Our employees advance human progress by solving complex problems and promoting our culture of innovation and inclusion. We encourage them all to pursue careers that align with their individual aspirations, skills and passions. To maximize our potential throughout the Group, we aim to create an environment that inspires our current employees, attracts new talent and helps us to continue to learn and grow.
Our approach: A career with purpose
To ensure our ongoing success, we are focusing on the future by creating meaningful impacts and building needed capabilities. At the same time, we must respond to changing demographics and adapt to the behaviors and expectations of the highly competitive talent market. Therefore, in 2023, we continued to enhance our talent acquisition strategy with a more personal, employee-focused approach. Our talent sourcing approach aims to build inclusive pipelines and effectively recruit diverse talent with the needed competencies and capabilities to our organization. In addition, our talent retention approach is inclusive in targeting various employee groups. In 2023, we intensified our efforts to support internal mobility. For example, we launched a dedicated project to improve organizational agility, up-skilling and re-skilling, retention, and engagement. Specific modules went live in 2023, and we will roll out the complete platform with all functionalities during the course of 2024.
Our trainee and vocational training programs are an effective way to meet current and future demand for qualified professionals.
Supporting our employees’ professional and personal development helps us to meet our strategic objectives, driving our success as a company. In a fast-paced environment of continuous growth and innovation, we want to cultivate and develop the capabilities of our employees. As a result, our employees benefit from a diverse learning and development portfolio. In addition, our dedicated management programs help our leaders to promote accountable and inclusive behaviors and educate them on driving long-term business value and performance.
We have designed our compensation structure to provide valuable benefits to our employees and their families. Our benefits offerings recognize the diversity and uniqueness of our employees while providing flexibility wherever possible. Additionally, our international employee mobility programs create an environment suited to the needs of a rapidly evolving workforce.
Roles and responsibilities
Group Human Resources (HR) supports and advises all business sectors and Group functions within our organization regarding our human capital, especially topics related to recruiting, vocational training and advanced training. Across all our sites, HR employees work with leaders from various functions and business sectors to employ strategies that engage our people in line with Group-wide HR guidelines and requirements, including attractive compensation models and benefits. In accordance with the audit plan, we conduct internal audits every two to three years to ensure that we implement our guidelines effectively.
The Chair of the Executive Board and CEO is responsible for Group Human Resources. Our Chief HR Officer, who leads the HR function and oversees all our HR activities, reports directly to the Chair of the Executive Board and CEO. Our Business Services unit oversees the operational tasks of HR work, such as drafting contracts and payroll accounting. The Chief Financial Officer is responsible for this unit.
All employees can access their personal data via our HR4You digital platform, which aligns our basic HR processes globally. For instance, the platform enables employees to participate in online training courses or apply internally for vacant positions.
Our commitment: Structured development
Our High-Impact Culture, founded on six behaviors, is integrated into all HR processes, from recruitment and training to feedback processes. We regularly inform managers and employees about these behaviors through global campaigns.
Our People Development and Learning Policy provides a Group-wide framework that guides employees in managing their professional growth. It defines requirements for our development opportunities, roles and responsibilities.
Our flexible work guideline details our approach to evolving work environments and our aspiration to create a more agile organization. For example, employees can choose their desired working location (with the agreement of local guidance, teams and managers) provided it is appropriate for their work activity and balances remote work with in-person collaboration. We maintain a strong on-site presence as in-person interaction fosters collaboration and strengthens our culture. In addition, we aim to better support and recognize the well-being of carers by creating a carer-friendly workplace.
Furthermore, our policy on cross-border remote working allows employees – under certain conditions, with the support of their manager and in adherence to compliance measures – to work remotely for personal reasons outside of their country of employment for up to 60 days within a 12-month period.
Attracting and inspiring key talent
Our overarching goal is to attract qualified employees and retain them over the long term. Therefore, we continue to improve the way in which we introduce new employees to our company culture. For example, in 2023, we launched our new employer value proposition that will help us continue attracting and retaining the best talent in the future.
