SOCIAL IMPACT

Tecan recognizes the significant responsibility it holds towards its employees, who are the cornerstone of the company's success. As Tecan serves highly dynamic healthcare markets with innovative and value adding products and services, our success and competitiveness rely on attracting and developing the best talents accessible to us at our sites around the world. Our slogan “Stay unique and make it count” is a clear testimony of our conviction. Our foundation is an open, diverse, and inclusive culture that emphasizes mutual respect and equal rights and opportunities for all employees. To uphold these values, our personnel policies are mandatory at all Tecan locations worldwide. National hiring practices ensure adherence to laws concerning gender equality and non-discrimination. Both Tecan managers and employees are expected to adhere to strict ethical standards, which are outlined in our Code of Conduct. These guidelines are part of the training requirements for all employees and are included in the Global Human Resources Management Policy, an internal document accessible to and applicable across Tecan.

The health and well-being of our employees — whether physical, mental, or emotional — are of paramount importance to Tecan. We understand that work significantly impacts employees' health, which is why we offer programs and services designed to foster a healthy work environment, prevent illness, and support overall well-being.

In 2021, we introduced a program on our online learning portal to help colleagues build resilience during challenging times, and it remains a valuable resource. By 2023, we launched a senior leadership program aligned with our leadership principles to enhance psychological safety within teams, including sessions on self-respect, team respect, and the importance of rest and energy management. In 2024, we expanded our efforts with internal health and well-being posts, virtual sessions on mental health day, and a podcast featuring senior managers discussing mental health, all aimed at educating and raising awareness. Additionally, we introduced a training series to cascade content from the senior leadership program across the organization and launched the "WeCare" training for line managers to identify early warning signals, normalize mental health discussions, and address concerns, reinforcing our commitment to employee well-being.

To support employees’ health and well-being, we are continuously improving our facilities. For instance, in 2023, we enhanced our Hamburg and Austria locations by refurbishing spaces, increasing natural light, and installing air conditioning in laboratories and production areas. At our Männedorf headquarters, the office space features height- adjustable ergonomic workstations, abundant natural light, and complimentary fresh fruit provided daily. Our efforts to improve the working environment have had a positive impact. In our 2023 global employee survey, 73% of employees confirmed that our facilities contribute to a good working environment, compared to 65% in 2021. The next survey to monitor progress is planned for 2025.

Across various global locations, we offer numerous sports opportunities, such as standup paddleboarding on Lake Zurich, badminton, futsal, and bowling tournaments in Malaysia, bike leasing in Germany and the UK, free yoga sessions in Männedorf, running competitions in China and many more. Every year, we organize an internal challenge, Tecan Gives Back, to motivate employees to engage in activities and collect points for a good cause. 

One of Tecan’s strategic initiatives is to foster, strengthen and enhance the capabilities of our people enabling them to reach their full potential. Through the Learning@Tecan offerings Tecan provides a diverse array of trainings aligned with our values and our leadership principles. Trainings are offered both internally and externally and they are delivered in various formats including instructor-led, virtual, and self-learning. Employees can select from a wide range of courses covering topics like Leadership & Culture, Skills Learning and Exchange@Tecan. The Learning@Tecan offering is continually updated to address the evolving needs of employees and the organization. It is also tailored to meet local requirements across our global sites. In 2024, we have optimized our interface introduced in 2023 to enhance scalability and support the learning of our employees globally. In line with our commitment to unleashing the full potential of our employees, we launched the program "Unleash – Your Journey, Our Commitment" in 2024. This program focuses on enabling potential, growth, and opportunities. Under the focus of growth, we started a campaign highlighting employees’ ownership of their professional journey with concrete internal career examples. Additionally, we have increased internally the transparency on open positions to boost advancement opportunities. 

Operating in highly regulated sectors like diagnostics, Tecan places a strong emphasis on continuous professional development and training, which are essential for our business. Due to stringent industry-specific standards, we must adhere to guidelines set by various regulatory bodies and demonstrate that our employees possess the necessary expertise. With the support of a SAP-based system, Tecan ensures that training processes are consistently executed to a high standard across the company. Each employee receives a customized training profile, allowing both employees and line managers to monitor and update their training status. This system also ensures that training information is readily accessible for audits. Tecan is committed to the ongoing development and enhancement of this learning system to provide an effective performance record and offer employees optimal training opportunities. In 2022, Tecan extended the training opportunities by granting all employees access to a leading online training platform, along with 20 hours paid work time for personal development. In 2024, more than 1,800 of our employees utilized this opportunity collectively spending an average of 66 minutes per month on the online platform. Development opportunities at Tecan also include trainings conducted by Product Management, mandatory trainings assigned through the online Learning Services Organization platform, and external trainings organized and funded by line managers. 

