Responsible employer

Human capital and industrial expertise are a company’s two greatest assets.

In this sense, Rolex is committed to offering its workforce optimal working conditions, solutions to ensure a healthy work-life balance, well-being initiatives and opportunities to enable every employee’s personality and skills to shine.

Our strategic commitments

Integrate the skills expected by promoting equal access to all forms of diversity.

Reinforce the company’s excellence as an employer, making every Rolex applicant and employee a brand ambassador.

Promote internal mobility and succession management.

Employee health, saety and well-being

Working in a safe and healthy environment

The organization and technical resources implemented by Rolex meet its high standards in terms of health and safety risk prevention and management. Guided by specialists – occupational physicians, company nurses, psychologists, safety engineers and health and safety experts – this initiative covers all activities carried out at the brand’s sites. Its aim is to ensure that everyone working on the company’s premises enjoys optimum working conditions that guarantee their health, safety and well-being.

In this context, the Occupational Safety Department guarantees compliance with regulations. It also provides expertise and raises awareness. The company’s managers oversee compliance with applicable and applied rules while ensuring that those concerned by specific risks receive the necessary training. Employees, meanwhile, are committed to correctly following Rolex’s directives on occupational safety and security.

The health and safety management system covers all staff. The company also ensures that external parties comply with legal requirements and, when required, the company’s own rules. By signing Rolex’s Sustainable Development Charter, partners pledge to respect the legal health and safety framework when carrying out their business activities.

Risk prevention

Rolex has rolled out safety processes for all its business lines. The aim is to identify and assess risks at the earliest stages of projects and to implement preventive and/or corrective measures. The company informs its employees about the risks specific to certain activities or potentially dangerous manufacturing processes. This is the case for exposure to hazardous substances, the use of which is also subject to an internal approval process.

Measurements are taken regularly at all sites with the help of external experts. For example, a complete mapping of noise exposure levels was carried out in the production workshops. This made it possible to formulate internal rules on noise emissions that are more stringent than the legal recommendations, which were then communicated to equipment suppliers to be taken into account at the design stage. In parallel, a new IT tool dedicated to reporting hazardous situations is being developed to improve the existing process.

In terms of health protection, various procedures are deployed, particularly with regard to ergonomics and the working environment. They focus on managing noise-related stress, protecting staff hearing, and overseeing lighting and workstation layout. Preventive medical examinations can also be carried out in case of skin problems, poor management of biological rhythms due to night shifts, or for maternity follow-up, and so on. A preventive eye-care campaign was also rolled out in some workshops in 2023, offering eye tests and glasses to those who needed them.

Workplace accidents and emergency management

The workplace accident frequency rate for Rolex employees in Switzerland is 3.2 per 1,000,000 hours worked.

In 2023, no serious or fatal accidents were recorded via the system for reporting and managing work-related incidents and accidents. Moving around within the company is the main cause of occupational accidents. In the workshops, the finishing stations generate the most incidents.

The safety teams intervene whenever an unexpected event occurs, analysing the reasons for it and adapting safety concepts as needed. An in-house first aid team – the company’s first responders – provide emergency care.

Rolex did not record any occupational illnesses at its sites in 2023.

Well-being at work

Internally, employees can rely on a Health Division that includes company nurses and occupational psychologists. Every employee can request the support of an occupational physician and professionals from the social sector. Representatives from Human Resources and members of the Staff Committee are also at their disposal.

In 2023, Rolex signed a partnership agreement with the Otium Foundation, whose mission is to improve the quality of life of people directly or indirectly affected by cancer. All employees and those living in the same household can therefore benefit from the Foundation’s support in the event of illness. It assists affected employees with their return to work post-treatment, and offers support to their professional entourage.

Focus

In-house dedicated safety training

A training course on safety culture, specifically aimed at management, was launched in 2023. Its aim is to increase managers’ awareness and knowledge of safety topics, with particular emphasis on their role in reporting incidents and hazardous situations. More than 100 people, at various hierarchical levels, were trained over two days on this subject in 2023.

It should be noted that all new employees joining the company are trained in a ‘safety’ module. General and specific training on risks (chemicals, working at height, maintenance and ergonomics) is also provided on a regular basis.

