we have launched a Senior Leadership Development Journey in 2023. It focuses on bringing our Leadership principle of "respect and brutal honesty" to life by providing learning on how to create psychological safety, how to build an open feedback culture, and how to improve awareness of how to use and give space in business context and cascading this knowhow through the whole organization. 

Tecan aims for greater diversity in senior management, and in recent years initiatives have been introduced that are known to increase gender equality in this regard, including:

• Flex time, allowing employees wherever possible and subject to local law, to choose when their required worktime is completed
• Support of part time work, which encourages equal sharing of caregiver responsibilities
• Diversity mentoring, a global program designed to embrace, support and empower diversity by matching selected candidates with members of senior management who receive training for this program. 

Tecan joined WeAdvance in 2020 and is therefore able to offer employees access to the WeAdvance cross-company exchange and mentoring program as well as to research and events offered by the association. The goal of WeAdvance is to “reach a sustainable minimum of 30% female representation at all management levels across all member companies by 2030.” Tecan is supporting the effort by already having a 30.4% female representation across all management levels, with representation at 43% in the Board of Directors, 25% in the Extended Management Board and an overall female representation of 43% across the globe.

An equal pay audit conducted in 2021 and verified by an independent third party auditor showed no gender-based inequality in pay at Tecan in Switzerland, and it is anticipated that similar audits will be carried out in additional Tecan locations in future years, beginning with Germany and Austria.

Tecan has a positive social impact at locations around the world by offering high-quality employment and by engaging with the communities in which employees live and work through activities such as volunteering and financially supporting charitable organizations.

In Tecan US, Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) provide new employees with welcoming communities of colleagues with shared interests and experiences, and these groups also highlight diversity within Tecan. ERGs are one of the leading channels through which Tecan supports employees in engaging with their communities. 

WEW (Women Empowering Women) was founded as an ERG in 2021 and has 32 members. This year WEW went Global and has added members from other regions and divisions around the world. 

WEW stays very active on Tecan’s internal social media platform and shares regular updates with colleagues globally highlighting women in various fields of work. Bi-monthly mixers allow members to get to know each other better, network, and support one another.

Events organized by WEW in 2023 included hosting an International Women in Engineering Day guest speaker honoring this year’s theme of “Make Safety Seen”. A virtual celebration of International Women’s Day highlighted a few short videos centered around this year’s theme of “Embrace Equity,” and with the Service WEW team two guest speakers from Oak Ridge National Labs were hosted, providing a Q&A focusing on how to empower and motivate women in engineering.

WEW also led a joint ERG venture to create a Tecan US Cookbook, From Lab to Table: Tecan’s Employee Cookbook, which shared recipes from members of all Tecan’s ERGs as well as highlighting these and other employee led groups at Tecan US. 

In 2023, in honor of APIDA, Asian Pacific Islander Desi American Heritage Month, WEW shared a series of articles celebrating Women in STEM from the Asian Diaspora. WEW also shared a series of posts centered around Women’s Equality Day to both educate and empower around the rights gained during that adoption to the US constitution in 1920.

In addition, WEW hosted a 2023 Community Outreach Effort called Women Empowering Women Period. This was a period product donation drive in support of Period Power, a dignity program of Diaper Bank of North Carolina. This project aligns with the WEW ERG mission statement by supporting females, giving back to our community, bringing awareness to period poverty, and helping de-stigmatize menstruation. We donated a total of 324 tampons, 531 maxi pads, 760 panty liners, 32 cleansing wipes and 36 pairs of underwear. These products will be distributed by Period Power, a dignity program of Diaper Bank of North Carolina, to local schools and community partners. 

As with Te-CAAP, WEW events are open to all Tecan colleagues and are playing a significant part in creating the positive workplace culture Tecan strives to uphold.

In 2023, Tecan welcomed the creation of a new ERG, Te-Proud with the mission to create a safe, inclusive, and supportive environment for LGBTQIA+ employees and allies within Tecan. They aim to foster understanding and acceptance, promote professional growth and development, and advocate for the rights and well-being of all their members, regardless of their sexual orientation, gender identity, or expression. By promoting visibility, awareness, and education, they strive to empower our LGBTQIA+ colleagues and allies, enhancing our organization's culture of diversity, equity, and inclusivity. Beside regular exchanges they organized a guest speaker from a best practice company. The exchange provided us with valuable perspectives and contributed significantly to our ongoing dialogue on inclusivity and diversity.

