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, hard-working 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 maintained and continued to strengthen the high value of its employer brands, particularly those of Linde and STILL. In 2016, STILL was recognised as one of Germany’s best employers for the fifth year in succession by the Top Employers Institute, an international certification organisation. 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 24,957 in 2016 (2015: 23,129 FTEs). As at 31 December 2016, the KION Group companies employed 30,544 FTEs, 7,038 more than a year earlier.

The increase was predominantly attributable to the acquisition of Dematic. > TABLE 034

Personnel expenses amounted to €1,520.3 million. The main reason for this increase of 12.5 per cent compared with 2015 was the rise in average headcount for 2016 and changes to collective bargaining agreements. > TABLE 035

Diversity

The KION Group sees itself as a global manufacturer with strong intercultural awareness: as at 31 December 2016, people from 83 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 2016, 26.5 per cent of employees were over the age of 50 (31 December 2015: 25.1 per cent). A total of 299 employees were participating in partial retirement models as at the reporting date (31 December 2015: 258).

Compared with the previous year, the proportion of the KION Group’s total workforce made up of women was virtually unchanged in 2016, at 16.3 per cent (2015: 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

In 2016, the longer-term HR strategy was revised in order to ensure even better and more targeted development for employees with high potential.

In addition to the development activities geared specifically to high-potential employees, greater priority will be given to succession planning for key positions in the KION Group in future and a robust process will be implemented for this purpose.

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 2016 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. The STILL Academy offers subject-specific and interdisciplinary training courses. There is also an academy at Linde Material Handling that develops employees’ skills, particularly in sales and service.

Training and professional development

The companies in the KION Group currently offer training for 22 professions in Germany. They employed a total of 580 trainees and apprentices as at 31 December 2016 (31 December 2015: 571). 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 more countries in 2015 and 2016. Around 1,100 employees participated in this share matching programme in 2016, roughly 6 per cent of the total number who are eligible to do so.

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

The plan for 2017 is to give employees in other countries the opportunity to share in the company’s success by participating in KEEP.

In 2016, the remuneration of the approximately 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 third allocation under the long-term incentive plan (LTI) was made in the year under review.

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.

Based on the manager survey conducted in 2015 and the action plan derived from it, a package of measures was defined and implemented in 2016 as part of the newly defined ‘Lift up’ corporate initiative, in particular to ensure the new organisational structure is firmly embedded.

Alongside this objective, collaboration was further improved by holding a number of team workshops.

Health and safety in the workplace

The KION Group has a corporate policy setting out its obligations in respect of health, safety and the environment (HSE). These include taking comprehensive precautions to create a safe working environment and ensuring employees know how to avoid risks and accidents.

HSE activities centre on an internal audit programme, which covers all of the KION Group’s production facilities as well as sales and service. The aim is to systematically document existing HSE measures and processes and to provide specific ideas for how they can be developed further. Last year, nine central HSE audits were carried out within the KION Group.

In 2016, an assessment of possible HSE risks was introduced for all sites. The starting point was a survey developed in the reporting year that ascertains the risk situation at each location.

The KION Safety Championship, which was introduced in 2014, provides additional motivation for employees to continually engage with HSE matters. Based on regular reporting from the individual units and a set of four defined evaluation criteria, a panel of judges awards prizes to those units that have shown special dedication or considerable progress in an area of HSE. In 2016, LMH EMEA’s FMO 5 shipping and logistics team in Aschaffenburg was crowned champion.

HSE managers at the KION Group’s production facilities and in its sales and service units have the opportunity to meet and talk with one another at an annual international summit.

The health rate for 2016 stood at the high level of 97.0 per cent (2015: 96.4 per cent). Details of the other HSE key performance indicators and of the measures initiated and implemented in 2016 will be included in the KION Group’s separate sustainability report, which is expected to be published in the third quarter of 2017.