We also train our Talent Acquisition staff on how to take aspects such as diversity, equity & inclusion (DE&I) and unconscious bias into consideration during the recruitment process. Additionally, we continuously review our application process and hiring manager enablement to maintain a fast, quality-driven process.
A competitive compensation and benefits structure
We reward the performance of our employees in order to maintain a competitive edge in attracting and retaining the best talent. Within our Group, we base compensation on the requirements of each position and each employee’s respective performance. We make no distinctions based on gender or any other diversity criteria. To ensure we maintain a competitive compensation structure, we regularly review our compensation policy based on data analyses and industry benchmarks. This enables us to compare internal factors and market requirements in equal measure. Before making changes to our compensation structure, we consult with key stakeholders such as employee representatives, as applicable.
In addition to individual performance, our annual incentive plan also measures company performance based on financial and non-financial key indicators in our scorecard. The non-financial key indicators focus on the company’s priorities and are designed to support our High-Impact Culture as well as our sustainability strategy and progress in terms of diversity, equality and inclusion. Furthermore, since 2022, we have included a sustainability factor in our Long-Term Incentive Plan (LTIP). More information on the LTIP can be found in the Notes of our Annual Report.
In addition to competitive pay, we also offer attractive benefits through our benefits programs. For example, with our global car policy, we aim to reduce CO2 emissions by encouraging the use of electric vehicles and supporting charging points. In addition, our benefits package contains offerings primarily funded by the company, in part country-specific, such as company pension plans, healthcare and other employee insurances as well as other services, for instance leasing offers for bicycles or discount schemes to meet the multifaceted needs of our global workforce.
In 2023, we introduced a fertility benefit policy, which provides reimbursement for fertility treatments in eight of our markets by employee size (Brazil, China, Germany, India, Mexico, United Kingdom, Switzerland, and Taiwan). Including the countries that already offered this company benefit (Canada, Japan and United States), we now cover 73% of our employee base and continue the global rollout in 2024. The benefit (subject to local rules and regulations) provides financial support to our employees and their partners, regardless of marital status or sexual orientation, for treatments after October 2023.
Nurturing a global mindset
To broaden the diversity of thought within our teams, we offer multiple international assignment opportunities that enable our employees to experience different cultures, mindsets and ways of working. In 2023, we monitored and improved our Global Mobility Long-Term Flex program. It enables our employees to acquire international exposure and benefit from greater working flexibility for durations exceeding one year.
Mobility split by assignment type
Unlocking our potential with education and professional development
We have implemented a holistic learning and leadership portfolio, which we are continuously enhancing in accordance with the principles of our High-Impact Culture and set of behaviors in order to foster greater levels of accountability, inclusiveness and engagement. Our learning portfolio also helps our employees to understand and embrace the principles, values and behaviors of our corporate culture.
We endeavor to support our employees’ personal and professional development in line with their strengths, skills and behaviors. Therefore, we provide ample opportunities for the functional and technical upskilling required in the various areas of our organization. We recognize that employees need to develop capabilities for the future and acquire skills to adapt quickly to changing markets and organizational needs. Beyond cultural and soft skill learning and development opportunities, functional training, such as digital upskilling or scientific training, provides additional opportunities for development in specific areas.
Our new high-potential approach aims to develop, engage and retain our top talent. It supports their individual needs by helping them to design customized development journeys and increase their impact at work. These high potential individuals, who comprise around 5% of our global workforce, serve as role models, embody our values and behaviors, demonstrate learning agility, and are highly motivated to develop beyond their existing roles. Once designated, high potentials have a joint responsibility with their manager to progress in their targeted development journey. HR provides support with exclusive offerings for this specific target group.
Furthermore, our Development Advisor tool provides specific learning and development resources, for example e-learning courses, formal training offerings and self-facilitator toolkits. It is recommended that employees shape their development plans with components covering formal training (10%), opportunities to interact and learn from others (20%) and learning by doing (70%).
