We believe that companies that understand and respond to society’s needs, make not only a valuable and important contribution through their commitments, but also position themselves to be more resilient for future challenges.

Social considerations are important factors, not only for the performance of companies, making them more diverse, stable and resilient, but also for overall social improvement, by making supply chains and society as a whole more robust.

Focus on human rights and employees

Our focus is on human rights, employer attractiveness, employee safety and health, employee training as well as equal opportunities and diversity. Moreover, we include fair pay and social commitment in our understanding of CSR.

Social responsibility for employees

As a group of companies, AURELIUS is responsible for more than 11,000 employees, all of whom play a key role in the success of the Group. We therefore want to offer all of our employees a framework that enables them to develop personally and professionally in a way that is most in line with their ideas and goals. To ensure this, AURELIUS is committed to guaranteeing a working environment of mutual respect and equal opportunity. In 2021, the AURELIUS Group employed individuals from a total of 21 nations. We are convinced that this cultural diversity contributes significantly to a positive working environment and our entrepreneurial success.

Biggest impact with portfolio companies

AURELIUS's greatest impact on society as part of our social responsibility is seen in the continuous improvement and monitoring of human rights and social standards within our portfolio companies.

AURELIUS supports international human rights and social standards

AURELIUS welcomes the extension of the EU taxonomy to include social standards. International and European human rights and social standards serve as the basis for our sustainability assessment of social issues.

In 2015, the international community launched the UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) in recognition of the need to ensure the future well-being of our societies. For businesses and investors, the SDGs provide a framework for aligning long-term value creation with society's most pressing needs. Of the 17 SDGs, 11 are oriented towards strengthening social concerns. We support the UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs), UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGP), the ILO Labour Guidelines as well as the principles of the UN Global Compact.

Results of the 2022 Diversity survey

In recent months, AURELIUS engaged in further intensifying efforts to enhance its ESG strategy.

Regarding the social aspect of the ESG material analysis, we are actively engaged with human rights, employer attractiveness, employee safety and health, employee training as well as equal opportunities and diversity. Ensuring equal development opportunities within the company is of utmost important for AURELIUS. We are committed to meeting our sustainability report´s goals and monitor this area frequently as part of the employee survey.

To gain a deeper understanding of an employee´s perspective, the following topic-related statement was integrated into the 2022 pulse check survey, posed as question of agreement:

"Everyone in this company is treated fairly - regardless of ethnic and cultural origin, gender, age, disability or other characteristics not related to work performance."

By 2026, AURELIUS strives to achieve an approval rate of over 80 per cent. The survey, conducted in Q2 2022, achieved outstanding results emphasising that the organisation is an attractive and fair employer: 44% agreed, while an additional 40% strongly agreed that everyone at AURELIUS is treated fairly regardless of ethnic and cultural origin, gender, etc.

The combined 84% affirmation rate has already exceeded AURELIUS’ 2026 target (80% agreement rate).

Employees matter. The positive results encourage AURELIUS to continue to focus on its employees in the future. Moreover, the organisation is eager to further improve the working environment for its employees to at least maintain the results in its coming surveys.

Result employee diversity survey 2022

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