Employees

HR strategy

In 2021, the KION Group’s HR strategy was brought into line with the updated KION 2027 strategy. The ultimate objective of the KION Group’s HR strategy is to continue to provide the best possible support for the targeted implementation of the KION 2027 strategy, with which it has been closely aligned for a number of years. The KION Group’s success in the implementation of KION 2027 is founded on the capabilities and motivation of its employees. Implementation of the updated HR strategy began in 2022.

To this end, the KION Group uses a wide range of instruments, measures, and processes to ensure that there is always a sufficient number of highly qualified, hard-working employees at all levels of its operations and in the various countries. 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 year.

Our shared KION Group values

The shared values and leadership principles of the KION Group were developed and introduced in 2017 as part of an international bottom-up and top-down process.

Since then, they have been part of many HR instruments and are thus well embedded in the Company. For example, they are used along with the core competencies as a basis for measuring performance in the annual staff appraisal interviews. The leadership principles are derived from and complement the values. They define the conduct expected of managers in the KION Group. They also feature in various manager programs and provide guidance for individual continuing professional development activities.

Headcount

The average number of employees (full-time equivalents (FTEs), including trainees and apprentices) in the KION Group was 40,781 in 2022 (2021: 37,954).

As at December 31, 2021, the KION Group companies employed 41,149 FTEs, 1,547 more than a year earlier.

Personnel expenses rose by 9.1 percent year on year to €2,848.7 million due to the growth in the average number of employees for the year and to general salary increases.

Diversity

The KION Group, which has a direct presence in around 40 countries, sees itself as a global company with intercultural awareness: As at December 31, 2022, people of more than 110 nationalities 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 KION Group is taking various steps to tackle the challenges of demographic change, for example by providing working conditions that are as well suited as possible 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, 2022, 23.8 percent of employees were over the age of 50 (December 31, 2021: 23.9 percent).

The proportion of the KION Group’s total workforce made up of women was slightly higher at 17.8 percent in 2022, compared with 17.1 percent in 2021. To help increase the proportion of management positions occupied by women, the Executive Board has set targets that are published in the corporate governance statement. 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. A Diversity & Inclusion Council was set up in 2022 with members drawn from the ranks of international managers and the objective of making the Company even more focused on the various aspects of diversity, inclusivity and equality. In addition, various initiatives were continued in 2022 that are aimed at increasing diversity in the Company. The Group launched the Female Mentoring Program for its female managers in 2018, which also continued in 2022. To further promote equality of opportunity for women, the KION Group has been a member of the initiative ‘Chefsache. Drive the Change – For Men and Women’ initiative since 2019 and plays an active part in working groups in order to help drive forward this important issue. Various local networks have also been established in which employees with common characteristics, interests, or backgrounds can forge contacts and share information.

Development of specialist workers and executives

In 2022, further good progress was made in the implementation of the new global process introduced in 2017/2018 for performance management and succession planning. Content was updated and measures to manage the performance of executives were strengthened, for example, and special attention was paid to identifying successor candidates for key positions. There was an additional focus on identifying high-potential candidates who will be put on targeted development programs. Since 2018, three cohorts of global high-potential candidates have successfully completed a training course to set them on the path to taking on an executive role. Some of them have already been promoted to an executive position. The fourth cohort started the course in autumn 2022. The first university graduates successfully completed their management trainee program in 2021. Further groups began the program both in autumn 2021 and in the reporting year.

The KION Group remains 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 KION ITS EMEA and KION SCS Operating Units 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 18 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 799 as at December 31, 2022 (December 31, 2021: 713).

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 2022 due to the coronavirus pandemic (as had also been the case in 2020 and 2021) and to the economic impact of the war in Ukraine.

The eligible participants received the matching shares that they were due in 2022.

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

All KION Group’s companies aim to ensure a high level of employee commitment. A second global employee survey was conducted in 2022, following on from the first one in the prior year. This survey was designed to collect input from all employees worldwide, strengthen employees’ commitment and motivation, further embed the corporate culture, and thereby support the sustainable growth of the business. A total of 77 percent of the workforce completed the survey, a very encouraging increase in participation of 13 percentage points. The KION Group achieved an unchanged engagement score of 74 on a scale of 0 to 100 in the second year of the survey, which meant it again almost matched the external benchmark of 75. The results at Group and Operating Unit level were communicated transparently. Managers shared team results with their employees during team workshops and worked with them to develop ways of further strengthening employee commitment.

Health and safety in the workplace

The KION Group attaches great importance to the health and safety of its employees. As a responsible employer, the KION Group endeavors to avoid all accidents and work-related illnesses wherever possible and to maintain each employee’s work capacity in the long term. A comprehensive health, safety, and environment (HSE) management system is in place that covers the Group’s entire workforce in regard to aspects of occupational health and safety and environmental protection. The KION Group’s obligations under its current corporate policy include taking comprehensive precautions to create a safe working environment and ensuring employees know how to avoid risks and accidents.

Occupational health and safety is also embedded as a key topic in KION’s sustainability strategy. In connection with this, the KION Group has set itself the target of reducing the lost time injury frequency rate (upper limit) by 5 percent a year.

In 2022, activities were focused on rolling out the mandatory HSE standards at all sites. Employees can access these standards via the intranet. As the pandemic situation eased further, it became possible to resume more and more training and other advisory services in the area of occupational health and safety.

The audit program continued in 2022 as a means of ensuring the ongoing systematic management of critical functions. It is based on the ISO 14001, ISO 45001, and other standards and covers the KION Group’s production facilities as well as sales, service, and installations. Corporate HSE audits were also carried out at multiple sites, including in Brazil, Poland, Germany, and Italy. All sites are scheduled to be certified to ISO 14001 and ISO 45001 by 2024. Implementation will be aided by a self-assessment tool that was developed in 2021 and rolled out across the Group’s facilities during the reporting year. The tool allows the degree to which the HSE standards have been applied to be evaluated at site level. In combination with the Group-wide HSE risk assessment, this will provide a comprehensive picture of the HSE risks and the relevant risk management measures in place at the sites. Discussion and dialogue within the HSE expert network ensures that experience is shared and best practice is disseminated across the Group. This sharing of information is facilitated by meetings of HSE managers, regular conference calls, a groupwide HSE knowledge platform, and fixed appointments at the plants and sites.

Due to the ongoing potential for further waves of coronavirus, the KION Group rigorously kept up its measures aimed at preventing the spread of infection at the sites. This included the provision of protective equipment and disinfectant, and recommendations on hygiene and social distancing.

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 2022, are included in the KION Group’s separate sustainability report, which will be published in April 2023 on the KION GROUP AG website.