SUSTAINABILITY INFORMATION (2021 Annual Report)
Mentice is a global company with operations worldwide. It is therefore obvious for Mentice to work for diversity and equality, which for example can be seen by the fact that the company has 21 nationalities employed in the group.
Mentice’s operations comply with local regulations as well as national and international ethics rules. Mentice has a Code of Conduct policy, and all employees get training every year. Mentice also strives to minimize the use of resources in production and to achieve continuous environmental improvements. Mentice expects its suppliers to do the same.
Mentice strives to have a positive impact on the countries in which the company operates, and Mentice follows the OECD’s Transfer Pricing guidelines, which work for a fair allocation of the company’s taxes between the countries in which it operates. Mentice believes that part of its success depends on the culture, experience and approach that characterizes the organization, and the company strives continuously to maintain an environment free from discrimination which means a consensus with regards to equality and diversity for the entire business of Mentice.
The company also works actively to increase the number of women among its employees in typical male positions. Mentice works actively to improve the situation in healthcare where high workloads and outdated working methods are often a cause of burnout and insufficient quality of the delivered healthcare.
The company is convinced that a better structure for training and continuous improvement, including an open dialogue on improvement, will radically improve the working environment as well as quality and results.
SUSTAINABILITY INFORMATION (2020 Annual Report)
Sustainability
As a leader in the field of endovascular simulators and solutions used to prevent treatment errors, sustainability topics is on the top of our mind on a global basis, both strategically and in our day-to-day activities. With business operations in more than 150 countries, of which some are classified as high-risk countries from an environmental, human rights or corruption perspective, we work hard to ensure that we pursue our business with focus on respect, responsibility and care.
Mentice Code of Conduct is a world-wide policy that sets the standards on how we conduct business, ethically and in compliance with applicable laws and regulations. It applies to all employees and everyone that works on our behalf, and it outlines Mentice’s expectations of business partners and what our stakeholders can expect from us. In 2020, the global pandemic presented us with challenges unprecedented to the world. Through collaboration and close relations with suppliers and business partners, we were able to support our customers as well as our employees and consultants through the different stages of the crisis. We have shown ability to adapt our business and cost flexibility, but also build and deliver new solutions and processes with quality throughout the organisation. Our ISO 9001 certification has given us the opportunity to drive sustainability and performance, revolving around environment, resources and people in a new way of working.
ENVIRONMENT
Mentice’s environmental work is carried out within the frame of our business operations and sphere of influence, where the environmental work shall contribute to a sustainable society, creating continuous improvement, prevent pollution and achieve sustainable profitability and a positive brand. We encourage and support initiatives taken by our suppliers to promote sustainability and follow up in order to ensure compliance with our environmental demands. Mentice takes environmental issues seriously and strive to reduce emissions to air, ground and water. Mentice also strives to minimize the use of resources in production and aim for continuous environmental improvements. Mentice expects its suppliers to do the same. Mentice expects each supplier to follow the national laws and regulations of the country in which the supplier operates. In addition to national environmental laws and regulations, the supplier shall comply with Mentice’s environmental requirements. Mentice’s environmental requirements applies for all suppliers and factories involved in all processes in the production chain of Mentice’s products. Each supplier is responsible for informing and controlling that its subcontractors follow the requirements.
SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
Mentice works today with the future in mind. We do not only take responsibility for our products, through our longterm CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) work, we also act to bring about good working conditions, a sustainable environment, good ethics and uphold human rights. Mentice therefore commits to: The Rights of Labour, including representation, working hours and conditions; occupational safety, comparative and equitable rates of pay and terms of employment and respect for diversity. The Rule of Law in business practices, including corporate governance; accountancy standards; transparency and avoidance of conflicts of interest; respect for contract; free competition; condemnation of business malpractice, malfeasance, bribery and monopolistic behaviour; respect for, and protection of, trade secrets, confidential data and R&D content; a responsible approach to intellectual and intangible property rights in generation, use and protection at law. Mentice works actively to improve the situation in healthcare sector, where high workloads and outdated working methods are often a cause of burnout and insufficient quality of the delivered healthcare. We are convinced that a better structure for training and continuous improvement, including an open dialogue on improvement, will radically improve the working environment as well as quality and results. As an example of Mentice’s social commitment, we have entered into a collaboration with RAD-AID (www.rad-aid.org) where we provide the organization with simulation equipment and training so that RAD-AID can offer competence development to the world’s resource-exposed areas. More information about this collaboration can be found on page 36-37.
MENTICE’S CODE OF CONDUCT
Mentice’s Code of Conduct enables everyone within the company to uphold the highest ethical standards in all situations, and across all Mentice´s locations. The Code of Conduct provides direction on how to navigate challenges in the day-to-day work. It also guides everyone to make the best decisions when clear and easy answers may not be readily available. Mentice’s Code of Conduct sets the framework for what Mentice demands on management, staff, consultants, advisors and suppliers. All companies wholly owned by Mentice are bound equally by the Code of Conduct. All of Mentice’s suppliers and other business partners are expected to adhere to similar standards to those reflected in the Code of Conduct. Compliance with such standards is a prime factor when selecting our business partners.
