Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Danfoss’ foundation is our high-performing and diverse teams. We strongly believe that taking care of our people and our working environment – where everyone feels engaged, respected, and included – is essential for Danfoss’ growth journey.

The diversity of our employees drives high-performance, accelerates innovation, enables creative solutions, and optimizes agility in an evolving world. This is especially relevant with our expanding global footprint and our strategic intention to lead the green transition.

At Danfoss, we aspire to foster an inspiring and inclusive workplace that unleashes the full potential of our people and empowers them to thrive in a purpose-driven career. We are committed to delivering an engaging employee experience that values and respects all aspects of diversity – the seen and unseen – and creates an environment of belonging.

We are committed to creating sustainable and long-term impact through a comprehensive Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion roadmap and key performance indicators that cover the entire employee experience. We have defined what success looks like when we deliver on our three focus areas:  

• Recruitment: Recruit diverse talent by continuously improving our attraction, selection, and hiring practices.
• Retention: Retain diverse talent by creating an environment of belonging through communities of shared identity, experience, and interests, as well as providing resources that empower leaders and teams to foster inclusion.
• Representation: Increase diverse representation by optimizing our talent-management practices and digital platforms and accelerating development through impactful learning experiences, including training and mentoring. 

To achieve our strategic objectives and accelerate our ambition, we are intentionally integrating equity into our employee experience. In 2023, we will broaden our focus from Diversity & Inclusion to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). Equity entails treating everyone fairly and in so doing, we will enhance our focus on promoting fairness and addressing possible barriers in processes and practices related to recruitment, retention, and representation at Danfoss. This includes diversifying the composition of our management teams to accelerate innovation, enable creative solutions, and optimize agility.  

Danfoss ERGs provide employees with an outlet to help shape the organizational culture and create an environment of belonging through communities of shared identity, experience, and interests, as well as providing resources that empower leaders and teams to foster inclusion.

Each Global ERG is sponsored by two executives, including a member of the Group Executive Team (GET). Emphasizing that Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion is strongly embedded in Danfoss’s purpose and strategic priorities.

Alongside our ERGs, we established ten new Regional Inclusion Councils. The councils represent a global perspective providing solutions by identifying and eliminating systemic barriers to be able to provide an even more inclusive workplace for everybody.

Launched global ERGs include:

• Danfoss MULTICULTURAL & NATIONS – focusing on employees of all ethnicities/nationalities and allies
• Danfoss GENDERS – focusing on employees of all gender identities (i.e., women, men, non-binary) and allies
• Danfoss ABILITIES – focusing on employees with mental and/or physical disabilities and allies
• Danfoss GENERATIONS – focusing on employees of all age groups and allies
• Danfoss PRIDE – focusing on employees of the LGBTQ+ community and allies

Our high-performing and diverse teams are the foundation of our success. 
 
Externally, Danfoss has been recognized by global media outlets for our efforts in fostering a diverse and inclusive workplace. 

• The Financial Times ranked Danfoss on the “FT – Diversity Leaders 2022” list. Results reflect the fields of age, gender, ethnicity, disability, LGBTQ+, and general diversity.
• Forbes listed Danfoss among “The World’s Top Female-Friendly Companies in both 2021 and 2022.” The survey recognizes companies that lead the way when it comes to supporting women inside and outside the workforce.
• Forbes named Danfoss among the “World’s Best Employers” in both 2021 and 2022, acknowledging our efforts to create a great workplace. 

Our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I) priorities include increasing the representation of women and supporting their career development at all levels. Ensuring inclusion and representation of women in STEM is important because diversity of thought drives innovation and will support Danfoss’ ambition to lead the green transition. Women represented only 28% of engineering graduates and 33% of all researchers in STEM worldwide in 2022 [1]. We are working towards closing the gender gap across all roles, including in STEM. Currently, 29% of our workforce with a science background are women. In line with our ESG ambition and targets, we aspire to have at least 30% women in leadership positions by 2025.

Danfoss’ Global Mentoring Program accelerates talent development to enable a purpose-driven career path for our pipeline of executive talent. We’re committed to mentoring because we know it boosts employee engagement, strengthens Danfoss’ culture, and increases retention of high-potential employees.

In Danfoss’ Global Mentoring Program, Group Executive Team members and other senior leaders mentor high-potential employees from across the business. They share their personal experiences and insights to support mentees’ professional development, build competencies, and accelerate their careers.

Danfoss’ CEO Kim Fausing has been a mentor to talented women over the years, investing in the mentoring program for women and supporting our strong D&I agenda at Danfoss.

Our integrated annual report gives our stakeholders a holistic view of Danfoss’ business, value drivers, strategy, governance, and performance. It combines key information on our financial, sustainability and ESG-related performance.