Increasing attractiveness as an employer and development programs for specific target groups

A human resources policy that promotes a work-life balance is a major component of Volkswagen’s attractiveness as an employer; in particular, it contributes to greater gender equality. We are working continuously to develop family-friendly working time models and to increase the number of women in management positions. For Volkswagen AG, we have set targets for the proportion of women in management in accordance with German legislation. Volkswagen AG has achieved the targets set in line with the Gesetz zur gleichberechtigten Teilhabe von Frauen und Männern an Führungspositionen (German Act on the Equal Participation of Women and Men in Leadership Positions) and section 76(4) of the Aktiengesetz (AktG – German Stock Corporation Act). As of December 31, 2021, the proportion of women in the active workforce at the first level of management (senior management, top management and brand Board of Management) was 13.5 % (target: 13.0 %). At the second level (management) it was 18.3 % (target: 16.9 %). The used time credits from deferred compensation (time asset bonds) are not taken into account. For the new period up to the end of 2025, Volkswagen AG has set itself the target of 16.5 % women in the first level of management and 23.4 % women in the second level of management, each as a proportion of the active workforce. The Group Board of Management and Supervisory Board are regularly informed of the figures achieved and the current target paths.

In order to encourage women with great potential to advance within the Company, we have set targets relating to the development of the proportion of women in management for every Board of Management business area at Volkswagen AG. This approach is supported by many different measures ranging from cross-brand mentoring programs to a quota system for the management selection procedure and targets for the share of women among external hires.

The Group also has a large number of collective regulations in place to make it easier for employees to balance the demands and needs of work and home life and allow staff to arrange their own individual working model. In addition to flexible working hours and the use of working time accounts and flextime, these include variable part-time work and shift models, leave of absence programs enabling employees to care for family members, the possibility to convert salary components into paid leave, childcare services that are associated with the company or are company-owned, and remote working. “Meine AusZeit” is one of the latest programs to be offered by Volkswagen AG and allows employees to take a self-financed leave of absence with an upfront payment from the Company.

The Covid-19 pandemic brought fundamental changes to the way we work and collaborate with one another. One of the consequences of the pandemic is that hybrid working – a combination of remote working and working onsite – is increasingly becoming the norm. This has also forced the Volkswagen Group to modify its organization of work and collaboration and prompted it to launch several initiatives during the reporting period. One of these is the Office 2025 project, which led to the development of a holistic concept spanning the dimensions of people, space and technology that focuses on the topics of modular working environments, desk sharing and technical infrastructure, including hardware and software. Volkswagen AG, which first entered into its works agreement for remote working back in 2016, made use of this agreement in 2021 – a year dominated by the global pandemic – to give its employees every opportunity to work remotely and thus safeguard against infection as far as possible. Existing regulations were updated in the reporting period at Volkswagen AG and Porsche, for instance, so as to make working arrangements more flexible.

In July 2021, Volkswagen held a “Digital Week” at its Wolfsburg plant on the hybrid working world with numerous interactive events, around 40 speakers and over 20,000 attendees.

As in other companies, at Volkswagen the pandemic acted primarily as a catalyst for the breakthrough of digitalization in knowledge work: virtual communication and collaboration, and new formats of knowledge transfer and training, for example through podcasts or online tutorials, were set up and expanded at short notice.