The Tecan Scholarship Program was launched in the US in 2023 with the purpose to provide a means for Tecan employees to encourage young people in their community to pursue their interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (S.T.E.M.) and the environment. The scholarships are awarded to students participating in S.T.E.M. and environmentally focused programs. The Scholarship Committee is comprised of active Tecan employees who have an interest in providing opportunities for students to pursue their passions in S.T.E.M. and environmental programs.

In 2023, Tecan was proud to sponsor the Regional Games of the Special Olympics, Switzerland, held in Rapperswil, close to our Männedorf headquarters. Special Olympics is the world’s largest sports movement for people with intellectual disabilities, with a vision to use the power of sport to create an inclusive world. The participants are grouped into performance classes to ensure everyone has the opportunity to win, as well as benefit from participation, improving self-esteem, and exploring personal physical fitness. 

2023’s event saw more than 300 athletes from across Switzerland participating in seven different sports: football, tennis, golf, floorball, table tennis, bowling, and boccia. As a corporate sponsor, Tecan’s support was instrumental in making this event possible. Employees were able to volunteer for the event, helping to foster a spirit of community engagement and inclusivity. And, during the Tecan’s summer party, the sale of the paintings created by Tecan managers at an earlier occasion raised an additional CHF1,650 for the Special Olympics.

Tecan’s main business activities are the research, design and development of our products, the final assembly of these at our production sites, and the related sales and service activities. Tecan markets products directly to end users, and as an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) Tecan also develops and manufactures OEM instruments, components and sub-modules. The products manufactured by Tecan are used in laboratories for life science research, in applied markets and in clinical diagnostics as well as in the medical area. The largest product group comprises laboratory automation platforms, benchtop instruments, as well as instrument components and sub modules. "Health and Safety" in this context refers to the working conditions Tecan provides, including the prevention of physical and mental harm to workers as well as the promotion of workers’ health. It includes the effective management of health risks and issues and programs regarding occupational health and safety, and employee well-being. 

Tecan has a Global Environment, Health and Safety (EHS) office reporting to the Executive Vice President, Operations. This office manages the environmental impact of Tecan’s sites and the occupational health and safety of all stakeholders along the entire value chain, and is responsible for the implementation of Tecan’s Global EHS policy, which can be found on . This policy is supplemented by Tecan’s Global EHS Management System which is based on ISO 14001 and ISO 45001 requirements. In 2023, Tecan’s Männedorf headquarters were certified to these ISO standards. The management system sets the governance and provides a framework with detailed standard operating procedures (SOPs) such as EHS roles, responsibilities and authorities, risk assessment, emergency preparedness and response or internal audit program. This helps to prevent and mitigate systematically any danger and risk and to facilitate continuous improvement. The documents are stored in Tecan’s internal documents management system (TMS), which is available to all employees. 

The day-to-day implementation of the Global EHS policy is led by the local EHS Management Representatives. For the majority of Tecan manufacturing and development sites this is a EHS subject matter expert (SME). In other sites it is led by local site managers. Tecan at a minimum meets the legal health and safety standards in every location in which we operate. An ongoing global program is underway to ensure complete alignment of local implementation with the global standards and to bring additional benefits of best-practice and knowledge sharing. All Tecan employees (100%, 3573) and workers who are not employees but whose workplace is controlled by Tecan benefit from Tecan’s approach to health and safety. 

On an annual basis, risk assessments are carried out and/or reviewed by local SME to identify potential risks at the workplace, taking into consideration routine and non-routine activities, normal operating conditions, shutdown and startup conditions, and emergency conditions. Risk management activities are executed, coordinated and reported by employees with management function, with the involvement of a risk management team. In the event of special hazards, an EHS specialist with the necessary expertise must be consulted. The process follows the steps of risk identification, risk estimation, risk evaluation and risk control. Whenever possible, risk control measures consider the hierarchy of controls. Through this process, no work-related hazards that pose a risk of high-consequence injury have been identified. The assessments are reviewed regularly, in the event of any relevant change to the workplace, and after any incident in the area. Incidents in the form of work-related injuries and ill health are investigated by the sites and corrective measures to prevent recurrence are defined, implemented and their effectiveness reviewed by a team usually made up of the employee concerned, their line manager and the local safety officer. Relevant deviations are communicated in order to be able to learn from these and to raise employees’ awareness. 

