Promotion of health as a matter of course

Only employees who are healthy and feel well can fully perform their services. Especially for us, as a company in the outdoor sports industry, there is no doubt that we must find and promote an appropriate way to offset desk work.

Our health management system focuses on prevention and our employees’ active involvement in their own health.

Since 2014, we have been working tirelessly on the establishment of a resource-oriented Occupational Health Management system based on self-determination and self-efficacy.
We have been able to rely on the advice of various external partners, some of whom continue to support us to this day as needed.

The coordination, monitoring and evaluation of our health measures is carried out by a company health management team consisting of employees and managers from several VAUDE divisions. There is an important point of intersection with occupational safety. We are working relentlessly and successfully on the coordinated management of our Auszeit program, occupational safety and our company physician. In addition, our Human Resources and Organization department is deeply involved in the conception and support of health-promoting measures and is responsible, for example, for the professional care and support of employees with physical or mental issues. In addition, our Human Resources and Organization department is deeply involved in the conception and monitoring of health-promoting measures and, at times, provides intensive, personalized advice and support of employees with physical or mental issues.

In 2019, the following measures were implemented:

• We continued the training and further education of our internal VAUDE health coaches. At the end of 2019, 10 employees were dedicated coaches who offer approx. 8-10 sports courses and the like per week including back training, functional circuit training, aerobic dance and yoga.
  
• Our health coaches led regular mini-units "Strength in Stretching" (KidD) directly in company departments.
• Due to high demand, we have expanded our offering of yoga classes – high-quality courses are held for employees several times a week – some are free of charge, some involve a low co-payment.
• In departments where physical work is carried out – especially in our logistics, repair service and factory outlet – we offer individual posture diagnostics to give employees a good awareness of gentle working postures. This will be continued in 2020.
  
• In late 2018 we conducted our first holistic employee survey focusing on (mental) health. On the basis of results that have been available to us since the beginning of 2019, we provided additional health promotion services in 2019 that are tailored to our employee’s needs and to target groups. The Institut für betriebliche Gesundheitsberatung (Institute for Occupational Health Consulting) in cooperation with the Techniker Krankenkasse is supporting us in this endeavor.

Time and again, selective activities with professional instructors from our network or from our own employees, such as running courses, cross-country trial trainings, swimming courses, crossfit, salsa fitness and blackroll workshops or similar, our portfolio and enrich our Auszeit program.

Since 2015 we have been working in our modernized, particularly health-promoting company headquarters. This has provided us with a health-enhancing framework:

• Our VAUDE Café and the snack bar next to the Manufaktur are certified organic. And in the new canteen "Mittagsspitze", where we are happy to welcome external guests, all menus are made from organic ingredients.
• Our impressive climbing wall offers all employees the opportunity for physical challenges
• Our sports room offers the best conditions for a wide range of sports activities within the framework of our company health management "Auszeit" as well as for sports activities organized by our employees themselves
• During the renovation, our computer workspaces were ergonomically designed with height-adjustable desks and ergonomic chairs

More about it

See "Bike commuting"

Our illness rate* (= all absences caused by illness, including accidents at work or work-related illnesses) was 4.9 % in 2019.

On average, we recorded 12.9 sick days per employee** in 2019. The national average is 15.4 days (survey by the Techniker Krankenkasse).

We apply an extremely strict calculation for absenteeism. Unlike most other statistics, we count every day of absence and not the third consecutive day. We will continue to try to reduce our absentee rate. In doing so, we will rely on the measures described above within the framework of occupational health management and occupational safety program.

The findings of our employee survey "VAUDE Employee Barometer" in particular are helping us to identify and address the most important needs in terms of prevention. A current focus is on early and professional support, e.g. from our personnel department and our company physician, in the event of individual crises, Occupational Safety.

*Calculation: Number of sickness-related absence days/number of planned working days)*100; planned working days = (52*5 = 260) * average number of employees

**Calculation: sick days 2019 / average number of employees; in figures: 7064.50 / 547.33