Training and professional development for all employees

A key element of our training and development program is the VAUDE Academy course offering which is published annually. Since the beginning of 2012, we have employed a consultant for human resources development who sets the focus of our training program and expands its conceptual development.
The goals of human resources development are both the personal and professional development of our employees, as well as authentically exemplifying and anchoring the corporate culture throughout the company at all levels.

The VAUDE Academy offers around 120 events annually in the following six categories:

• understanding VAUDE– advancing VAUDE 
  
• working at VAUDE - basic concepts and methodology
  
• qualifying at VAUDE– getting into peak form
  
• adventure VAUDE – experiencing the Spirit 
  
• health at work - fit for life 
  
• training at VAUDE
  

These events are open to all our employees, mostly free of charge. The VAUDE Academy offers training on a wide variety of themes including: the exchange of our vision and values, "who's who" in the industry and the market, business content, organization and leadership, product knowledge, quality management, environmental management, production and production sites, mountain and bike tours, safety training, health promotion with cycling, swimming and running clubs, rock climbing and yoga.

Participation in our Academy events is documented and evaluated at the end of the current program. Based on this data, a program for the upcoming year is developed. The Academy program is available to all employees on the intranet.

For our young professionals, we have offered a talent program since 2012 in which six young employees are intensively monitored and coached on the path to a professional or managerial career over two years at VAUDE.

Since 2013, the focus has been on project management, with a qualification program for future project leaders. With internal and external monitoring, we are training eight colleagues in methodological and social aspects to become project managers.

We impart a trust-based management style in separate executive training seminars which are attended several times annually on a mandatory basis. These events take place partially in Tettnang-Obereisenbach on an hourly basis, and partially in rented mountain cabins or other premises for two-day seminars. These are aimed not only at professional education, but also to promote team spirit. Because of these multiday seminars, our managers have exceptionally high levels of training hours.

Our exceptional and comprehensive training program is clearly represented in the numbers taking part in the events: each VAUDE employee participated on an average of nearly six hours in internal training at the VAUDE Academy in 2013. Men had an average of 7.82 hours in training, women on average 4.56 hours.

These figures are based on trainings that were offered as part of the Academy program and are mostly cross-divisional or cross-departmental courses. Bike and mountain sports activities as well as individual events such as parental meetings were not taken into account. There is currently no data for individual and specialized training organized by departments and divisions themselves.

VAUDE is a training company. Each year between six and ten new trainees start at VAUDE. We offer training for industrial management with or without additional qualification in international business management, IT specialists’ system integration, computer science merchants, specialists in warehouse logistics and alteration tailors. Overall, we supervise approximately 15 trainees, many of which are employed directly after their training periods.

Once per year at the beginning of the new academic year, we have “Azubi-Tage” to introduce our trainees to their joint time together at VAUDE. For three days, our trainees experience outdoor up close, get to know each other, participate in team building exercises and become familiar with the VAUDE Spirit that will accompany them during the upcoming year.

We want to give our trainees a good education and accompany them on their way to becoming mature adults. School grades play a role, but we place a high value on social commitment and interest in mountain sports in our interviews. 

 
In the course of the training, regular feedback on academic performance, work at VAUDE and activism within the VAUDE community takes place with our consultant for employee development.

Each employee, regardless of the hierarchical level, has an annual feedback meeting in which annual targets are agreed upon with his or her manager. There are guidelines available to all managers and employees for our target agreements and employee interviews.

The meeting is documented, goals are defined and possible action for the coming year is determined. This agreement on objectives is signed by the employee and manager, submitted to the Human Resources Manager for review and placed in the personnel file.

Giving and receiving constructive feedback, is firmly rooted in our understanding of good leadership: "VAUDE executives (and VAUDE employees) deal constructively with an employee’s mistakes (or a colleague’s) and accept constructive feedback. VAUDE executives (and VAUDE employees) admit to their own mistakes and accept constructive feedback."

In addition, every employee has the opportunity to give his own manager feedback in regular meetings.