Employee development helps to build long-term competitive companies

Sales staff and product specialists play a central role in developing the organisations' customer offerings, which in turn creates the conditions for growth and profitability. Strong teams that continuously develop enable the Group to meet the market's ever-increasing demands for product and application expertise. This focus on development and growth also creates favourable conditions for employees to pursue a career within OEM.

A strong corporate culture helps to build competitive organisations

Corporate culture has played an important role in OEM's development since the company was founded 50 years ago. Over the years, a number of key words have crystallised and today the activities are characterised by a positive attitude, commitment, unpretentiousness, goal focus, openness and a long-term approach. A strong corporate culture helps create strong organisations and makes group companies attractive employers.

Long-term relationships with customers and suppliers

Strong employee trust and long-term relationships with customers and suppliers are an important part of the business model and the ambition is to constantly exceed expectations. Sales staff work closely with customers and aim to provide the best service on the market. The sales process is well organised and good business acumen makes it easier to identify and take advantage of new business opportunities. Sales staff have individual development plans that run over several years and are an important tool for developing the sales process. The product organisations work closely with the product suppliers and have face-to-face meetings, both at the suppliers' factories and at OEM's operations. For large projects, it is common for suppliers to visit customers together with OEM staff to create the best conditions for developing competitive offers.

Increasing gender equality

One of OEM's overall sustainability goals is to increase the overall number of women employed in order increase the number of women in management positions in the long term. Organisations where every individual has equal opportunities are more dynamic and have a stronger competitive advantage. The aim is to recruit two-thirds of managers internally, and senior positions are currently often held by people with a background in the sales and product organisations. This means that increasing the share of women in these areas is particularly important for achieving the gender equality objective. The technology sector is generally male-dominated and there is an over-representation of male applicants for recruitment. The focus is therefore on increasing the number of female applicants, especially within services that work closely with customers and suppliers. A series of activities are in place to maximise the chances of succeeding with this, including posing requirements on those conducting the recruitment process and giving female candidates the opportunity to meet female employees during the recruitment processes.

Development of individuals and teams

Group companies have the primary responsibility for developing the skills of their employees. In addition, key initiatives such as group-wide development programmes are undertaken both to strengthen skills and to build networks between employees. Strong teams with clear goals, both for group and individuals, are success factors and key to OEM's leadership culture. To meet our employees' expectations for development, it is important that each manager works to identify and develop people with leadership qualities who can become the leaders of the future. Since the majority of management recruitment is from within OEM, this is given high priority. Curiosity, creativity and goal-orientation are encouraged. These are important characteristics for employees' career opportunities, while contributing to the group's development. Experience from the sales and product organisations is highly valued and mobility between different operations and countries is encouraged.

New young employees strengthen organisations

An important part of building competitive organisations is to continuously reinforce them with new young employees. Interest in technology and sales are meritorious for recruitment and are also qualities that add drive and dynamism to the organisation. Induction programmes and personal development plans are used in order to ensure that new recruits settle into their tasks quickly. In the long term, this also reinforces the employee's own career development with the possibility of gradually growing into more responsible positions. OEM has a trainee programme for newly-graduated employees with degrees in engineering or economics and the potential to assume leadership responsibilities in the future. To facilitate future recruitment and raise awareness of OEM's activities, OEM also co-operates with several educational organisations, including offering internships and supervision of degree projects

Skills development

Many OEM employees stay for a long time, which is in line with the groups ambition. Continuous efforts are made to strengthen our position as an attractive employer, both to retain existing employees and to recruit new ones. Personal development is important to employee satisfaction and happiness. Annual performance reviews and individual development plans play an important role in the continuous competence development. Development plans are customised based on a follow-up of the previous years' activities and the employee's ambitions combined with the objectives and needs of the organisation. Effective employee development processes are also an important tool for identifying new leadership candidates.

Healthy lifestyle and good working environment

Happiness and health are essential for enabling employees to perform and develop throughout their career, both individually and as part of a team. OEM encourages its employees to adopt a healthy lifestyle by, for example, supporting exercise activities. Workplaces must provide an attractive, safe and healthy environment and regular investments are made to ensure this is so for those who work there. Activities designed to create good cohesion, strong teams and group dynamics are often conducted in conjunction with conferences, workplace meetings and other gatherings.

Employee numbers increased

The number of employees increased from 998 to 1054 in 2023. Of these, 32 were added through acquisitions and 24 were reinforcements to existing operations