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 Material Handling, STILL and Dematic. In 2018, STILL was recognised as a top employer for the seventh year in succession by the Top Employers Institute, a certification organisation.

Our shared KION Group values

In 2017, we defined and introduced our shared corporate 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.

In order to further entrench the values in the Company, we implemented a number of measures in 2017 and 2018. Among other things, we ran team workshops to ensure that all employees are aware of them, and provided regular updates on the intranet, including features on employees who embody the values particularly well.

Headcount

The average number of employees (full-time equivalents (FTEs), including trainees and apprentices) in the KION Group was 32,524 in 2018 (2017: 31,064 FTEs).

As at 31 December 2018, the KION Group companies employed 33,128 FTEs, 1,520 more than a year earlier. > TABLE 024

Personnel expenses amounted to €2,100.2 million. The main reason for this increase of 5.6 per cent compared with 2017 was the rise in average headcount for 2018 and changes to collective bargaining agreements. > TABLE 025

Diversity

The KION Group sees itself as a global manufacturer with strong intercultural awareness: as at 31 December 2018, people from around 90 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 2018, 26.6 per cent of employees were over the age of 50 (31 December 2017: 27.0 per cent).

Compared with the previous year, the proportion of the KION Group’s total workforce made up of women was virtually unchanged in 2018, at 16.2 per cent (2017: 16.0 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, various initiatives were launched in 2018 aimed at increasing diversity in the Company. For our female managers, for example, we launched the Female Mentoring Programme.

Development of specialist workers and executives

The longer-term HR strategy focuses on an 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. To this end, we introduced a performance management process for succession planning in 2017/2018 that applies globally. Finding highly qualified people to fill specialist and executive positions is critically important to the KION Group. As a result, one of the focuses of HR work across the Group in 2018 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, Linde Material Handling and Dematic academies offer subject-specific and interdisciplinary training courses that develop 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. 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.

The total number of trainees and apprentices was 601 as at 31 December 2018 (31 December 2017: 579).

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 1,450 employees participated in this share matching programme in 2018, roughly 6 per cent of the total number who are eligible to do so.

The programme was extended to the USA in 2018.

Since 2014, the remuneration of the approximately 460 top executives has included a remuneration component running over several years that is based on the long-term success of the Company and is granted annually.

Employee commitment

The KION Group’s products and services destined for its customers are produced by committed 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’ transformation initiative, in particular to ensure the new organisational structure is firmly embedded and to communicate the KION Group’s strategy more widely.

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.

We continued to work on the action plan in team workshops over the course of 2018. Another survey is planned for 2019.

Health and safety in the workplace

As an employer, the KION Group is responsible for the health and safety of its employees. The focus is always on avoiding all accidents and work-related illness wherever possible, as well as on maintaining each employee’s work capacity in the long term. In 2017, the KION Group updated its 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. It systematically documents HSE measures and processes and provides specific ideas for how they can be developed further. In 2018, nine central HSE audits were carried out within the KION Group, including at the new plant in the Czech Republic and at other Dematic sites. Furthermore, comprehensive minimum HSE standards were implemented that are binding for all plants and the sales and service organisation. Every employee can access them via the intranet. To ensure rapid implementation, the main focus is on the 20 standards that are particularly relevant.

The KION Safety Championship 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 have suggested the most improvements in an area of HSE.

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.

Numerous activities aimed at improving health, such as fitness programmes and advice on nutrition and healthcare – also have a positive effect on health and safety in the Group. The vast majority of employees have access to voluntary health-related activities at their site.

At 2.8 per cent on average, the illness rate for 2018 remained at a satisfactory level (2017: 2.8 per cent). The illness rate is the figure for illness-related or accident-related absences from the workplace. The targets relating to HSE were examined in 2018 as part of a regular review. Further information, along with details of the other HSE key performance indicators and of the measures initiated and implemented in 2018, will be included in the KION Group’s separate sustainability report, which will be published in April 2019 on the following website: https://reports.kiongroup.com/2018/sr.