Caring for human resources
Human rights and workers’ conditions are put at center stage in Solvang, which deploys extended tools in order to ensure due diligence at suppliers.
Throughout the organization at sea and onshore, Solvang’s firm stance is continuity in the personnel. This means upholding responsibility in our human resources policy. Creating an attractive workplace extends farther than hiring competent people and securing compliance with HSEQ regulations. It also means appreciating the well-being and professional development of our people through employee surveys and a wide range of measures.
We will not only make sure all our own operations and workplaces perform well in the area of fair treatment of employees and compliance with human rights. We will also influence our environment to all practical ends, to commit to the same global standards.
Equality and diversity
Of the company’s office staff in Norway, 45% are women and 55% men. Women and men have equal opportunities to qualify for all types of jobs and positions, and they have equal opportunities for promotion. We actively encourage women at all levels to take part in our organization and enjoy a richly rewarding culture of diversity, opportunity and equality in rights.
Growing human capital takes decent working conditions, remuneration schemes adjusting for individual qualifications, as well as broad incentive measures including health and mental support for each and every employee. Solvang is a profoundly international organization giving space for a global range of backgrounds.
Recruitment
In addition to obvious cultural advantages, the rich composition of personal profiles attracts more highly qualified candidates to all our professions. The company strives to attract competent employees, regardless of religion, gender, race or sexual orientation. In this regard, we expect all our employees to display an extraordinary degree of tolerance, acceptance and understanding of their fellows at Solvang and throughout the supply chain, also due to our newly defined value «mutual respect».
From the employer’s side, Solvang is committed to keep sick absence on a low level, and lost time incidents at zero. On the way there, Solvang recorded a level of 0.25% sick leave on board the fleet in 2022. We had two incidents that resulted in lost time in 2022. Sick leave among the onshore employees was 3.1% in 2022, in addition to two LTIs.
Strengthening regulations
Even though transparency regulation mainly applies to Solvang’s business operations, the new Transparency Act serves an important purpose of strengthening conditions for human rights and workers’ conditions in our supply chain. Extending the rights to ensure due diligence in supplier operations is a welcome opportunity for Solvang to promote our core values of mutual respect, team spirit and quality in a wider setting.
Other regulations supporting Solvang’s human rights efforts, would be the NIS and Maritime Labour Convention, and the UN Global Compact’s guidelines for human rights, working life, anti-corruption and the environment, treated in other chapters.
Practical work
For many years, Solvang crew have been employed directly into Solvang-controlled companies, instead of working for third parties. The foremost example is maritime workers from the Philippines given employment contracts with Manila Solvang Philippines Inc. Solvang encourages all our partners to adhere to human rights and workers’ rights in their dealings with us and with others. Solvang cooperates closely with local and regional contractors and suppliers. We are certified according to the Maritime Labour Convention. This includes auditing and detailed reporting to the flag state authorities. The initiative promotes human rights throughout our industry, and ensures that our employees get the best of terms.
