At Orifarm, the student workers also receive bonus

As student worker, Cecilie Hartvig Petersen receives a share of her employer’s profit. She works at Orifarm, one of Denmark’s largest healthcare companies.

Clothes, textbooks and café visits.
Students are familiar with these expenses. But bonus from the student job was not a well-known concept for one of the student workers at Orifarm, Cecilie Hartvig Petersen, when an extra-large amount appeared at her account this January.

”This was a pleasant surprise. I was not aware of the bonus scheme, when I suddenly discovered a larger amount than my normal pay. It was a good recognition of my work, as I don’t take it for granted that companies include student workers in their bonus schemes,” says 24-year old Cecilie (in the photo), who ordinarily studies law at the University of Southern Denmark, SDU in Odense.

She recently started on her master’s degree, and concurrently with her studies, she works in the legal department of Orifarm’s headquarters located in Odense. Here, she partly solves known tasks of contacting solicitors’ offices and managing document handling, and partly engages in tasks she has never handled previously.

”We enjoy a pleasant tone at work, and I feel that I am being treated on equal terms with the permanent employees,” says Cecilie.

And that is precisely the core of how Orifarm regards employees.

”This is our culture. Everyone is part of our results, and that is why we have a common profit sharing scheme. At Orifarm – as is also becoming a general trend - bonus is not based specifically on individual results but on the entire success of Orifarm,” explains CHRO, Birgitte Ladefoged.

She emphasizes that a position as student worker is of great mutual value.

”The student workers – like interns and trainees – are a valuable part of the workforce at Orifarm. Through their professional competencies they infuse us with the newest knowledge and theory within their competencies, and they also contribute to creating an important diversity through their many and various educational affiliations as well as in terms of age. Our student workers develop into more attractive young people while staying with us, as they get to combine their theoretical knowledge with solid practical tasks, which makes them a stronger candidate when they have completed their studies. Often, we also see that they choose to stay with us afterwards,” the CHRO tells.

Where Cecilie will choose to work two years from now, neither she nor Orifarm can tell at this point.

”I would like to work and live in another part of Denmark than here at Funen where I come from. But as Orifarm has an office in Copenhagen among others – and also offices in other countries than Denmark – the opportunities are many. This makes Orifarm interesting as a workplace.”