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 for the targeted implementation of the KION 2027 strategy. 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, STILL and Dematic. In 2017, STILL was recognised as a top employer for the sixth year in succession by the Top Employers Institute, an certification organisation.

Our shared KION Group values

In 2017, we defined our shared values as part of an international multi-stage process involving employees from across all units, countries and hierarchy levels. Eleven global workshops with a total of around 1,000 participants were held on all continents, ensuring that the entire workforce was represented. The values – integrity, collaboration, courage and excellence – provide a common basis for our work together.

Headcount

The average number of employees (full-time equivalents (FTEs), including trainees and apprentices) in the KION Group was 31,064 in 2017 (2016: 24,957 FTEs).

As at 31 December 2017, the KION Group companies employed 31,608 FTEs, 1,064 more than a year earlier. The increase mainly took place in western and eastern Europe and was due, among other reasons, to the consolidation of Eisengiesserei Dinklage GmbH and the purchase of Nordtruck AB. > TABLE 035

Personnel expenses amounted to €1,989.7 million. The main reason for this increase of 30.9 per cent compared with 2016 was the rise in average headcount for 2017 and changes to collective bargaining agreements. > TABLE 036

Diversity

The KION Group sees itself as a global manufacturer with strong intercultural awareness: as at 31 December 2017, people from 86 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 is tackling the challenges of demographic change in a variety of ways, for example 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 2017, 27.0 per cent of employees were over the age of 50 (31 December 2016: 26.5 per cent).

Compared with the previous year, the proportion of the KION Group’s total workforce made up of women was virtually unchanged in 2017, at 16.0 per cent (2016: 16.3 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 internationally in order to better fulfil the continually growing requirements placed on the Company.

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 long-term process will be implemented for this purpose.

Finding highly qualified people to fill specialist and executive positions is very important to the KION Group. As a result, one of the focuses of HR work across the Group in 2017 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 and Dematic that develops employees’ skills, particularly in sales and service.

Training and professional development

The companies in the KION Group currently offer training for 19 professions in Germany. 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. They employed a total of 579 trainees and apprentices as at 31 December 2017 (31 December 2016: 580).

Sharing in the Company’s success

The KION Group launched the KION Employee Equity Programme (KEEP) in 2014. Initially limited to Germany, the programme was then rolled out to more countries. Around 1,100 employees participated in this share matching programme in 2017, roughly 5 per cent of the total number who are eligible to do so.

The plan for 2018 is to give employees in other countries the opportunity to share in the company’s success by participating in KEEP.

In 2017, the remuneration of the approximately 450 top executives was updated by continuing the long-term remuneration components that had been introduced in 2014. Another 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 new ‘Lift up’ corporate initiative, in particular to ensure the new organisational structure is firmly embedded and to communicate the KION Group’s strategy more widely.

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

A new manager survey was carried out in 2017 which revealed that the action plan derived from the earlier survey had been successfully implemented and we were therefore able to improve on the results of the 2015 survey.

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. The policy was updated in 2017.

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. Having started in 2016, the evaluation of possible HSE risks at sales and service sites was completed in 2017.

The KION Safety Championship, which was introduced in 2014, offers 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 2017, Linde China’s tools and cutting team in Xiamen 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 annual conferences.

The health rate for 2017 stood at the high level of 96.7 per cent (2016: 96.2 per cent). Details of the other HSE key performance indicators and of the measures initiated and implemented in 2017 will be included in the KION Group’s separate sustainability report, which will be published in April 2018 on the following website: http://reports.kiongroup.com/2017/sr.