HEALTH, WELLBEING AND SAFETY
The health, safety and wellbeing of employees, consultants and business partners is always the first priority at Mentice. Mentice’s Policy on Work Environment gives direction on how health and wellbeing shall be handled within the company. The year 2020 was marked by Covid-19, and as a result demand and business activity levels were impacted. Mentice’s primary focus has been to ensure the health, safety and well-being of all our employees and consultants also through the pandemic. Mentice took action across operating countries and at all levels. Activities, communication, training campaigns and guidelines were quickly in place to adapt the business and workplaces to secure our employees and business partners. Awareness and focus on safety and health has also resulted in our long-term focus on having a zero vision for work-related accidents and illness. To achieve this, Mentice has worked actively through strong and competent leadership, clear KPI’s, with processes and guidelines connected to these issues implemented. Supported by the human resource department, external expertise and competitive health benefit insurances, 2020 has been a year with focus on communication, participation and proactive activities to provide a healthy, safe and creative environment and corporate culture for everyone.
EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES AND DIVERSITY
Mentice takes pride in having a diverse workforce, and our aspiration is to help everyone reach their full potential. We recruit, select, evaluate and promote employees and applicants based on objective criteria without regard to gender, marital or parental status, ethnic or national origin, sexual orientation, religious belief, political affiliation, age, disability or other categories protected by law. At Mentice, we believe that diversity drives performance by enriching creativity, encouraging innovation and improving business success. The responsibility for promoting diversity belongs to each part of the organization, especially our leaders. To be successful, the work includes a wide range of diversity aspects, such as culture, generations, background and gender. This work is facilitated and supported by Mentice’s human resource department in all countries where Mentice have employees or consultants. One of our overall aims is that management and workforce shall reasonably reflect the diversity of the regions and businesses of the Mentice group.
EMPLOYMENT
Mentice’s employees are our most valuable asset, and to provide safe and engaging workplaces where people can grow is an essential focus area for the company. The strategy is to invest in people, to grow talent, and to create an inclusive and people centric culture where everyone is encouraged to contribute and grow. Individual and organizational learning is essential for Mentice and for our employees. Continuous learning and development learning helps Mentice to perform current business operations and to transform for the future. From the employees’ perspective, learning is also an integral part of participation, development and growth. At Mentice, we drive learning and competency development via our own corporate plans as well as through external providers and experts. To create the best learning experience, a wide variety of formats are used such as online, on-site, face-to-face or virtual classroom training as well as webinars. This work is followed up through our performance reviews, skill Matrices and KPI’s.
HUMAN RIGHTS
Mentice is committed to support and respecting human rights. We continue to strengthen and align our human rights work with the following international frameworks that we recognize and support: UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. This framework provides support and guidance in contexts with elevated human rights risks and where local regulations are sometimes insufficient or inadequately enforced. In 2020, we initiated work to formalize and strengthen our human rights plans through our updated Code of Conduct policy and our work with ISO 9001 certification. With Code of Conduct as our guiding document, and support by Mentice’s human resource department, we set and communicate our expectations on mutual respect, non-discrimination, safe and healthy workplaces, freedom of association and collective bargaining, working hours and compensation and zero tolerance for all forms of modern slavery and child labor. We consider these to currently be the most relevant human rights issues for Mentice and continue to identify any other issues that may become relevant in close cooperation with our partners and suppliers.
RESPONSIBLE SALES
Mentice believes that through our Code of Conduct, the onboarding process, sales training and continuous dialog within the company we succeed to ensure that our business is conducted in compliance with applicable laws and regulations, including sanctions and export control regimes. In 2020, we continued our work to improve the methodology and scope around our sales processes through our Quality management system (QMS). We perform assessments with the aim to identify sustainability risks and address concerns or identified risks within group functions and management teams. In our assessments, we consider country risk levels, customer segments, end-users and potential end-use of our products. While Mentice will always compete vigorously for business, we do so fairly and in compliance with competition laws.
RAD-AID
We are very thankful for Mentice supporting our mission to improve and optimize access to medical imaging and radiology in low resource regions of the world and helping increase radiology’s contribution to global public health and patient care. It has been great collaborating with the Mentice team. Daniel Mollura, MD, RAD-AID’s President and CEO.
STRONG PROGRESS IN 2019-2020, AND AN EXCITING COLLABORATION PLAN FOR 2021
In 2019 and 2020, the collaboration achieved strong progress with many projects successfully completed. One of the highlights in 2020 was the initiation of a new fellowship at University of Nairobi, with the first two fellows enrolled in October 2020. The fellowship includes didactic-, simulatorand case-based teaching.
Progress made in 2019-2020:
Mentice’s plan for 2021:
RAD-AID AND MENTICE’S DEVELOPMENT PROPOSAL TO OTHER HEALTHCARE DEVICE PROVIDERS
To further improve the set of tools and modules available to RAD-AID and all people befitting from its collaboration with Mentice, the parties have put forward a two-fold proposal to healthcare device partners interesting in joining the collaboration:
In addition to the obvious benefits within the RAD-AID program, the healthcare device partners joining this effort would be able to benefit from increased visibility in the targeted regions, enable a broader adoption of IR procedures and devices, improve their visibility among public healthcare entities and facilitate the creation of new modules with a global market potential.