Our employees can book learning offerings, such as e-learning courses or in-person training, via our learning management system. Additionally, we encourage our employees and leaders to take courses via the LinkedIn Learning platform. In 2023, about 6 million training courses were completed.
In April 2023, we introduced a central coaching platform through which our employees can book their coaching sessions directly from a global pool of certified coaches. In one-on-one sessions, employees can learn to identify their relevant development areas and overcome business challenges.
Our Group-wide learning and leadership portfolio includes learning programs for individuals and teams. The Empower Your Team program introduces our leadership culture and the basics of leadership, such as decision-making, feedback, motivation, and emotional intelligence. Empower Your Organization is aimed at more experienced leaders and focuses on the capabilities needed to shape our culture, covering topics such as inclusiveness, psychological safety and transformation. About 750 of our leaders participated in these courses in 2023.
Our company’s University is our leadership development program for executives and collaborates with best-in-class business schools, including Stanford GSB in the United States and INSEAD in France. Established in 1999, more than 620 of our executives worldwide have participated in the program, enhancing their skills and professional development via state-of-the-art leadership learning methods, content and tools. Senior leaders taking part in our company’s University also have several touchpoints with high-potential individuals in our second flagship program, the International Management Program (IMP). The IMP identifies and nurtures talented people who show potential to become our senior leaders of the future.
The Supervisor Academy is a development program for leaders in non-desk environments such as production and laboratory. The program’s key goal is tailored leadership development that addresses the challenges of these leaders. We have run the program for several years in selected markets (United Kingdom, United States and Switzerland) with positive feedback. The Supervisor Academy is now mandated to be rolled out globally while content and processes are updated as needed.
Supporting the next generation
We believe in the value of investing in the next generation of talent, not just to build a diverse talent community, but also to develop the skills needed to continue to deliver our products.
To attract, maintain and build relationships with our diverse talent community, we use channels including career events, university relations and social media as well as other online platforms such as Candidate Relationship Management.
We also support talent in joining our organization through various internships and relationships with universities around the world. One example of this is our Healthcare business sector’s Co-Op program with Northeastern University, Massachusetts, USA, where students gain first-hand experience with our manufacturing and R&D processes.
At the global level, we run our GoGLobal and OLDP (Operations Leadership Development Program) traineeships and we build relationships with students from multiple disciplines as well as academic researchers who show great potential and are interested in roles within our company. Every year, we hire around 40 new trainees across functional areas such as In-house Consulting, Marketing, Commercial, Strategy, Manufacturing, Operations & Supply Chain, Data & Digital, Research and Development, Procurement, Finance, and Human Resources. We offer our trainees mentoring, training and development opportunities.
Graduate hiring by gender
We have been steadily increasing our focus on vocational training. For example, we are investing more than € 70 million in a new Learning Center at our global headquarters in Darmstadt. With a capacity for around 600 apprentices, it will enable us to house almost all our vocational training occupations under one roof as of 2024.
In 2023, a total of 226 apprentices in Germany started their vocational training. The overall focus was on scientific and technical occupations. During the same period, a total of 190 apprentices successfully completed their vocational training at our Darmstadt site. In addition, at our Darmstadt site, we offer programs for refugees and young people struggling to enter the labor market, preparing them for subsequent vocational training.
We also continued to engage in the “Afrika kommt!” program offered by the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ), which trains experts and leaders from African countries. In supporting this initiative, we are helping to build a pool of regional partners who promote economic cooperation between Germany and Africa. In 2023, 13 participants successfully completed the program.
Balancing work and personal life
We recognize the importance of a healthy work-life balance and flexible working models that accommodate the needs of individuals and teams. Accordingly, we have enhanced our Flexible Working Policy to reflect today’s dynamic business landscape while supporting an engaging and productive working environment. As part of this process, in 2023, we implemented a new policy that allows up to two days of remote work and three days working in the office per week, taking into account the legal, tax and compliance aspects in the various countries.