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Since 2014, Össur has been committed to its Women’s Leadership Initiative (ÖWLI). The aim of the initiative is to encourage greater diversity and inclusiveness in the Orthotic and Prosthetic (O&P) industry. The program is intended to support O&P practitioners by providing a forum that encourages interaction, community building and educational opportunities that serve the needs of the growing number of women in the field. The initiative is primarily focused on the US market but global interest and awareness in the program is growing.

Goals:

• Engage inclusively with both men and women to provide development support to female practitioners
• Bring awareness to gender biases in the workplace and practices that promote diversity
• Create a forum for female practitioners to network and provide support to one another
• Establish a greater number of female role models for future practitioners
• Create a positive and balanced perception of both male and female industry leaders

Össur hosts annual conferences supporting this initiative and since inception, the conferences and events have been very well received. In 2022, ÖWLI hosted virtual networking events and informative webinars under the theme of Building Success. Topics included personal branding, communicating with intention and unconscious bias and inclusive leadership. ÖWLI also hosted its second global Women in O&P Workshop. The virtual event, entitled Building Success, was attended by over 100 participants from across the globe. The Workshop was opened by Össur President and CEO Sveinn Sölvason, and other distinguished speakers from Canada, Germany, and the United States covered a variety of relevant topics. Össur is the only manufacturer who has acknowledged the significant contributions of women in the O&P profession. ÖWLI will continue to offer events and content as part of Össur’s ongoing commitment to our end-users and to female professionals in the field and hopes to return to in-person events in 2023.

Össur Iceland is following an Icelandic Standard on equal remuneration for equal responsibility, IST 85:2012, which is audited by BSI. Össur had its first audit under the IST 85:2012 in 2017 and was among the first companies in Iceland to be audited in accordance with this standard. As Össur is Equal Pay Certified, yearly audits are conducted. The most recent audit was completed in October 2022 and resulted in a salary analysis that is within a statistical margin of error. This indicates that there is not a statistically significant difference in salaries between genders at Össur in Iceland. In our European and Emerging markets regions, our aim is that all genders performing equal work receive equal pay. In the Americas, salary surveys on all employees are conducted annually as part of standard compensation review procedures and in accordance with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).