Culture of value and trust

Establishing a culture of trust is a major contribution to securing the future of the company, and to employee satisfaction and retention:

• We are aware of the fundamental importance that the issue of trust has for a modern, sustainably oriented and successful company. And we understand the positive meaning that trust has for human development: employees feel at ease when they can trust others and feel trusted themselves.
  
• Therefore, a culture of trust is an essential part of our corporate culture and corporate values, and our behavior is consistently based on this foundation.
  
• We know the individual components that need to be established for a genuine culture of trust to exist, and we know the importance that especially executive employees have in this context.
  
• We are aware that this makes us vulnerable as an organization. In this regard, we rely on our employees and their endorsement of the trust place in them. We also have the means to identify breaches of trust and can react appropriately according to the situation.

• our executives to understand the aspects of trust, and that they accept and implement their responsibilities in this respect. 
  
• our employees to deliberately choose to work in a culture of trust and contribute to its implementation.
  

In the intranet, which is accessible to all employees, the appropriate guidelines explaining our understanding of leadership are available. Furthermore, we discuss this understanding regularly in management training sessions and develop it further together.

Employee confidence in the company and its actions must also be justified by the fact, for example, that organizational changes affecting employees are announced in a timely manner.

We do not have minimum notice periods for this issue. Our executives ensure, however, that changes are communicated in a timely manner. Adequate notice is given before changes take effect. As a rule, these are discussed in various committees in which management is present.

All organizational changes such as new hires, internal job changes or reorganization of departments are published on the intranet, which all employees have access to. There are also changes to labor laws requiring public posting that are automatically made available annually by the employer library, and published so that all employees have access to them.

Our employees, their commitment, their identification and the full development of their potential for VAUDE are of paramount importance for the long-term success of the company in the dynamic, highly competitive outdoor industry.

Finding and keeping suitable and experienced staff in these primarily highly specialized professional fields is important in order to remain competitive in the market. Also, a foreseeable shortage of skilled workers along with our rural location (in close proximity to major corporations on Lake Constance) encourages us to promote an attractive employment policy.

These policies include measures related to company benefits such as non-limited employment contracts and support for the balance of work and family life (see "" family "in the best sense") to retain our status as an attractive employer.

Our employees’ satisfaction is not only important for economic reasons. Our view of humanity tells us that our employees are fundamentally self-motivated. They enjoy the power to put their skills to use and enjoy taking responsibility for their work. We want to create the best possible conditions to support this - see also "Happy employees are motivated".

Our employees should have the legitimate feeling that their job is secure. Employees who live in uncertainty are less motivated and less efficient. Therefore, the vast majority of our employees have non-limited contracts - see also "Our employees".

Of course, we also have small seasonal variations, so successful business activity without fixed-term contracts is difficult – as a rule, however, our employees are employed indefinitely in order to guarantee the desired security.