Demographic Change
WACKER has been addressing demographic change for many years. The average age of the Group’s workforce at the 2020 reporting date was 43. The average age of executive staff was 54.
At WACKER Germany, the average age of the workforce was 43.7 years at the 2020 reporting date. The age structure abroad varies greatly from region to region. Staff at Asian sites are comparatively young (average age: 37.3), while staff at US locations had an average age of 44.8 in 2020. Regional variations in age structure are not exclusive to WACKER; they reflect the age structures of the populations in each continent and country.
To keep abreast of demographic trends and offer young people long-term prospects, a company agreement for WACKER Germany relating to the hiring of qualified apprentices was concluded in 2020. Under the agreement, which runs until March 31, 2026, suitable apprentices will receive a job offer after graduating.
We have defined goals in order to maintain our long-term innovative and competitive strength, and to recruit and retain highly qualified employees. These are:
- Systematically promote health
- Maintain and enhance WACKER’s appeal to employees
- Intensify advertising and recruitment efforts aimed at professions critical to WACKER’s success
- Pursue forward-looking strategies for in-house vocational training
- Act as a good corporate citizen by fostering young people’s interest in science and technology.
Our health programs and (advanced) training offerings are examples of what we are doing to achieve these goals, and are intended to maintain employees’ job flexibility. Our HR marketing activities provide aspiring engineers, scientists and IT experts with information on career opportunities at WACKER. They focus on maintaining close contacts with universities, e.g. in the form of project-planning courses, site tours for students, hackathons, opportunities for internships and providing possible topics for bachelor’s and master’s degree theses. WACKER is also represented at university and career fairs, which have been held online since the start of the pandemic in 2020.
During the reporting period, we used SAP SuccessFactors to digitalize the entire recruitment process – from notifying recruiting needs through to employment – at our sites in Germany (for apprentices), China and the USA.