“A creative environment breeds new ideas that are captured and industrialised thanks to individual employees and teams receiving the requisite scope and confidence. One example is DRIVe, for which a team was given the thumbs up to continue working with the challenge of attaining record-low carbon-dioxide emissions from our cars,” notes Cecilia Nesser, Cecilia Nesser, head of leadership and organisational development.

Diversity creates innovative ideas
As an employer, Volvo Cars offers a creative, open and inclusive work environment with major potential for individual development. This creates commitment, which in turn creates success such as the DRIVe family, that includes Sweden’s top-selling eco-certified car in 2010.

2010 marked the launch of the 2010–2012 diversity plan, which encompasses activities for a respectful and inclusive environment, equal opportunities, brand and employer, products and offerings, and customers and markets.

Involvement, which covers all employees, reflects our social responsibility as well as a purely business-like attitude, as Cecilia Nesser sees it.

“Both research and our experience confirm that non-homogeneous groups are more creative and make better-based decisions. So, we are focusing on activities that assist our leaders to remember the importance of differences in groups when they make their choice.”

More employees are satisfied
The 2010 Attitude Survey showed that the proportion of satisfied employees increased to 84 percent (from 82 percent), which is the best result to date. The level of satisfaction in the different business areas varies, but the overall figures have risen. In particular, more employees are satisfied about how the company is generally managed, which is an incentive for the continuing improvement programmes.

2010 saw Volvo Cars moving up the list of attractive employers drawn up by Universum, the employer branding company. The increase in popularity is reflected among students and young professionals alike.