Diversity strategy and organization
Promoting diversity, establishing good relationships, and designing an organization that is ready for future challenges — these are the principles that guide Daimler’s approach to diversity management. For us, diversity management is an important factor for success in both a business and a social sense. After all, a company can only develop a keen sense of the growth markets of the future if employees with a variety of talents and expertise are working within it. Diversity management also means addressing the varying conditions in the different countries where we operate in accordance with the motto “Think globally, act locally.”
As early as 2005, Daimler established diversity management as a line responsibility and set up a diversity management organization in order to emphasize the strategic importance of this issue. This organization consists of the Global Diversity Council (GDC), the Global Diversity Office (GDO), and the diversity officers at the business units.
The GDC is made up of Board of Management members and high-ranking executives. This decision-making body utilizes the strategic approach that has been defined by the GDO to develop measures for the permanent establishment of a diversity management system. These measures are implemented in cooperation with managers, human resources units, and the diversity officers from the business units.
Objectives and scope of our diversity management. Our diversity management activities initially focused on promoting women to management positions (gender diversity). Our goal is to increase the proportion of women in senior management positions throughout the world to 20 percent by 2020. We are pursuing this ambitious objective within the framework of an evolutionary process that is based on various company agreements related to equal opportunity. Differences in pay between men and women do not exist at Daimler. The principle of “equal pay for equal work” is written into our Social Responsibility Guidelines and a special company-wide agreement.
We also address many other aspects of diversity, including topics such as generation management and internationality. In all of these areas, we apply a combination of measures that encompass not only special activities to promote opportunities for women but also initiatives for all managers and for the workforce as a whole.
Increasing the share of women in the workforce. A company agreement reached back in 2001 sets a target corridor for the proportion of women in all positions covered by collective bargaining agreements. Corporate management has also defined target corridors for increasing the share of women in senior management positions.
Percentage of women employees at Daimler AG
| in % | As of Dec. 31, 2008 |
As of Dec. 31, 2009 |
As of Dec. 31, 2010 |
Target corridor (2006–2010) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Workforce | 12.9 | 13.1 | 13.5 | 12.5-15 |
| White-collar | 24.1 | 24.2 | 24.3 | - |
| Trainees | 20.2 | 20.7 | 20.6 | 20-24 |
| Commercial-technical vocational training |
11.2 | 11.7 | 11.3 | 11-14 |
| Level 4 management | 11.2 | 11.7 | 12.4 | 10-14 |
| Share of women in senior management positions |
7.8 | 8.3 | 8.9 |
| in % | 12/31/2008 | 12/31/2009 | 12/31/2010 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total workforce | 14.6 | 14.9 | 15.2 |
| Industrial employees | 5.7 | 4.9 | 5.5 |
| Administrative employees | 25.4 | 25.9 | 26.4 |
| Trainees/interns | 20.1 | 20.4 | 21.1 |
| Managerial function, Level 4 | 11.9 | 12.3 | 13.0 |
| Leading executive function | 7.6 | 8.0 | 9.0 |
Employment quotas for the severely handicapped. The proportion of severely handicapped staff members employed by Daimler AG increased slightly in recent years, despite the decline in overall workforce numbers. Expenditure resulting from business with sheltered workshops for people with disabilities and with similar facilities totaled €25.6 million. If the quota had been too low, only €4.2 million of this amount could have been taken into account.
| Figures in percent as of December 31 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Percentage of employees | 5.34 | 5.44 | 5.74 |
Diversity management as a performance indicator. The promotion of diversity management is one of the indicators used in our annual evaluation of manager performance and potential. Regular meetings between supervisors and staff support the establishment of diversity expertise across the board. Our objective here is to make diversity management part of our company’s “genetic code” and a matter of course at Daimler.
Diversity Charter. In 2010 we once again stepped up our activities related to the Diversity Charter, which we drew up in December 2006 together with the German federal government, Deutsche Bank, Deutsche Telekom, and Deutsche BP. The creation of this charter underscored our commitment to diversity management and demonstrates our willingness to address the associated challenges and initiate a social discourse on this issue. The charter has since been signed by more than 600 companies, associations, local communities, and clubs.
