Commited to human and labor rights
Respecting people, human and labor rights is key to Aker. Collaboration with employee representatives has been part of The Aker Model for decades. This builds organizations with a strong workforce and executive role models.
International Framework Agreement
Through the International Framework Agreement, Aker and its
industrial companies have committed to respecting and supporting
fundamental human rights and trade union rights in the countries in
which the portfolio companies operate. The applicable principles are
laid out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the OECD
Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises and the ILO Declaration on
Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work. Aker is committed to promoting a safe and healthy working environment and has committed itself to this through the framework agreement. Together with the industrial
portfolio companies, Aker also uses its influence to ensure that the
portfolio companies’ supply chains and customers comply with the
principles set out in the agreement.
Global Works Council
Aker has a global cooperation council, the Global Works Council (GWC), in which the company, employee representatives and industrial portfolio companies are represented. Aker’s CEO and the operative companies’ top management actively participate actively in the GWC dialogue. Two GWC conferences were held in 2021, focusing mainly on operational status, strategy, the Covid-19 response, and the introduction of the new Aker Sustainability Policy. The GWC brings together liaison bodies' representatives from Angola, Brazil, England, Germany, India, Malaysia, Norway, Scotland, and the U.S.
We invest in our employees
Aker’s ambition is to promote a good working environment with high levels of wellbeing, low levels of absence to due illness and generally ensure and retain a highly skilled and motivated workforce. Read more about our commitment to our employees in our annual Sustainability report, which can be downloaded at the bottom of this web page. Across the portfolio companies, employees have access to health and wellness programs. Aker Active promotes physical activity to improve health for all Aker and the portfolio company employees.
In 2021, Aker ASA had 45 employees, of which 47% were women, and a healthiness rate of 98.7 per cent (equivalent to a sick leave of 1.3%). In the Aker-owned companies where Aker has a significant ownership, there were 23 868 own employees (direct hires) in 2021, of which 19% were women, and a total healthiness rate of 97 per cent.
Aker Active
Aker Active is an employee health and wellness program that promotes physical activity to improve health for all Aker and portfolio company employees. Aker works to ensure that the portfolio companies have able, motivated and healthy employees working under good conditions. This approach promotes a diverse, inclusive and productive working environment.
CXO – Aker’s new management program
It has always been important for Aker to develop capable executives to manage the companies where Aker is an active industrial owner. In 2021, Aker established a new executive management program, CXO, to train its future executives. The objectives of the program are to foster executives who will develop people and organizations for the future, build strong relationships and a shared leadership culture across the Aker companies. CXO also aim to prepare leaders for new opportunities within Aker, and strengthen Aker as a top executive learning and career path. The first training program started in March 2022 with ten men and ten women participating in a year-long development program.
Aker Talent Management – Attracting and developing talents
In 2021, Aker initiated a new talent management program, aiming to strengthen how Aker works to attract and develop the best talent. While the details are still under development, there is an ambition to develop a comprehensive approach that involves building talent pools through active recruitment, facilitating learning and development, offering career opportunities across the Aker group of companies, and spotting extraordinary talent to be channeled through dedicated leadership programs.
The combination of initiatives aims to make Aker best-in- class when it comes to attracting talent, reducing turnover, building skills within the organization, and allowing personal and professional growth for its employees.
Aker Scholarship gives students the opportunity to gain world-class impulses, networks and knowledge.
Aker Scholarship – investing in future leaders
Aker Scholarship supports Norwegian top talent from all fields of study to take Master and Ph.D. degrees at nine world-leading universities. Seeking to develop future leaders for business, academia, and society at large, the students are secured full funding of their studies as well as substantial guidance and practical support during their studies and early career.
Since the start-up of the program in 2015, 174 students have been offered scholarships, 28 of them in 2021. The Aker Scholarship provides funding that complements other sources of financial support, and the student will normally not incur any additional student loans during the course of his or her degree. The scholarship comes with no strings attached.
The grant is awarded by Anne Grete Eidsvik and Kjell Inge Røkke’s Charitable Foundation for Education, which is privately funded by Kjell Inge Røkke. Aker is responsible for operating the foundation, with Aker President and CEO Øyvind Eriksen chairing the foundation’s board.
Read more at: www.akerscholarship.no
The Transparency Act
The Transparency Act is a new Norwegian law which shall promote enterprises’ respect for fundamental human rights and decent working conditions in connection with the production of goods and the provision of services and ensure the general public access to information regarding how enterprises address adverse impacts on fundamental human rights and decent working conditions as well as secure public access to information.
The Act applies to larger enterprises that are residents in Norway and that offer goods and services in or outside Norway. The Act also applies to larger foreign enterprises that offer goods and services in Norway.
The Act imposes enterprises to establish guidelines, perform human rights due diligence, establish actions to mitigate risk, monitor results, stakeholder dialogue and access to remedy. The Act became effective on 1 July 2022.
Aker ASA have established guidelines and routines to safeguard human rights and decent working conditions in our business operations. Core governing documents for Aker’s management and compliance of human rights and decent working conditions are:
- Code of Conduct
- Sustainability Policy
- Aker’s Global Framework Agreement with unions
- Code of Conduct for Business Partners
Requests related to Aker’s management and compliance with the Transparency Act can be sent to transparency@akerasa.com