We regularly conduct company-wide employee surveys. In late 2020, we conducted our second "Employee Barometer" in cooperation with the Institut für betriebliche Gesundheitsberatung and the Techniker Krankenkasse. The differentiated results from this survey, which have been available to us since early 2021, confirm that in general, our employees’ level of satisfaction with their work at VAUDE (in comparison with the German average and with selected comparable companies) is above average and that their employer loyalty is far above average.
The working atmosphere and relationships among colleagues are also highly rated. We are proud of the high level of satisfaction and well-being of our employees, and at the same time are happy to take the opportunity to discover further potential for improvement.
The democratically elected body consists of five representatives from different areas of the company (technical/vocational and administrative), who initially remain in office for four years. Our employee representatives are in close contact with the management, are involved in decision-making processes, are committed to representing the concerns of the employees and take on a mediating role in conflict situations.
VAUDE employees can become actively involved and participate in the company in a number of ways. We believe that well-informed employees who participate in internal company communications will become more motivated and competent.
Within our culture of trust, we communicate transparently regarding as many operations and decisions as possible throughout the company, sometimes via company-wide events, but primarily using our internal communication platform Camp. This platform offers many ways for our employees to participate actively on issues and to contribute their own content.
In light of the Corona pandemic that caused many people to worry about their jobs, we are very grateful that we were able to provide stable employment for our employees and even increase our hires. In 2020, we hired a total of 79 new employees, 49 of whom were female and 30 male. This excludes short-term temporary employees and interns. Due to the Corona pandemic and associated temporary retail closures, we had to reduce the working hours of 30 % of our employees who were directly affected by store closures in April 2020, but we were able to go back to normal again in May.
Turnover is an important metric for VAUDE because it can provide information about employee satisfaction. As a general rule, the lower the rate, the higher the level of employee satisfaction. At the same time, we consider a certain degree of change to be normal and also healthy, as it gives us the opportunity to develop our personnel structure as needs change. One example of this is our goal of achieving an even better gender balance in the filling of management positions – more on this under "Diversity and Equal Treatment".
The turnover rate initiated by employees is calculated using the “BDA-Formel” (a formula from the Association of the German Federation of Employers: [resignations initiated by employees / average number of employees]*100) and is of particular interest to us because it is considered an important indicator of employee satisfaction.
In the period under review, if the departures of marginally employed persons (mainly temporary staff) are excluded in order to increase the informative value, the ratio is 4.3 % (6.39 % in 2020). Including part-time employees, the rate in 2020 was 6.8 %. Employees who resign are always offered a voluntary exit interview with the Human Resources department so that we can gain as much insight as possible into the underlying reasons and have an opportunity to exert some influence over the situation in the future.
Exercise, recreational sports and relaxation directly connected with the workplace is a special feature at VAUDE – one that our employees really appreciate. In addition to our company sports and health program "Auszeit", which is you can read about at "Health Promotion", our large climbing wall, a mountain bike pump track, free e-bike rental and our numerous shower facilities are just some of the things that keep our active employees happy and also make it easier to get started in new sporting activities.
In addition, many health-promoting aspects were realized during the remodeling projects See Health Promotion as a Matter of Course
»We wanted to create an optimal working environment that responds to individualized professional and personal needs. Our premises foster communication, creativity and teamwork.«
The entire reconstruction took place in accordance with the strictest environmental criteria. The result is a "Green Building" with DGNB certification, in which all aspects of sustainable building are realized, such as ecological building materials or a maximum of energy-efficient building structure. Read more Future-oriented Work Environment.
* Source: http://www.haygroup.com/de/press/details.aspx?id=38211
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