At Ørsted, employees are part of a safe working environment where impacts are identified and managed, including impacts related to physical injuries and well-being of employees. Due to the nature of our industry, we recognize the impact to employees of potential injuries and fatalities, primarily during the construction and operation phases of our assets. Furthermore, we recognize the present impact of work-related stress and anxiety experienced among employees on a global level. Ensuring transparent and fair working conditions are rooted in our employee value proposition, where fair and competitive rewards and employment terms as well as a flexible working culture, are foundational factors. Our flexible working culture is creating additionality within many of the markets where we operate, and particularly in our US and APAC regions, as our global policies go beyond the norm. In 2024, Ørsted navigated a rapidly evolving industry landscape, necessitating organizational adjustments, including redundancies, to maintain our competitive edge. While both satisfaction and motivation levels as well as voluntary turnover remain healthy compared to industry benchmarks, the changes have had a noticeable impact on employee satisfaction and motivation and our voluntary turnover trend. This poses a short-term risk of increased voluntary turnover and lower morale, satisfaction, and heightened stress.

We work actively to ensure a safe and inclusive working environment as all employees deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. Employees can report grievances and complaints via the designated mechanisms, depending on the nature of the incident. Regardless of the reporting mechanisms and its severity level, we take all incidents seriously and handle all cases in a professional and confidential manner where all parties’ needs are taken into consideration. Access to remedy helps ensure fairness, justice, and protection for individuals and communities. It allows people to seek recourse and find a solution when they feel that their rights have been violated, promoting a more equitable and fairer workplace. If any employee feels they have experienced an instance of bullying, discrimination, or harassment, they are encouraged to seek support. We have established various grievance and complaint mechanisms for our employees, which are described on our intranet and summaries.

In 2024, we conducted a large campaign called Ørsted Safety Days with the objective of implementing Ørsted’s life-saving rules. The scope of the campaign was for sites, fabrication yards, and offices across all regions. All employees and contractors on sites were asked to join one of the Safety Day sessions, which were facilitated by different people leaders, including all Group Executive Team members. Ørsted’s life-saving rules have been developed in collaboration with G+, the Global Offshore Wind Health and Safety Organisation, to protect our employees, contractors working at our sites, and suppliers from serious incidents. The implementation of similar life-saving rules has led to a stronger safety culture and better general safety performance in other industries – the same outcome is expected in Ørsted.

With regards to gender diversity, we report to the Board of Directors on our metrics related to gender on a bi-annual basis. This includes the three levels we have under the gender balance target of at least 40% women across the Ørsted group and a variety of supporting metrics within equity, diversity, and inclusion. Our HR business partners and talent acquisition partners instruct and inform leaders on talent decisions within the context of our gender ambition.

As health and safety performance is part of the discussion on most managerial levels, we are able to react quickly to negative trends and sub-standard performance and initiate mitigating or preventive actions. To support the discussions and decisions, frequent health and safety reports are shared internally, weekly incident updates are communicated, and top QHSE enterprise risks and a dynamic risk register are ongoingly updated and monitored.

In 2024, Ørsted navigated a rapidly evolving industry landscape, necessitating organizational adjustments, including redundancies, to maintain our competitive edge. While both satisfaction and motivation levels as well as voluntary turnover remain healthy compared to industry benchmarks, the changes have had a noticeable impact on employee satisfaction and motivation and our voluntary turnover trend. This poses a short-term risk of increased voluntary turnover and lower morale, satisfaction, and heightened stress.

Our flexible working culture is creating additionality within many of the markets where we operate, and particularly in our US and APAC regions, as our global policies go beyond the norm.

Furthermore, we have the responsibility to safeguard the labour conditions of our employees through social protection. This encompasses support for circumstances such as sickness, unemployment, employment injury, parental leave, and retirement. Additionally, we have an internal policy on mental well-being for all employees, with a focus on enhancing the mental well-being of our workforce, mitigating mental strain, such as work-related stress and anxiety, and providing guidance to employees and leaders on addressing these concerns.

Ensuring transparent and fair working conditions are rooted in our employee value proposition, where fair and competitive rewards and employment terms as well as a flexible working culture, are foundational factors.

Our Audit & Risk Committee receives quarterly overviews of all inappropriate and illegal misconduct cases across jurisdictions that have either been managed or are in process locally. This reporting includes incidents of discrimination, including harassment, which in 2024 totaled 5 substantiated cases. A dedicated team in People & Culture is responsible for sending Internal Audit an anonymous global overview. A dedicated system is used to confidentially report on these cases, ensuring country-by-country access protection and only to authorised employees. For GDPR compliance, all data on employee cases are anonymous. In 2024, we had zero severe human rights incidents connected to our employees.