Diversity, Inclusion and Equal Opportunity

WACKER’s goal is a prejudice-free work environment, where every employee can contribute to the company’s success – and where employees with severe disabilities or with an equivalent status are integrated over the long term. Diversity management at WACKER focuses not only on inclusion, but also on the issues of gender and cultural background. People from 70 nations work for WACKER.

At the end of 2020, 37 out of a total of 169 senior executives groupwide were of non-German nationality, corresponding to 21.9 percent of the total. Fifteen nationalities were represented at the senior executive (OFK) level. While WACKER attaches considerable importance to diversity as regards appointments to its management bodies, expertise and qualifications remain the principal criteria when filling such positions.

Since 2015, WACKER has been a member of Germany’s Diversity Charter initiative and constantly monitors awareness of the charter’s seven dimensions of diversity.

Equal Treatment

We view human diversity as an asset. We oppose discriminatory or derogatory treatment on account of gender, 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 and Leadership.

Employees can report incidents of potential discrimination – even anonymously. Reports can be made to a manager, compliance officer, employee representative or designated HR contact person. Complaints are investigated, and the reporting party is informed of the outcome. Cases of potential discrimination are included in the monthly compliance report submitted to the Executive Board. In addition, they are listed in the regular reports submitted to the Supervisory Board. We require all employees at our German sites to complete an e-learning course to familiarize themselves with the country’s General Equal Treatment Act (AGG).

The composition of our management personnel reflects the global nature of our business. In 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 based on origin. A similar situation exists in other WACKER regions, such as China and the USA, where we select candidates primarily on the basis of their qualifications.

Inclusion

At WACKER, special arrangements are in place for anyone who has severe disabilities, who is of equivalent status or whose health is impaired. In order to provide targeted support in line with local laws, WACKER’s system of workplace integration management calls for close cooperation between supervisors, employees, Human Resources, employee representatives, representatives of employees with disabilities, and Health Services.

For years, WACKER has employed a higher number of people with disabilities than required by law. Even so, we had to pay a low compensatory levy in 2019 and 2020, as not every subsidiary achieved the five-percent target. 89 percent of employees with severe disabilities or with an equivalent status at WACKER Germany are remunerated on the basis of the standard payscale. The average age of disabled employees at WACKER is 52.7. In 2019 and 2020, respectively, three young people with disabilities were given apprenticeships at the Burghausen site, while seven were offered permanent employment after successfully completing their apprenticeships.

WACKER supports physically and mentally challenged individuals who are unable to find work on the general job market. It does this, for example, by collaborating with workshops for people with learning disabilities. Our Burghausen site, for instance, sources key products from the charitable Ruperti workshops – from dunnage for securing freight to mounting plates for process engineering. 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 individuals with special needs.

Supporting Women

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 and professional experience.

We have set a goal to significantly increase the proportion of women in middle and upper management positions in the medium-to-long term. WACKER’s talent-management process helps systematically identify and nurture women with management potential. Our corporate governance report contains additional information about the proportion of women in management and, in particular, about how WACKER is implementing the German Act on Equal Participation of Women and Men in Executive Positions in the Private and the Public Sector that came into force on May 1, 2015.

In 2020, six women held positions on WACKER Chemie AG’s Supervisory Board. As no new appointments to the Executive Board were planned for the reporting period, the agreed target of zero for the proportion of women in that body until June 30, 2022, still applied. In the reporting period, we made preparations for implementing the Second Management Position Act, which has been in force in Germany since January 2021.

When calculating the proportion of women in management positions, WACKER focuses on the two levels of management below the Executive Board as depicted in the Wacker Chemie AG organizational chart. With regard to the second reporting level, we decided to include only managerial employees from the highest non-payscale level or those who are OFK executive personnel with responsibility for managing employees.

Our talent management system identifies women with management potential and supports them in their next career step. With its wide range of different working-time models, WACKER’s lifecycle-oriented personnel policy provides the appropriate framework for this.

Since 2015, we have been taking part in the Munich cross-mentoring program, the purpose of which is to empower high-potential women to take on more demanding tasks. The 12-month program involves an experienced manager acting as mentor to a female mentee at another company. Three young female managers from WACKER took part in the program in 2019 and 2020. A number of WACKER’s OFK executives act as mentors to female employees of other companies. Since the cross-mentoring program began, a total of 42 young women managers have taken part in it.

Ten years ago, WACKER established its own Women’s Circle, an internal mentoring program for women in which more than 60 mentees have taken part to date. In this program, mentees and mentors are paired up and regularly share their experiences with each other. The seventh iteration of our Mentoring Program started in January 2020 and runs until summer 2021.

We also participate in activities such as the Girls’ Day (German-language website only), the aim of which is to get girls interested in technical occupations (web content available in German only). Since the start of the pandemic, we have, wherever possible, switched our networks, information events and mentoring programs for women to digital formats.