Corporate Culture and Employees
Training and Personal Development
Themes
We use targeted qualification and development measures for our employees to increase the amount of vital expertise and know-how within the company and safeguard our commercial success.
Vocational training is a core element of our HR and recruiting strategy. Focusing on apprenticeships in manual trades will allow us to expand the Vonovia Technical Service and make ourselves less dependent on the external labor market. By training junior employees ourselves in line with our needs, we can secure our long-term competitiveness. As in the previous year, we were able to maintain our training rate in Germany at 5.0%.
5.0%
training rate (in Germany)
Our intention is to provide our employees across the Group with the development opportunities they need with regard to their technical, methodological and personal skills. This enables us to retain top performers over the long term and prepare them for their future roles. During the reporting period, we:
- Intensified training in manual and technical roles
- Successfully implemented human capital development activities
- Expanded the range of professional training courses
- Extended the development of (junior) managers and succession planning
We support the career development of our high-potential employees through the Vonovia Academy and partnerships with the EBZ European Business School for Real Estate Management in Bochum and other educational establishments.
The Pillars of the Vonovia Academy
The Vonovia Academy
The Vonovia Academy forms a key element of our human capital development measures. It offers employees a range of professional training which is continuously adapted to the specific needs of our departments. It provides training and coaching along with technical and leadership seminars and certified qualifications such as part-time degrees or a “Meister” in a manual trade. Special in-house training programs include “The Starter Pack for Your Successful First Management Role”, the series on “Basic Management Education” or the courses on “Effective Rhetoric for Women – Confident, Compelling and Successful” and “Women Leaders – Success as a Female Manager.”
One focus of our HR work in 2020 was the development of the Vonovia Community Academy for the certified professional training of forward-looking community developers, which we will be launching in 2021 (see section Community Development and Infrastructure Contribution).
Vonovia has had a training center offering a wide range of courses for all Technical Service employees since 2018. It offers professional training in fields like plumbing and heating technology. The courses involve a substantial amount of practical work. Due to the difficulty of converting this training to an online format, we were only able to offer a very limited range of training in 2020.
We also support young talents in customer services through the junior trainee program “Have a Go!”, which focuses essentially on learning by doing. People joining from other industries can also gain a recognized vocational qualification or become a customer manager by completing academic courses while working.
A pilot development program was designed to increase the effectiveness of new managers, boost their individual performance and increase their loyalty to the company.
Human Capital Development Programs (Selection)
- Talent programs “Management Talent” and “Strategy Circle”
- Manual and technical training “Vonovia Site Manager” qualification and other specialist courses
- Part-time business studies courses, e.g., in Property Management
- Leadership training and programs such as “Fit for Leadership” and “Basic Management Education”
- Development of department-specific junior talent programs in customer service and elsewhere
- Holistic development program for managers with initial management experience in a CFO role
In 2020 we also introduced:
- New vocational and professional training courses
- A new university partnership for various dual study programs
- A series of digital workshops for commercial training managers
We will continue our trainee programs for junior executives in 2021 with a range of measures, including recruiting more trainees for the Group. A new apprenticeship plan was developed in Austria that will be implemented in 2021.
Recruiting processes for apprenticeships and commercial training courses have been digitalized. We also boosted the competencies of all employees in the use of digital tools, including apprentices. These activities were backed up by courses on long-distance leadership and coping with the coronavirus crisis. The systematic transition to remote learning will allow us to offer an even wider range of human capital development programs going forward, e.g., within the framework of the digital Vonovia Academy. Many training courses in Austria had to be canceled or postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic. However, some smaller units covering topics like Microsoft Office programs were offered online. Courses required by law were also completed online without restrictions.