Part of the hazard mapping process involves identifying training specific to high-risk areas, such as electroplating (the process of using electrodeposition to coat an object in a thin layer of metal).

Psychosocial risk prevention

In keeping with its core values, Rolex creates a healthy, safe and respectful working environment that promotes the physical, mental and emotional well-being of all company employees. To achieve this, Rolex implements policies, programmes and resources to support employee fulfilment on a professional and personal level, and is committed to a process of continuous improvement.is also subject to an internal approval process.

Since 2023, managers have benefited from specific training on psychosocial factors, with particular emphasis on the themes of stress management and prevention, personal integrity, diversity and inclusion. To date, 170 managers and executives have taken the basic course. There are plans to extend this work on raising awareness to all management staff and employees.

In addition, Rolex offers support to all its employees who are experiencing personal or family difficulties related to health, finance, the authorities, public services or other social bodies. In this respect, it offers them social support through independent organizations whose advisers deal with a wide range of topics including divorce, debt, funding for higher education, long-term illness and support for carers. There is also an addiction support procedure.

Harassment

Rolex has specific guidelines set out in its applicable internal regulations, internal services and a dedicated process to prevent, deal with and monitor cases of harassment. Mechanisms for identifying and handling cases are in place through human resources management and monitoring practices. When a situation arises, the measures taken focus on protecting the victims first and foremost, and on adapting the organization and implementing proportionate penalties for those responsible for violating personal integrity.

Any employee experiencing harassment can also turn to trusted external partners, who specialize in dealing with this topic. Since 2024, an alert system set up by the company also enables cases to be reported anonymously and recorded via a secure third-party platform.

Workshop ergonomics and excercices

Focus

Workshop ergonomics and exercices

To help prevent musculoskeletal disorders and promote well-being in the workplace, height-adjustable workstations are installed as a matter of course when administrative areas are reorganized.

In the same vein, Rolex has developed a specific workstation called Ergoflex to enable operators to adopt the postures that are best suited to their personal constraints and activities. This workstation has been rolled out in the final assembly areas and has received excellent feedback. Rolex has also worked with sports coaches to develop a programme of stretching and strengthening exercises in certain workshops. Exoskeletons are also being tested to help employees perform certain tasks.

Company's attractiveness, talent engagement and retention

Offering a motivating working environment

In keeping with its core values, Rolex has always sought to create a stimulating working environment and attractive conditions without ever compromising on quality. As such, the company regularly features at the top of the rankings of Switzerland’s best employers. This ranking highlights the reputation, expertise and working conditions specific to the watchmaking sector, as well as the ability of the industry’s players to create jobs.

Rolex provides its employees with conditions that are conducive to their professional and personal fulfilment and a good work-life balance. In this context, the brand has a strong corporate culture in which respect takes pride of place. It offers long-term direction and a clear and sustainable strategy that gives work meaning. Drawing on a caring management culture, the company involves all its employees in its success and fully incorporates the human element into its operations. Skills development is also valued to ensure career progression.

<5%

Staff turnover rate recorded in 2023, three-quarters of which were retirements

1,102

Number of people hired on a Rolex contract in Switzerland in 2023

Examples of advantages:

— An exceptional working environment and conditions (adapted workstations and state-of-the-art technological equipment), etc.
— Flexible working hours (remote working, part-time work, f lexitime).
— Retirement support (seminar, early retirement at 60, retirees’ club).
— Numerous social benefits (pension fund, cover for non-work-related accidents, access to private healthcare in the event of accidents, insurance for loss of earnings due to illness).
— A company crèche.
— Subsidized company restaurants.
— Etc.

Company pension

As a responsible employer, Rolex has always been a pioneer in pension provision for its employees, offering exceptional benefits that go well beyond the legal minimum and are largely financed by the company.

In order to standardize and extend its company pension benefits, Rolex has integrated the employees and pensioners of Manufacture des Montres Rolex SA into the joint pension fund of Rolex SA and affiliated companies (known as the CPP). As a result of this integration, employees in Bienne benefit in particular from a substantial improvement in retirement benefits as well as advantageous conditions for early retirement, such as a temporary – ‘AVS bridge’ – pension.