To drive change within the organization and further embed our Leadership Principles, we initiated a Senior Leadership Development Journey in 2023. The first year concentrated on "respect and brutal honesty," while in 2024, the focus shifted to "courage" and "curiosity." This initiative is designed to offer senior leaders transformational development opportunities, enhancing their leadership skills and equipping them to navigate uncertainties and guide their teams through change journeys. By encouraging leaders to step out of their comfort zones and explore new perspectives and approaches, the program aims to foster stronger collaborations and solution-finding across the organization. It also ensures that our leaders, both as a team and as individuals, take responsibility for further shaping Tecan's culture.

Tecan is committed to fostering an innovative and positive workplace culture that not only enhances business performance but also has a beneficial social impact. A diverse and inclusive working environment is known to improve 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, exemplifying our corporate values in action. A well-defined Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) program is central to this effort.

In 2023 we reached a significant milestone in Tecan’s DEI journey by developing a vision, a strategy framework and a roadmap with actions for the upcoming years. The DEI vision aims to achieve 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.”

In 2024, we have made meaningful progress toward the DEI vision, framework and the roadmap launched in 2023. We developed and launched a framework to empower our employees to create Employee Resource Groups (ERG) and foster collaboration across Tecan. This framework ensures a shared understanding of ERGs and their role, enabling them to succeed. As a result, two new ERGs were created and are described on the ERG page. Throughout the year we have collaborated with our ERGs to create awareness and educate our employees, leading to a well-balanced communication approach. Additionally, we established a DEI council comprising all ERG leads and sponsors to facilitate the exchange of experiences, learn from one another, and discuss potential improvements. 

To enhance equity and consistency in our hiring process, we have implemented a new standardized recruiting guide for line managers. Our aim is to further promote fairness, ensuring that each candidate is evaluated with balanced consideration and given an equitable opportunity to demonstrate their qualifications. We also introduced a DEI Training to our leaders to emphasize the importance of DEI as a material topic and the foundation for us to remain innovative.

Tecan regularly conducts employee engagement surveys 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. In 2024, we conducted a pulse survey to assess our progress on psychological safety and inclusion. While we were encouraged by the high participation rate, the results highlighted the challenges we face. Moving forward, we aim to be more attuned to our employees’ needs and enhance clarity in our communication. Our journey to improve inclusion continues, with the next full survey planned for 2025.

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 hotline, as described in the Governance section of this report. In 2024, 17 whistleblower hotline reports were made covering various topics, with one being DEI-related and under investigation. 

To establish a solid foundation for a successful DEI program and continue cultivating a positive inclusive working culture we launched a Senior Leadership Development Journey in 2023. In the first phase it focused 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 improving awareness of how to use and give space in a business context. In 2024, we continued the journey centered on our leadership principles of "Courage" and "Curiosity" encouraging leaders to embrace new perspectives and explore innovative approaches. This experience strengthens cross-departmental and regional collaboration, equipping leaders to handle uncertainties and dilemmas. As a result, our leaders are now more interconnected, fostering an inclusive culture and empowering them to cascade these principles throughout the organization.

In 2024, Tecan reinforced its commitment to community engagement and inclusivity through diverse local initiatives and sponsorships. In Switzerland, Tecan participated in the Bike to Work campaign, promoting sustainable transport and healthy living at its Männedorf and Nänikon sites. This initiative encouraged fitness and team spirit among employees. Tecan also supported young athletes, sponsoring members of the Swiss Fencing National Team as well as floorball player Ruven Schneider. Inclusivity was highlighted through Tecan IBL's sponsorship of the Disability World Games, where employee Torsten Terkamp excelled with Paradarts Germany, winning 23 trophies. Additionally, Tecan sponsored local sports events and clubs including FC Männedorf, the Waldlauf in Männedorf, and the Handball Club Stäfa Schülerturnier. Additionally, Tecan sponsored local sports events and clubs in Männedorf and the Electronics4you robotics challenge, underscoring the commitment to innovation and education.

Tecan's philanthropic efforts included the Emphysys team's care packages for homeless women and the Tecan US office's supply drive for Hurricane Helene victims in North Carolina. In Morgan Hill, Paramit organized charitable initiatives like a canned food drive, Adopt a Family program, Christmas toy drive, and warm coat drive, demonstrating Tecan's dedication to community support.

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. The Head of EHS Office conducts an on-site EHS assessment at each site to identify best practices and gaps compared to the internal standards. In 2024, the sites of Tecan IBL in Hamburg and Tecan Paramit US in Morgan Hill have been audited. All Tecan employees (100%, 3,341) 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%.

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 deeply embedded in Tecan’s business practices. From a process perspective, CSAT is defined through a dedicated Standard Operation Procedure 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 as 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, more than 90% 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 CSAT results indicating low satisfaction are acted upon in a timely manner to quickly mitigate possible business impacts. 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.