Employees

HR strategy

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. The KION Group’s success in the implementation of KION 2027 is founded on the capabilities and commitment of its employees.

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 our workforce, the various labor markets, demographic change, and digitalization.

The KION Group’s employer brands are very important in this regard. Familiarity with the three main employer brands, Linde, STILL, and Dematic, remains very high and was further strengthened during the reporting period. In 2020, STILL was recognized as a top employer for the ninth year in succession by the Top Employers Institute, a certification organization.

Our shared KION Group values

The shared values and leadership principles of the KION Group, which were developed and introduced in 2017 as part of an international bottom-up and top-down process, were in the spotlight once again in 2020 with the objective of further embedding them in the Company. The Operating Units formulated and implemented a host of measures at local level to facilitate and strengthen employees’ identification with the shared values.

Regular communications via the KION intranet played an important role alongside the local measures in 2020. For example, a series of features was published 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 35,563 in 2020 (2019: 34,002 FTEs).

As at December 31, 2020, the KION Group companies employed 36,207 FTEs, 1,603 more than a year earlier.

Personnel expenses rose by just 0.3 percent year on year to €2,300.8 million despite the increase in the average number of employees for the year and the personnel measures introduced in connection with the capacity and structural program. This was due to various countervailing effects resulting from the coronavirus pandemic, such as short-time working and similar measures as well as employees’ using up of accumulated hours in their working-time accounts.

Diversity

The KION Group sees itself as a global company with strong intercultural awareness: As at December 31, 2020, people from more than 100 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 program, which gives employees the opportunity to transfer to different countries where the KION Group is represented. The coronavirus pandemic meant that far fewer people were able to transfer to other countries under the expat program in 2020.

The KION Group is taking various steps to tackle the challenges of demographic change, for example by providing working conditions that are suited to employees’ age-related requirements and organizing healthy-living programs so that it can continue to benefit from older employees’ experience. As at December 31, 2020, 24.9 percent of employees were over the age of 50 (December 31, 2019: 26.7 percent).

The proportion of the KION Group’s total workforce made up of women rose to 17.2 percent in 2020 compared with 16.7 percent in 2019. To help increase the proportion of management positions occupied by women, the Executive Board has set targets that are published in the declaration on corporate governance. Going forward, the KION Group intends to fill more management positions internationally in order to better fulfill 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 continued in 2020 that are aimed at increasing diversity in the Company. The Group launched the Female Mentoring Program for its female managers in 2018. Shortly after the second group had successfully completed the program, a third group of female managers joined it in 2020.

Development of specialist workers and executives

In 2020, further good progress was made in the implementation of the new global process introduced in 2017/2018 for performance management and succession planning. Measures to actively manage the performance of executives were strengthened, for example. Succession planning was also stepped up, resulting in an increase in the number of candidates earmarked for key positions. There was an additional focus on identifying young high-potential candidates who will be put on targeted development programs. Following on from the first group in 2019, a further group of global high-potential candidates successfully completed a training course in 2020 to set them on the path to fulfilling an executive function. Some members of this group have already been promoted to a senior management position. The participation of a further group that was due to start the training in 2020 had to be postponed to 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The KION Group is committed to introducing new programs targeted at specific groups and to offering 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 programs. This helps to systematically identify and support staff across the Group who have potential, who are high performers, or who are experts in key functions.

The Operating Units LMH EMEA, STILL EMEA, and Dematic also have academies that run subject-specific and interdisciplinary training courses to develop employees’ skills, particularly in sales and service.

Training and professional development

The companies in the KION Group currently offer training for 21 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 687 as at December 31, 2020 (December 31, 2019: 672).

Sharing in the Company’s success

The KION Group launched the KION Employee Equity Program (KEEP) in 2014. Initially limited to Germany, the program was then rolled out to more countries. The program was suspended in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The eligible participants received the matching shares that they were due in 2020.

Since 2014, the remuneration of the approximately 500 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 ‘Lift up’ transformation initiative. The key aims of the initiative were to ensure that the organizational structure was firmly embedded and to communicate the KION Group’s strategy more widely. A new manager survey was carried out in 2017 that revealed that the action plan derived from the earlier survey had been successfully implemented and the KION Group had therefore succeeded in improving its results relative to 2015.

The third manager survey, conducted in autumn 2019, showed that the Group had made further significant improvements. The large number of completed action plans, many of which were the product of team workshops, had a very positive impact again, and this was reaffirmed in benchmarking with other companies. There were a number of further workshops in 2020 at which work on these results and further measures continued.

Health and safety in the workplace

Reflecting its responsibility as an employer, the KION Group attaches great importance to 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. The KION Group’s current corporate policy sets 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.

In 2020, the coronavirus pandemic meant that activities were focused on infection control. During the first wave of the virus in the spring, the KION Group implemented measures at all sites in order to prevent the spread of infection. These were enhanced over the course of the year and adapted to local conditions. The measures included the provision of protective equipment, disinfectant, and information materials. As far as possible, the recommendations on hygiene and social distancing were implemented at the sites. Only absolutely essential business trips were permitted. At some sites, antigen tests were also offered as a targeted means of preventing chains of infection.

These and other measures enabled the KION Group to make sure that no clusters of cases were formed and chains of infection were controlled.

An influenza vaccination campaign was also launched at Group level.

Because of the pandemic and the related restrictions on contact, face-to-face training and other advisory services in the area of occupational health and safety could only take place to a limited extent in 2020. The audit program is based on the ISO 14001, ISO 45001, and other standards and covers the KION Group’s production facilities as well as sales and service. It continued in 2020, albeit at a reduced level compared with the previous year.

In the reporting year, eight central HSE audits were carried out within the KION Group. Due to the travel restrictions imposed as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, they mainly took place at units that could be reached locally. Further progress was also made in the implementation of comprehensive minimum HSE standards, which are mandatory for all sites. Employees can access these via the intranet.

The KION Safety Championship was also continued. It provides additional motivation for employees to continually engage with HSE matters. Based on regular reporting from the individual units and defined evaluation criteria, a panel of judges awards a prize 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.

Further information, including on HSE key performance indicators such as the lost time injury frequency rate (LTIFR) and the illness rate (average illness-related or accident-related absences from the workplace) and on the measures initiated and implemented in 2020, are included in the KION Group’s separate sustainability report, which will be published in April 2021 on the KION GROUP AG website.