Finally, as part of its investment management, the CPP invests in companies or projects that create long-term economic value while promoting environmental, social and governance (ESG) best practices. This year, for the first time, the CPP is publishing a sustainability report on its investments, drawn up in accordance with the recommendations of the Swiss Pension Fund Association.

Rolex Crèche

Focus

Company crèche

In 2022, Rolex opened a company crèche called ‘Les Petits Chronos’ for the children of its employees. With a capacity of 64 places, it is run by ‘pop e poppa’, a non-profit company specialized in early childhood and committed to an approach that advocates eco-citizenship (notably in terms of sustainable construction, consumption, mobility and food). Within this framework, the crèche routinely selects local, environmentally friendly suppliers as a priority.

The company recorded 114 maternity leaves and 178 paternity leaves in 2023.

Diversity, equity and inclusion

Encouraging diversity at all levels

Diversity, equity and inclusion are priority topics for Rolex. Aware of the potential attached to diversity within managerial functions and technical professions in particular, the company is taking new measures to increase diversity at every level.

In the technical professions, for example, efforts to increase the number of women in the workforce involve paying greater attention when sourcing applicants and showcasing women’s profiles at student forums or when giving presentations at schools.

By gender

56.9%

Men

43.1%

By gender at management level

Women

81.4%

Men

18.6%

Women

9,906

Employees in Switzerland

Salary policy

Equal pay is a priority topic for the company and, for several years, it has been the subject of a policy deliberately designed to support gender equality. Today, Rolex’s work in this area is paying off, as the audit carried out by an independent body in 2023 concluded that the ratio of basic salary and remuneration of women to men was respected. This means that Rolex meets the requirements of the revised Federal Gender Equality Act (GEA) and the ordinance on the verification of equal pay analysis for large companies. The company used the Logib software recommended by the Swiss Confederation to complete its calculations.

Non-discrimination

As a global company, Rolex recognizes diversity of experience, perspective and talent. It also ensures it includes people from all backgrounds. In this context, the brand’s employees are treated fairly, without discrimination on the grounds of gender, religion, ethnic origin, age, sexual orientation or disability of any kind.

Internal guidelines, such as the code of conduct and staff regulations, provide a framework for this policy, and new training courses are being developed to raise awareness of this topic among all management staff and teams. Once a year, during a progress interview with their manager, each employee also has the opportunity to discuss their personal and professional development.

Inclusion

Rolex has created an inclusive working environment with facilities that are accessible for people with disabilities, as well as a policy to integrate people with learning difficulties or emotional disorders into the workplace. For many years, the brand has also cultivated partnerships with various social institutions, such as the PRO foundation in Geneva, which specializes in integrating people excluded from the job market, particularly in the packaging sector. In 2023, Rolex contributed to the employability of some 663 people within this foundation. The brand has also been taking on trainees and apprentices with special needs for several years, supervised by the Battenberg Foundation in Bienne. This long-standing collaboration received the Prix Passerelle d'intégration award in 2023. This year, around a dozen people receiving a disability allowance also benefited from a work placement in the company.

150

Different professions within the company

12.2%

Proportion of part-time staff, 33.2% of which are men and 66.8% of which are women

94

Nationalities within the company

Social inclusion through employment

The shortage of skilled labour in Switzerland has prompted Rolex to offer in-house training for people who do not necessarily have watchmaking qualifications. Temporary work is also an effective way of developing the employability of people who have neither the experience nor the training to occupy an operational position in this field. Through this approach, Rolex supports retraining and professional reintegration. The company regularly offers temporary employees who have performed well a permanent job at the end of their assignment.

Temporary staff are covered by the collective labour agreement (CLA) for the hiring of services (Swiss staffing) and by the provisions laid out under Article 7.5 of the CLA for the Swiss watchmaking and microtechnology industries.

A springboard to return to workics and excercices

Focus

A springboard to return to work

Rolex supports schemes designed to help unemployed people return to work, particularly in the Geneva area. Since 2013, the company has been helping to train watchmaking operators and polishers by offering them their first practical work experience placements. This commitment is made under the aegis of the Swiss Watch Industry Employers’ Federation and the Geneva Office for Orientation, Vocational and Continuing Training, in collaboration with various partners, including the Cantonal Employment Office.