Tecan encourages effective collaboration, consultation and active participation of employees for example in workplace risk assessment, continuous improvement activities, safety committee meetings, and training for emergency responses, thus leveraging their knowledge and experience to continuously further improve safety culture and performance. Should an unexpected health or safety situation arise, Tecan employees are encouraged to report this to their line manager or site EHS manager. In this same way, an employee could choose to remove themselves from a situation they felt could cause injury or ill health, without fear of reprisals. Anonymous reports can always be made via Tecan’s whistleblower hotline, which is described in the Governance section of this report. In Tecan’s 2023 global employee survey, 89% of respondents reported that “this is a physically safe place to work”. The survey had a response rate of 92%.

Employee representatives, works councils and government agencies such as the Swiss Accident Insurance Fund (Suva) actively help to shape Tecan’s local EHS measures, are involved in decision-making processes and, together with the organization, also evaluate the effectiveness of the measures taken. Works council and employee representatives are part of formal joint management-worker health and safety committees which according to global procedures have to meet at least once a year. These committees are chaired by the site manager and are used to monitor and discuss performance and deviations (e.g. incidents, non-conformities), and define tasks and measures. The committee has the authority to make site-relevant decisions regarding health and safety and the EHS management system.

EHS competence is key to embedding a Group-wide EHS culture and achieving EHS objectives. All employees and employees of third-party companies must be aware of their individual EHS responsibilities and their impact on everyday work. In addition, they will be effectively trained. The EHS trainings concept is based on the legal requirements and regulates what, who, when and how training takes place. This includes but is not limited to e.g. EHS induction training, EHS work place instructions, EHS processes. Refresher training is provided at regular intervals as required by law or at appropriate intervals.

In the first quarter of each year, the EHS management system is evaluated by the EHS office, which reviews EHS performance, deviations and lessons learned, risks and opportunities and the adequacy of resources, among other things. The results are shared and reviewed by Tecan’s CEO and Management Board and actions are defined to ensure continued suitability, adequacy, and effectiveness of the management system.

Quantifiable data relating to Tecan’s Health and Safety performance is shared in the Data section of this report. Tecan’s Health and Safety certification is shared on tecan.com.

For Tecan, our customers and partners are at the core of all business activities. A satisfied customer base is an important cornerstone for Tecan’s long-term growth and purpose of scaling healthcare innovation globally. Understanding what matters most to our customers and driving continuous improvements is essential to build trusted partnerships and ensure high satisfaction levels and loyalty to Tecan. 

Regularly assessing customer satisfaction (CSAT) and customer loyalty is strongly embedded in Tecan’s business practices. From a process perspective, CSAT is defined through a dedicated Standard Operation Procedure (internal document SOP 10400TMs02) as part of Tecan’s After Sales Care process architecture. Furthermore, ambitious CSAT KPIs are defined as company-wide variable pay targets. The SOP describes different modalities for assessing CSAT, including relational as well transactional customer satisfaction surveys, which are conducted regularly and the results of which are analyzed and shared with the relevant stakeholders. The surveys show that the vast majority of customers are satisfied with Tecan’s products and services, with the majority describing themselves as “very satisfied” or even “completely satisfied”. These measures also have a high correlation with customer loyalty. 

It is critical for Tecan that transactional CSAT results indicating low satisfaction scores are acted upon in a timely manner to mitigate possible business impacts immediately. Tecan’s after installation CSAT process therefore provides concrete guidance for customer follow-up for low satisfaction cases.

In addition, longer-term process improvements are driven through the annual strategy deployment cycle reviewed quarterly by the Management Board. Tecan’s commitment to high customer satisfaction is central to our customer promise and sustainable business growth, and Tecan has the tools and processes in place to govern these activities in a measurable way, with defined responsibilities, and with a clear visibility to the relevant stakeholders.

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