Training & Skills Development / Personnel Development

Material impacts, risks and opportunities

Qualified employees are essential if companies such as WACKER are to operate successfully. Specifically promoting training and upskilling/reskilling increases the future prospects of our employees and permanently increases their quality of life. In the spirit of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 8 “Decent Work and Economic Growth,” WACKER encourages its employees to realize their potential, assume responsibility and contribute their own ideas.

Strategy

Training and upskilling/reskilling, as well as employee career advancement, play an important role in our personnel policy. We focus on all employee groups and differentiate between training courses that are absolutely necessary to exercise specific functions and voluntary training that also contributes to personal advancement alongside professional development. We use a global documented procedure to regulate this. Responsibility lies with the central department for HR Talent and Skill Development.

Actions

Each Group employee participates in an annual performance review and development meeting with their supervisor. Together, they establish a personal development and career plan. At talent management conferences, we discuss potential further development of employees across departments and regions and, in so doing, encourage internal mobility. This process was revised in 2024.

Most WACKER employees have a personal email address. This means that services can be accessed conveniently via a portal on the intranet and also individually on mobile devices.

Vocational training is a key component of our personnel-development activities and has always been a focus of WACKER’s HR strategy. In 2024, 213 young people began apprenticeships at a WACKER site in Germany or at the Burghausen Vocational Training Center (BBiW). The company employs a total of 620 trainees/apprentices (2023: 576). At 5.5 percent, the percentage of trainees (ratio of trainees to Group employees in Germany) is slightly above the previous year’s level (2023: 5.1 percent). In addition, the Burghausen Vocational Training Center provides training for around 20 companies other than WACKER. Specific legal provisions covering mechanisms such as minimum age and health protection already apply.

Employees can choose from a global catalog of training on expert knowledge and social expertise. This is especially useful when it comes to onboarding. Advanced training measures are discussed in annual employee appraisals and made possible. Each employee spent an average of 24 hours in training in the year under review. All employees have to complete one training measure every year.

WACKER considers itself to be well-positioned in terms of working conditions. Group targets such as the promotion of women in management positions and a strong safety culture further support this. Selective personnel policy actions are intended to minimize impacts on the workforce. We adequately address risks such as shortages of skilled workers and high health expenses as described above.