Employees

Within the Non-financial Declaration, the section on employees groups the topics of initial and further training, health management and occupational health and safety, co-determination, diversity and equal opportunities, work-life balance and the balancing of family and career needs (see Materiality Matrix).

An HR Strategy Focusing on Performance, Responsibility and Growth

Vonovia is a growing brand. Thanks to its insourcing strategy, the company is creating jobs with varying requirements with regard to qualifications and involving a large range of duties. There is particular demand for staff to join the technical service and residential environment organization. This means that, in an era in which the labor markets can be described as precarious, Vonovia offers stable and reliable employment with fair wages. The number of employees working for the Vonovia Group in 2018, for example, rose from 8,448 (December 31, 2017) to 9,923 (December 31, 2018). Of these, 89.3 percent have a permanent employment contract.

Vonovia needs well-trained, qualified employees to achieve its mission and pursue its growth strategy. Ever since 2016, the central Recruitment & HR Marketing department has been tasked with finding these employees, getting them enthusiastic about Vonovia and ensuring that they remain loyal to the company in the long run. The aim is to meet the mounting and constantly changing requirements, exploit synergy potential and find employees who are a perfect fit for the positions on offer. In this respect, Vonovia uses both in-house and external recruitment, using targeted initial and further training measures to supplement these efforts. This factor plays a crucial role in ensuring the company’s success. In order to make sure that qualified staff remain loyal to us and to remain an attractive employer in the future, we offer various health programs to promote our employees’ well-being, help them to strike a balance between their work and family lives and offer them the opportunity to participate in the company’s success.

The 2018 fiscal year was characterized by the integration of the BUWOG companies and Victoria Park AB from an HR management perspective as well.

Training and Education

Vocational training is a key pillar of Vonovia’s recruitment strategy. We offer a wide range of vocational training programs and are currently offering training in 22 locations in 14 different occupations, as well as offering dual-degree programs. We offer young parents, as well as trainees who are responsible for caring for someone in their family, the opportunity to complete their training on a part-time basis, thereby helping them to obtain professional qualifications.

Our company employed a total of 485 trainees as of December 31, 2018 (December 31, 2017: 462), of whom 152 were commercial trainees and 333 were technical trade trainees. This means that trainees account for 4.9% of the total workforce. This makes us one of the few companies in the DAX 30 that has further increased its training rate.

Vonovia has set itself the objective of keeping employees within the company and developing their potential. This is why targeted further training and personnel development programs form a key component of our HR management strategy. Training courses and programs are tailored to suit our needs. Vonovia’s in-house Vonovia Academy offers training sessions and specialist seminars, management development courses, as well as certified qualification schemes. It offers our employees a whole range of opportunities for specialist, methodological and personal further development. This allows Vonovia to recruit internally wherever possible. As a result, we attach a great deal of importance to talent management, to ensuring that our top performers stay with Vonovia and to systematic succession planning. Victoria Park AB in Sweden has also made the further training of its employees a focal topic of its HR management strategy.

Health Management and Occupational Health and Safety

Preserving the well-being and boosting satisfaction among our employees is something that is important to us. As a result, Vonovia attaches considerable importance to offering employees a work environment in which they are protected against risks and threats to their health while carrying out their work. This applies, in particular, to those departments and trades that are involved in the construction process. Here, the central task is to avoid work-related accidents. The management of occupational safety is conducted through operational coordinators, who are regularly in communication with one another. The occupational safety committees responsible are supported by external specialists in occupational safety and occupational medicine. Threat assessments carried out regularly and reviewed for effectiveness show possible risks and, if necessary, recommend measures to reduce their impact or avoid them altogether.

Furthermore, the company offers health-promoting measures, for example, partnerships with fitness centers, company sports, preventive healthcare programs or health-promoting seminars.

Work-Life Balance

We have been committed to promoting family life for years now, the aim being to allow our employees to strike a balance between family and work commitments by offering a range of tools designed to meet their specific needs. Vonovia’s cooperation with external service providers includes, among other things, childcare services and assistance finding a day care center or care services. Flexible working time models – also for trainees – ensure the required flexibility. A harmonious balance between family and professional life is particularly important to BUWOG Group GmbH in Austria. As a result, our subsidiary has been participating in the “berufundfamilie” (work and family) audit conducted by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Families and Youth since 2017. This is a voluntary government seal of quality that aims to achieve improvements in the awareness of family issues. The seal is awarded as part of a structured audit process. The objective is also to use the audit to achieve positive commercial effects on employer appeal, employee loyalty, motivation and identification, and to minimize staff turnover and absences.

Diversity and Equal Opportunities at All Levels

Vonovia is explicitly committed to a plural society in which diversity is respected and applied in practice. This means that we also give all of our employees equal support. They all benefit from a work environment in which appreciation, tolerance and respect are fundamental values and which is free from prejudice. For us, diversity is also a competitive advantage. We employ people from all age groups, genders, various nationalities and cultures and with a whole range of educational backgrounds. We also employ people with varying levels of disability. The nationalities within our workforce, which represents nearly 80 different countries, alone highlight our commitment to diversity. This is consistent with the diversity of our tenants and also has a positive impact on our contact with customers.

We take it for granted that all people are treated equally and their individuality is respected. This allows us to benefit from the different perspectives and ways of thinking which result from our employees’ social, cultural and linguistic backgrounds in a respectful and open atmosphere.

In order to further promote equal opportunities, Vonovia is aiming to further increase the proportion of women in management. At present, approximately 37% of managers at Vonovia are women. At the top level of management, the diversity concept for the composition of the management and control bodies is set out in detail in the “Declaration on Corporate Governance” and in the Corporate Governance Report. https://investors.vonovia.de

Giving employees equal opportunities is also a matter of course at Victoria Park AB in Sweden and BUWOG Group GmbH in Austria.

Co-determination

Works councils have been established in all Vonovia Group companies in order to represent employees. This enables employees and employer’s representatives to pursue a trust-based and constructive dialog. In case of significant changes within the company, Vonovia informs its workers within the legally prescribed notice periods.