Employees

HR strategy

The KION Group’s success is founded on the capabilities and commitment of its employees. The ultimate objective of the KION Group’s HR strategy is to provide the best possible support to the targeted implementation of the KION Group Strategy 2020. To this end, the KION Group draws on a wide range of measures to ensure that there is always a sufficient number of highly qualified and committed employees at all levels of its operations. Attractive working conditions and the opportunities for career progression afforded by working for an international group of companies play an important role in this and provide a solid basis for meeting the manifold challenges presented by demographic change.

The KION Group has continually strengthened its employer brands, particularly those of LMH and STILL, at a high level. In 2015, STILL was recognised as one of Germany’s best employers by the Top Employers Institute, an international certification organisation, for the fourth time in a row. It also received a ‘Germany’s Top Employers’ award from the CRF Institute.

Headcount

The average number of employees (full-time equivalents (FTEs), including trainees and apprentices) in the KION Group was 23,129 in 2015 (2014: 22,438 FTEs). As at 31 December 2015, the KION Group companies employed 23,506 FTEs, 837 more than a year earlier.

This increase resulted mainly from the acquisition of the Belgium-based Egemin Automation and growth in the Czech Republic. > TABLE 030

Personnel expenses amounted to €1,351.7 million. The main reason for this increase of 9.7 per cent compared with 2014 was the raise in average headcount for 2015 and changes to collective bargaining agreements. > TABLE 031

Diversity

The KION Group sees itself as a global manufacturer with strong intercultural awareness: as at 31 December 2015, people from 69 different countries were employed across the KION Group.

One of the ways in which the Company promotes international collaboration between employees is the KION expat programme, which gives employees the opportunity to transfer to different countries where the KION Group is represented.

The KION Group tackles the challenges of demographic change by providing working conditions that are suited to employees’ age-related requirements and organising healthy-living programmes so that it can continue to benefit from older employees’ experience. As at 31 December 2015, 25.1 per cent of employees were over the age of 50 (31 December 2014: 24.2 per cent). A total of 258 employees were participating in partial retirement models as at the reporting date (31 December 2014: 192).

Compared with the previous year, the proportion of the KION Group’s total workforce made up of women remained stable in 2015, at 16.1 per cent. To help increase the proportion of management positions occupied by women, the Executive Board set targets that are published in the corporate governance report. Going forward, the KION Group intends to fill more management positions with employees from outside Germany in order to better reflect the Company’s international make-up.

The KION Group offers flexible working-time models that promote a good work-life balance. In addition, Linde Material Handling has implemented a company agreement about ‘teleworking / home office’, which stipulates the terms on which employees can work at home on a mutually agreed and voluntary basis.

Development of specialist workers and executives

Finding highly qualified people to fill specialist and executive positions is crucial to the KION Group’s success. As a result, one of the focuses of HR work across the Group in 2015 was, as in the previous years, the recruitment and development of suitable young talent.

The KION Group endeavours to offer its employees interesting career opportunities and flexible, family-friendly working-time models. The Group companies also collaborate closely on areas such as talent management and training & development programmes. This helps to systematically identify and support staff with potential, high performers and experts in key functions. Organised in cooperation with the European School of Management and Technology (ESMT) and continued from 2014, KION Campus is an international, cross-brand executive development programme aimed at the Group’s around 300 top executives. In addition, new managers at STILL continue to receive support under the First Leading programme during their first few years. Prospective managers can enhance their skills through STILL’s Young Professional programme, while highly talented staff around the world can participate in the International Junior Circle. The STILL Academy offers subject-specific and interdisciplinary training courses. Opportunities at Linde Material Handling include a virtual assessment centre for future managers.

Training and professional development

The companies in the KION Group currently offer training for 21 professions in Germany. They employed a total of 571 trainees and apprentices as at 31 December 2015 (31 December 2014: 577). The ratio of trainees and apprentices to other employees therefore remains at a steady, high level. Besides providing dual vocational training schemes, KION Group companies offer work placements for students combining vocational training with a degree course in cooperation with various universities.

Sharing in the Company’s success

Having successfully floated on the stock exchange, the KION Group launched the KION Employee Equity Programme (KEEP) in 2014. Initially limited to Germany, the programme was rolled out to France, the UK, Italy and China last year. Around 1,700 employees across the five countries participated in this share matching programme in 2015, roughly 11 per cent of the total number who are eligible to do so. The programme was especially well received in China, resulting in a participation rate that greatly exceeded the original expectation.

The total participation rate for KEEP since its inception is now around 17 per cent.

The plan for 2016 is to give employees in other countries the opportunity to share in the company’s success by participating in KEEP.

In 2015 the remuneration of the Group’s around 300 top executives was updated by continuing the long-term remuneration components that had been introduced in 2014, thereby aligning it with the remuneration of the Executive Board. A second allocation of the KION Long Term Incentive Plan for Top Management (LIFT) was issued in the reporting year.

Employee commitment

The KION Group’s products and services destined for its customers are produced by committed and motivated employees. That is why all KION companies aim to ensure a high level of employee commitment. In 2015 the KION Group surveyed around 1,800 managers on different aspects of employee and corporate management. The participation rate of approximately 88 per cent was exceptionally high. The results of the survey were presented and discussed in various management committees, enabling improvement measures to then be identified. The focus here is on clarity in the implementation of the organisational changes announced in summer 2015 and on further enhancement of management skills.

Health and safety in the workplace

In the reporting year, the KION Group continued to expand its activities relating to health, safety & environment (HSE). The KION Group’s obligations, in accordance with a corporate policy, include taking comprehensive precautions to create a safe working environment and ensuring employees know how to avoid risks and accidents. In 2015 work began on developing an HSE code of conduct for KION with the aim of establishing groupwide minimum standards.

HSE activities centre on an internal audit programme, which covers all of the Group’s production facilities as well as Group sales and service. The aim of the regular audits is to systematically document existing HSE measures and processes and provide specific ideas for how they can be developed further (more details can be found in the ‘Sustainability’ section). The audit conducted as part of this programme shows that the Group has made good progress with regard to HSE. Last year 14 audits were carried out within the KION Group. All audits in the reporting year showed a clear improvement in the individual units compared with 2014.

In 2015 KION also introduced a global system for reporting accidents and incidents. The system requires accidents involving serious injuries, for example that hospitalise the affected individual, to be reported directly to the Executive Board within 24 hours. Information must also be provided as to whether measures to improve safety in the workplace were introduced as a result of the accident and, if so, what these measures entailed. The programme thereby serves as a global forum for health and safety practices.

The KION Safety Championship was introduced in 2014 as a way of providing additional impetus and motivation for employees to engage with HSE matters. All production facilities take part. Based on regular reporting from the individual units, a panel of judges decides which units deserve to be rewarded for special dedication or considerable progress in an area of HSE. The first winner of the competition, the team from KION North America Corporation, received the Safety Championship award in May 2015.

The assessment takes account of the units’ different economic and cultural situations.

Safety experts at the KION Group’s various production facilities began to collaborate more closely last year. The HSE managers at all production sites and sales and service outlets meet annually for an international summit at which they discuss current topics and share best practice.

The health rate for 2015 stood at the high level of 96.4 per cent (2014: 96.5 per cent). In 2015 the accident rate fell in both production and sales and service. A target based on HSE key performance indicators is one of the factors used to determine the variable remuneration of the Executive Board members.