People
We care deeply for our people who are part of making LEGO® play experiences possible for everyone. We continue to build diversity & inclusion (D&I) into our company culture to ensure the LEGO Group is recognised as an employer of choice for a range of intersectional diverse talent with an inclusive culture in which everyone can feel energised every day and succeed. With D&I at the heart of people & culture, we can deliver products, experiences and communications that are inclusive of everyone.
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Celebrating diversity
The A-Z of awesome
During Pride Month in June 2022, the LEGO Group launched the ‘A-Z of Awesome’ – an ongoing campaign which runs into 2023 using LEGO® builds to celebrate inclusivity and embrace self-expression in the LGBTQIA+ community. This A-Z alphabet will be developed through LEGO creations to help LGBTQIA+ families use play to have open conversations about their identities and build understanding of the different abbreviations used.
We brought this campaign to life as we returned to London Pride for a fun day of playing and building in our A-Z of Awesome stand. There were various LEGO activities designed with our Diversity Role Models to support learning about the importance of inclusion and self-expression. We also attended Copenhagen Pride in August for a fun weekend of playing and building in the theme of A-Z of Awesome in our family-friendly courtyard at City Hall.
Creating a safe and family-friendly workplace
Parental leave
In 2020, we launched an extended parental leave policy globally*. By the end of 2022, all employees, no matter their location, will receive a minimum of 26 weeks paid childcare leave for the primary caregiver and 8 weeks paid leave for the secondary caregiver. Parents decide who takes the role as the primary caregiver and we encourage all our colleagues to take their time to build a bond with their family.
*We adhere to local laws and regulations in our local markets. This global policy will be fully implemented, in all markets, by the end of 2022, as the minimum standard for paid parental leave at the LEGO Group. In countries where local/governmental policies offer a more generous leave, the local policies take precedence.
Read stories from LEGO® parents
Caregiver leave
Also introduced in 2020, employees around the world now benefit from 2 weeks of caregiver leave (4 weeks by the end of 2022 globally), to make it easier for LEGO® employees to take care of loved ones.
In the last 3 years, we also enhanced our global safety net to ensure financial security for colleagues and their families in case of death or permanent disability.
Inclusive play and gender norms
Growing visibility of women role models
We marked International Women’s Day by celebrating and honouring the essential contribution made by women in design. The LEGO Group is committed to improving representation and equality in the design space by hiring more women in design roles and partnering with organisations supporting girls to become the next generation of designers.Read more
Gender Equality partnership
In 2020, we signed a partnership with UN Women and, in turn, the United Nations Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs), which outline how businesses can deliver on gender equality and women’s empowerment. With this partnership, we are committed to taking steps to advance gender equality including policy revisions, target setting, supporting community initiatives and more.
Opening our Billund, Denmark Campus
Another important element of the LEGO Campus is the ‘People House’ - a concept developed in close collaboration with employees that provides a space to network and play during and after working hours. The ‘People House’ features facilities including: a state-of-the-art fitness studio, creative workshop space, a LEGO homestay for visiting employees, a cinema, outside park and activity zone, kitchen for communal cooking and networking and a health clinic.
Helping our colleagues thrive
To ensure progress, we set targets for employee motivation and satisfaction, which we track through our annual employee engagement survey – the LEGO® People Pulse. In the survey, we pose specific questions related to belonging, inclusion, and psychological safety, which we monitor and work with as part of our Inclusion Index.
In 2021, we exceeded our target with a score of 83 points, 9 points above the external benchmark score of 74. This result achieved Ennova’s ‘Top in class’ category, which represents the top quartile of all multinational companies measured.
We continue to take steps to ensure the health, safety and mental well-being of all colleagues working in our offices, factories, and stores.
We also hosted COVID vaccination clinics for employees, families and local communities at three of our factories.
Introducing Best of Both
Purposeful D&I Partnerships
LGBTQIA+ Partnerships
In May 2021, we started partnerships with three LGBTQIA+ NGOs to strengthen our efforts to become a more diverse and inclusive workplace: Stonewall, Workplace Pride and Open for Business. In 2022, these partnerships are supporting us, in partnership with our LGBTQ+ EAG, with benchmarking our progress and planning our future priorities to continue creating an LGBTQIA+ inclusive workplace.Read more
Joining the Business Disability Forum
This year, the LEGO Group has become a member of the UK organisation, Business Disability Forum, to understand how best to support colleagues with a disability or long-term condition. This is another important step in our D&I journey to ensure that colleagues are enabled to succeed at work and that our workplace, just like LEGO® play, is for everyone.
