As a global company, WACKER operates in international markets and multicultural environments. Holding each employee’s skills and dedication in high regard, we are convinced that diversity and inclusion enhance our company’s performance. We thus view human diversity as an asset. We oppose discriminatory or derogatory treatment on account of gender, race, ethnicity, religion, ideology, disability, sexual orientation or age. These principles are valid across the WACKER Group and, as part of our corporate culture, are embodied in our Code of Teamwork & Leadership. Employees may report any discrimination to their supervisors, as well as to a compliance officer, the employee council or the designated HR contact person. The complaint will be investigated and the reporting employee will be informed of the results. We do not keep a log of discrimination cases.

We require all employees at our German sites to familiarize themselves with Germany’s General Equal Treatment Act (AGG) by completing an e-learning course. This course is compulsory for all levels of corporate hierarchy, from the Executive Board down to standard-payscale employees, as well as all new employees.

Special arrangements are in place to help and promote WACKER employees who are disabled. The company’s integration management program provides for close cooperation between supervisors, employees, HR, disabled-employee representatives and Health Services to permit disabled employees to remain in their workplace or to change to a suitable job. This allows us to retain skilled staff, and valuable knowledge acquired over many years remains with WACKER.

In 2014, the annual average of disabled and equivalent-status employees in Germany was 1,050 (2013: 982). For years, WACKER has employed a higher number of people with disabilities than required by law (percentage of staff: 2013: 7.4 percent; 2014: 8.1 percent; legally mandated: 5 percent). Nine out of ten disabled employees at WACKER in Germany are on the standard payscale. The average age of disabled employees at WACKER is 51.6. In 2013 and 2014, the Burghausen site took on five disabled young people as trainees. After having completed their training program successfully, the trainees’ goal is a steady job at WACKER.

WACKER supports disabled individuals who cannot find work on the general job market, for example by collaborating with workshops for the disabled. Our Burghausen site, for instance, sources key products from the charitable Ruperti workshops – such as dunnage for securing freight, to mounting plates for process engineering, up to packaging for Siltronic. At the Nünchritz site, we have for many years been using the services of the disabled workshop “Lebenshilfe Riesa e.V.” (a charity for the mentally disabled) for landscaping and garden maintenance. An example of cooperation with disabled individuals in the USA is the Pomona Valley Workshop. Here, the Chino site collaborates with a neighboring organization that offers jobs to disabled people.

Over the past few years, WACKER has become more international. The company sells products in 130 countries around the globe, and most of our sales – 86 percent in 2014 – are generated outside Germany. It follows that we want our management to reflect the global nature of our business. Over recent years, WACKER has increasingly filled leadership positions in its regions with local employees rather than with executives sent there on assignment. The prime criterion for filling executive positions remains qualification. In Germany, the General Equal Treatment Act (AGG) forbids the selection of personnel according to origin. In the other WACKER regions, such as China and the USA, we also select candidates primarily by qualification.

At the end of 2014, 44 of a total of 192 executive personnel (OFK) were of non-German nationality groupwide – this is 23 percent of the total. Overall, 17 different nationalities were represented at the executive level. Our company’s workforce includes people from over 60 nations.

It goes without saying that we offer equality of opportunity to all employees, regardless of their gender. This approach also applies to compensation. Whether on the standard payscale, in third-level management (FK3) or among the executive group – men and women who hold the same positions are paid the same. Statistical differences in the average annual salaries of individual employee groups are essentially based on seniority, professional experience and the proportion of women in the various occupations. On average, the differences are less than 5 percent in each case.

WACKER would like to increase the number of female executives. For this purpose, we participate in Munich’s Cross-Mentoring Program. To get girls interested in jobs such as chemical technician, industrial mechanic or electronics specialist, we take part in the Girls’ Day event held throughout Germany.

We have set the goal of significantly increasing the proportion of women in middle and senior management positions over the medium to long term. One of the goals of our Talent Management project, which took off in 2013, is to make female management potential visible and to assist these women in their next career step. With its wide range of different working-time models, our lifecycle-oriented personnel policy provides the appropriate framework. In accordance with legal requirements – such as German legislation on equal participation of women and men in management positions in the private sector and public service – WACKER will introduce target values for the proportion of women in top management.