Northvolt 2.0: How Sweden’s struggling impact star is fighting to retain talent

Northvolt has announced a new bonus programme for its factory workers, as part of efforts to keep hold of its most vital employees in the wake of its financial crisis.

One of Europe's leading battery manufacturers, the firm has been experiencing acute financial difficulties for months, but confirmed in January that it would continue its operations in Sweden.

The bonus programme follows protests at the company’s Northvolt Ett plant in Skellefteå, northern Sweden, Swedish business news site Affärsvärlden reports.

Workers were reportedly angry after the battery maker previously announced it was only planning to award bonuses to a so-called “inner circle” of 230 white collar staff. These people were not on the top management team but were reportedly seen as crucial to the future of the business, which is desperate to retain top talent in the wake of the crisis.

Why 400 workers got angry over bonuses

Some 400 employees signed a petition against these bonuses, which were perceived to be elitist and to discriminate against staff working on the factory floor, Affärsvärlden writes.

Around 1,800 people, including blue collar workers, are set to be covered by the new, broader initiative, according to Swedish media.

However, Northvolt's press spokesperson Erik Zsiga told Affärsvärlden that the new initiative was not a knee-jerk reaction to the criticism of the earlier bonus scheme, insisting that the initiative had been "planned for a long time".

However he underlined that the new initiative was designed to reward production workers to help the firm "retain them during this critical stage".

Who is Northvolt's new HR boss?

News of the bonus programme for factory workers came a day after the company announced a new acting Chief People & Growth Officer, a further sign of ongoing efforts to hold on to valued staff.

Malin Knave, who has already been working at the company for three years, declared on LinkedIn that she is confident the company can make a comeback, with a phase that she calls Northvolt 2.0.

“It’s no secret that Northvolt is currently facing significant challenges. But the energy, grit and commitment I’ve witnessed among the Northvolters💚 in recent months are unlike anything I've seen elsewhere,” she wrote. "Northvolt was built to be a game-changer and disrupt the industry, and there is no option but to succeed."

Northvolt, with high-profile investors like Volkswagen Group and Goldman Sachs, has been pivotal in Europe’s push to electrify the automotive industry.

However, it ran into major financial troubles in 2024, reporting debts of $5.8bn (£4.6bn) in November. It applied for bankruptcy in the US, where it had been hoping to expand, and laid off around a quarter of its workforce. More than 1,000 staff in Skellefteå were affected.

Several senior leaders appeared to voluntarily leave Northvolt as the crisis unfolded, including Canadian Mark Duchesne who was CEO of Northvolt’s largest factory in Skellefteå, and the company’s Head of Media Anders Thor. The company’s co-founder and CEO Peter Karlsson resigned in November.

“We've got a big challenge ahead of us to keep growing"

This week the new CEO of Northvolt’s Skellefteå factory gave his first interview with Swedish media since his appointment in January.

Markus Dangelmaier, who moved to Sweden from Germany for the role, told Swedish site Norran that he would ensure the business expanded after its recent “bumpy ride”.

“We've got a big challenge ahead of us to keep growing. But I really enjoy that kind of thing. I'm a growth guy,” he said.

The former engineer previously worked at global electronics company TE Connectivity, where he was in charge of ten factories and 15,000 staff across Europe.

Production now "on track"

Dangelmaier said the Northvolt was “on track” with its goal to produce 100,000 battery cells by the end of the year, and insisted he was planning to stay in the role long-term.

However, despite both Northvolt and the municipality of Skellefteå waging campaigns designed to get global talent and their families to relocate to Northern Sweden, Dangelmaier indicated that he would be another fly-in-fly-out employee.

He told Norran that he would live in Skellefteå during the week, but that his family home was now in Stockholm, where two of his three children have enrolled in a German school.