LEGO® Employee Advocacy
Our EAGs act as a sounding board for us in addition to our D&I Taskforces which exist in all main LEGO locations around the world. These communities help us to include our colleagues’ voices in shaping and amplifying our D&I agenda, both locally and globally.
Empowering everybody to develop at the LEGO Group
We continue to make progress towards our ambition to be a gender-balanced organisation at all levels by 2032 by improving equitable practices in hiring, promoting, and developing all talent. Our Conscious Inclusion training, grounded in our leadership behaviours of being curious, brave, and focused, is as of 2022 also reaching hourly colleagues in our factories and LEGO® retail stores. They are being engaged in a tailored training programme designed specifically to reflect their working experience. Shift leaders and store managers are being upskilled through a train-the-trainer programme in which they facilitate a session with their teams on the shop floor or in store. We encourage all employees to complete the training by the end of 2022.
LEGO® Graduate Programme
In 2022, we welcomed new colleagues onto the U.S. LEGO® Graduate Programme. The Programme, which has a focus on under-represented talent that increases the diversity of our workforce, selected five recent college graduates to join the LEGO Group for an 18-month career development programme within the sales and marketing organisations. During the programme, the graduates will:
- Learn about our company through meaningful work experience, relevant for future roles.
- Engage with colleagues through networking events and mentoring relationships.
- Grow their skills through professional development opportunities, in-house presentations, and programming from external vendors.
- Position themselves for a career with us after completing the programme.
No compromise on safety
Inspiring the builders of tomorrow means caring for the workers of today
In collaboration with Save the Children we have developed curriculum based around Learning through Play which is both fun and provides long-term benefit to children who participate.
In 2021, we welcomed 25,927 children to camps held at our Jiaxing factory and five supplier factory sites. This is fewer than the previous year due to COVID restrictions at a number of sites.
Human rights
We collaborate closely with our suppliers to ensure they uphold our Responsible Business Principles. These 12 principles reinforce our ethical way of working and how we relate to children, our planet and our colleagues. Their primary purpose is to ensure all workers involved in making LEGO® products have fair and decent working conditions and that the environment is protected for future generations.
We regularly assess our human rights risks and impacts through a combination of third-party audits, internal assessments and consultation with external stakeholders.
If a supplier shows non-conformities with our Responsible Business Principles, we work in partnership with them to identify the root causes and ensure they are corrected. Our aim is to create long-term, sustainable solutions which benefit everyone.
Building capabilities
This has included management system improvement trainings and a RBP e-learning module for suppliers, licensing partners and internal LEGO colleagues in key areas such as procurement, to help them improve their understanding of the RBP. Our RBP Training Academy will expand further this year to include enhanced access to support material and hands-on guidance, along with an extensive e-learning portfolio.
A programme manual was also developed as a reference document for all suppliers to help them understand how RBP evaluations and assessments work at the LEGO Group.
Modern Slavery
The LEGO Group does not accept any form of modern slavery or forced labour. Modern slavery is the term used to describe situations where coercion, threats or deception are used to exploit individuals and undermine or deprive them of their freedom.
Although supplier assessments in 2022 have not found any instances of modern slavery to be present in our supply chain, we will proactively develop robust mitigation plans to address any identified potential risk areas. We’re taking steps to further strengthen our efforts to assess and mitigate against modern slavery risks across our entire value chain, including strengthening the LEGO Group audit programme/monitoring tools with a focus on forced labour indicators and developing suppliers’, partners’ and internal colleagues' capabilities in identifying and addressing modern slavery risks. All while continuing to explore involvement in wider initiatives to drive systemic change.
What is a non-conformity?
A non-conformity is a breach of the LEGO® Responsible Business Principles (RBP). Non-conformities are given different levels of severity to indicate the risk they pose to workers and the environment.
Higher risk non-conformities include both ‘High Risk’ and ‘Zero Tolerance’ non-conformities and are both defined as a severe breach of local law and/or the LEGO Responsible Business Principles, with zero tolerances requiring the most urgent response and mitigation as it poses an immediate risk to workers. If we identify a zero tolerance, we take immediate action to remediate. If a supplier does not immediately resolve the issue or take action to prevent them, they would risk termination of their contract with the LEGO Group.