Training and skills development

Capitalizing on knowledge

Gaining expertise, acquiring and sharing knowledge and relentlessly pursuing excellence are the pillars of training at Rolex. For several decades now, the brand has been developing training programmes and resources tailored to the different professions within the company and to career development. A considerable number of initiatives are implemented, from initial training through to specialized courses and on-the-job upgrading. In particular, they allow an intangible heritage to be passed on, made up of procedures, practices and knowledge that are specific to the brand and that it has nurtured since its creation.

Rolex’s investment in training goes far beyond the watchmaking sector and has a threefold aim: to ensure the next generation of watchmakers, to develop skills internally and to keep a unique corporate culture alive. Most professions have a training plan. In this context, each employee benefits from a career development programme, with the opportunity to share their career advancement, mobility and skills development aspirations with their manager.

Rolex also fosters and facilitates the development of its managers through individual and group support offered at different stages in their career. As well as having a beneficial impact on employees, this allows the company to maintain the managerial skills it needs to ensure the next generation of executives, while respecting its culture and values.

The opening of the Rolex Training Centre in Geneva in 2018 demonstrates the importance that the brand places on maintaining and developing skills. The company has developed a catalogue of several hundred training courses focused on technical, behavioural, managerial, digital and IT aspects. It also covers the development of skills related to health and safety, quality, and company and product knowledge.

300

Number of training courses offered per year

8,308

Number of employees who completed a training course in 2023

2.06

Average training days per person (per average annual FTE)

Training helps to facilitate career advancement within the company. It also improves long-term employability. For Rolex, it reflects a strategic commitment to skills management. The value placed on knowledge underlines how essential it is to have an agile, well-trained workforce that can adapt to market changes and business needs.

The company also takes on a large number of apprentices (244 for the 2023/2024 academic year) as well as trainees looking for work placements as part of their higher education courses at technician, bachelor’s, master’s, or another level (147 in 2023).

Your futur with Rolex
Rolex trainning centre

Rolex Training Centre

The brand inaugurated the Rolex Training Centre in September 2018 in order to offer the best training conditions to Rolex staff and young apprentices. Located in Geneva, this centre concentrates Rolex’s key expertise in the dissemination of knowledge. Designed as an open, modular platform for exchange, the training centre encourages the mixing of generations to optimize knowledge transfer and skills development. It is also decidedly forward- looking. Thanks to its monitoring activities, it is constantly evolving, taking the latest advances in teaching, technology, sociology, organization and legislation into account. Bienne also has a training centre to instruct the next generation in the brand’s various activities.

6,600 m2

Surface area dedicated to training by Rolex in Switzerland

Hybrid training platform

Launched in 2021, the Perpetual Learning (PERLE) IT management tool has made it possible to develop distance-learning courses as well as ‘hybrid’ training courses, both in person and online. For example, nearly 3,371 employees benefited from a hybrid training course in 2023 on cybersecurity – a priority theme for Rolex.

Raising awareness about sustainability and dedicated training

Incorporating the principles of sustainability into the company’s activities also involves training, and a programme is currently being developed. By 2025, it will allow most of the employees working in Switzerland to be trained in a wide range of subjects, such as ‘Eco-design culture in machine purchasing’ and ‘Eco-design method and tools’. In late 2023, Rolex also began co-developing an e-learning module dedicated to the challenges of sustainable development and corporate social responsibility (CSR), with a view to rolling it out on a massive scale in 2024. The aim is to enable employees to improve their knowledge, upskill and facilitate their involvement in the company’s overall approach, both personally and collectively.

Climate fresk

Focus

Climate fresk

In 2023, the company’s managers and senior executives explored the topic of climate change through a range of ‘Climate Fresk’ workshops, reconstructing the cause-and-effect links of this phenomenon and discussing the measures they could take to limit its consequences, both personally and professionally. This neutral and objective approach is based on data from the scientific reports published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), whose recommendations guide political and economic decisions on a global scale.

Sustainable development

Sustainability report

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