Employees
For Klöckner & Co, qualified, motivated and healthy employees are the basis on which added value is created. We are committed to staff empowerment, safety, responsibility, credibility and sustainability. A motivating style of leadership, empowering people and fostering a culture of innovation through self-determination, talent development and incentivization are the basis for this. They allow us to advance our innovative capacity, take advantage of opportunities and grow the value of our Company. We continuously optimize our organization, becoming more agile and adaptable to thrive in an environment of continuous change.
Learn more about Klöckner's responsibility towards its employees in the Employees section of the Sustainability Report.
Key figures in 2023
19%
Women in leadership
5,7
Lost Time Injury Frequence
Our working environment
Continuing education is a central component of our corporate culture. That is why we offer our employees a wide range of opportunities for further and personal training. The aim of our measures is to continuously improve and develop the qualifications and skills of our employees - particularly with regard to digitization - and to promote talent from within our own ranks The Group-wide employee strategy, our Klöckner & Co People Strategy, serves as a guiding framework for future-oriented employee management in the Group. Klöckner & Co attaches great importance to training measures. In 2023, more than 47,100 in-house courses were completed across the Group in a wide variety of areas. The majority of these were in the areas of IT security, compliance, and digital skills development as part of the Kloeckner Academy e-learning platform.
The 47,100 training courses do not include external, individual training measures. Particular importance is attached to our internal training programs: Clear Sales and Sales X for sales, Initial Development Program for junior staff development, Emerging Leaders Program and Leading for success for leadership potential development, Leadership Empowerment Program for managers and Senior Experience Program as development training 55+.
Occupational health and safety is a key issue for us as a steel distributor with a high percentage of wage earners employed at our branches. At a corporate strategic level, all our occupational safety activities since 2013 have been brought together under the Safety 1st initiative. The Group-wide goal of our occupational safety initiatives and activities is a consistent reduction in occupational accidents as measured by the lost time injury frequency (LTIF). The LTIF was reduced from 5.8 in the prior year to 5,7 in 2023 and is therefore below the self-imposed annual target value of less than or equal to 5,9. The target for 2024 is an LTIF value of less than or equal to 5.0.
For Klöckner & Co, fair working conditions are the basis for the motivation and hence the productivity of our employees. A working environment characterized by mutual respect and free from discrimination of any kind is a necessary precondition for comittment and creativity. In general, we strive to increase diversity in our workforce as well as foster creativity and an innovative spirit in the Company with employees of differing cultural backgrounds, lifestyles and values.
Irrespective of their location in Germany, the voluntary commitments made are valid throughout the Group. These include fostering a respectful organizational culture, recognizing diversity inside and outside the organization, and implementing the charter in internal and external dialog. With the Code of Conduct we have committed ourselves, among other things, to ensuring that our colleagues, applicants and business partners can expect respect from us and are judged according to their qualifications, competencies and performance. Our German offerings follow the quality standards of the "Fair Company" initiative, to which Klöckner & Co commits itself anew each year.
In general, we strive to increase diversity in our workforce as well as to foster creativity and an innovative spirit in the Company with employees of differing cultural backgrounds, lifestyles and values. For us as an international Group, serving our customers day in, day out in numerous countries around the world calls for strong teams with high levels of diversity.
An important goal for Klöckner & Co is the recruitment of women for specialist and management positions. The percentage of women employed at management levels one to three below Management Board level has already been raised from 8% in 2011 to 19% Group-wide in the reporting period. The aim is to further increase their share to 21% by the end of 2024.
To advance diversity management more actively and in all dimensions, Klöckner & Co signed the Charta der Vielfalt, or Diversity Charter, in April 2021. The association that goes by the same name is the largest employer initiative in Germany for the promotion of diversity in companies and institutions. Irrespective of any given site’s location in Germany, the voluntary entered commitments are valid throughout the Group. These include fostering a respectful organizational culture, recognizing diversity inside and outside the organization, and implementing the charter in internal and external dialog. Setting an example for diversity and tolerance, Klöckner & Co sponsored Christopher Street Day in Duisburg in the reporting year and founded Kloeckner Pride, an internal network for LGBTQ+ people and their supporters that draws its membership from throughout the Group.
Our other action areas
.png.thumb.267.700.png)
