Lek associates make corporate citizenship part of their everyday work

Lek, a Sandoz company endeavors to create a healthy work environment and a good workplace atmosphere. The activities designed for the associates therefore also include team-building educational courses. Since socially responsible operations is an important value for Lek associates, they decided as part of their education to work in teams to assemble three children’s bicycles, which they accomplished with a great deal of cooperation and coordination. At the same time, the training course was conducted in accordance with Sandoz and Novartis’ guidelines on diversity and the inclusion of associates in Lek’s operations.

Team-building course with a charity flavor

Biomedicine is a small but heterogeneous area at Development Center Slovenia. The associates at Biomedicine perform important tasks in which they all have to excel, despite their differences. This can only be achieved through good cooperation among all of the members of the team. Therefore, Dr. Maja Jenko Osel MD, Head of Biomedicine at Lek is particularly proud of the associates’ success in the bicycle building project: “I think that all of the participants at this course learned quite a few things about communicating more effectively in a team. Also, the decision to replace the adrenaline rush that these courses usually have with a charity theme, and do something good for the people around us, turned out to be an excellent one. With the holidays and gift-giving coming up, we thought about children who couldn’t afford bikes because of their social marginalization. This offers children a lot of childhood pleasure and despite their differences offers each of them inclusion in children’s play, and at the same time orients them towards healthy lifestyles. We think that they will be happy with our gift.”

Bikes for kids who go on holiday at the Vila holiday home

The high point of the team-building course, which was held at the Hotel Lek in Kranjska Gora, was the donation of the three bikes to the Vila holiday home, which is run by the Ljubljana Moste – Polje Association of Friends of Youth. Upon accepting the donated bicycles, Anita Ogulin, Secretary of the Ljubljana Moste – Polje Association of Friends of Youth and President of the Humanitarian Affairs Committee of the Slovenian Association of Friends of Youth, said: ”Ever increasing numbers of parents are turning to the Ljubljana Moste – Polje Association of Friends of Youth and requesting various forms of assistance. We see the greatest amount of difficulties during the holidays. Parents do not have the money to send their children on holiday. Therefore we are opening the doors to our holiday homes even wider. We are truly happy to receive the donated bicycles. At the Vila holiday home in Kranjska Gora, many children will be able to take shorter and longer rides around Kranjska Gora. We put “ear to ear smiles”on the faces of children who join us at various camps and vacations during the holidays and on weekends. Therefore we sincerely thank Lek for this recreational equipment which will make children with limited opportunities happy and help them develop their skills!”