Employees

The basis for our occupational health and safety activities is the Group occupational health and safety policy, which defines tasks and responsibilities relating to occupational safety, occupational medicine and health management in order to ensure high occupational health and safety standards in all areas and activities.

The Group occupational health and safety policy describes the responsibilities and tasks and specifies processes relating to occupational health and safety. It is binding for EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg AG (EnBW) and for all companies controlled by EnBW. The Group policy is supplemented by other policies on occupational safety management systems, hazardous substances management, personal protective equipment and occupational safety in cooperation with outside contractors.

The occupational health and safety management system at Netze BW and other EnBW subsidiaries is long established and is based on international standards. Major EnBW units, such as EnBW AG Produktion Erneuerbare Energie (T-BE), Neckar AG and EnBW Offshore Service GmbH, are also certified in accordance with OHSAS 18001 or ISO 45001.

To meet the requirements under the German Safety and Health at Work Act and accident prevention regulations, we specify clearly formulated responsibilities and processes.

In organisational terms, the Occupational Safety Working Group manages cross-cutting issues on a uniform basis throughout the Group. It is headed by the EnBW’s Chief Technical Officer. Occupational safety at EnBW comes organisationally under the Department of Occupational Safety & Preventive Fire Protection, Crisis Management and the Environment. This is a central service provider for major parts of the Group and is responsible for governance matters. For this governance role, there is a direct reporting line to the Board of Management. Key information on the activities is described in EnBW’s Integrated Annual Report.

The Occupational Safety and Preventive Fire Protection Team is responsible for the entire EnBW Group. This team brings together expertise in occupational safety, preventive fire protection, hazardous substances and operational, plant and product safety. It also includes safety officers, trained first aiders and emergency responders.

For a continuous improvement process, we establish all necessary measures to minimise accidents at work and work-related health hazards and to organise preventive fire protection.

For accident avoidance both in occupational health and safety and in fire protection, we place a special focus on prevention. This is most important dimension enabling us to ensure lasting, effective protection for the workforce. The occupational health and safety system consequently centres on hazard assessment, which is the foundation of effective occupational health and safety.

The following measures comprise the main building blocks in our accident prevention system:

• Hazard assessments
• Regular safety inspections in all parts of the business
• Workplace and activity briefings
• Comprehensive job-related training programmes and safety briefings
• Trained first responders, emergency responders and safety officers
• Recording/analysis of near misses and of the various types of accidents

Should accidents occur despite the preventive systems, necessary measures are defined to ensure both medical care and communication.

Our key performance indicator for tracking lost-time injuries (LTIs) during working hours is the lost-time injury frequency (LTIF). The LTIF is the number of LTIs per million hours worked.

Implementation of the EnBW 2025 Strategy, as with the previous 2020 Strategy, is supported by a comprehensive target and control system. Occupational safety is an integral part of that system with the lost-time injury frequency (LTIF) as a key performance indicator.

Further information on LTIF and the targets under the 2020 and 2025 strategy is available here.

The health of our employees is very important to us. This is why we provide a wide range of health and prevention measures. These range from health days and nutritional counselling to courses such as stress management, back health, Nordic walking, autogenic training, progressive muscle relaxation and yoga. We also provide the option of annual check-ups, preventive examinations and free vaccinations.

The workforce has made active and increasing use of EnBW’s occupational health management measures and programmes in recent years.

• Eight occupational health centres with around 40 team members
• Medical checkups: approx. 26,500 (2019)
• Vaccinations: approx. 9,000 per year
• Physiotherapy treatments: approx. 2,000 per year
• Psychological consultations: approx. 1,500 per year

A statement on anti-discrimination is part of our EnBW Code of Conduct. We have also been a member of the UN Global Compact network since 2010 and are committed to complying with the 10 principles of the Global Compact, including Principle 6 on the elimination of discrimination.

At EnBW, we believe in a culture of welcome and trust, and we value diversity in all its facets and manifestations. This is because diversity enriches our customers, products, projects and teams. We foster this culture on an ongoing basis: In addition to mixed teams, we place particular emphasis on increasing the percentage of women in management positions and on drawing on the professional knowledge and experience of older employees. This naturally also includes people with disabilities, for whom accessible workplaces and support from our representatives for persons with severe disabilities are a matter of course.

With regard to gender equality for women, the EnBW Board of Management has set itself targets for increasing the percentage of women in management. The targets for the period January 2017 and December 2020 were as follows: Increase the percentage of women at the first level (top management) and the second level (senior management) to 20%.

These targets were not yet achieved in 2020, but the top management quota rose from 0% to 8.7% due to the promotion of two female managers from senior management to top management. As a result of these promotions and also to structural changes, the quota in senior management fell from 17.2% to 14.5%. On the basis of the HR strategy, we will develop measures to achieve the targets in future years.

Programmes to promote diversity include our multi-stage vocational integration programme, which we have provided for refugees and migrants since 2016. The programme currently (2021) has 59 people in training for a technical occupation. Trainees who successfully complete the programme have good prospects of being offered permanent employment. We will continue the programme in the years ahead, both as part of our social responsibility and increasingly also as an additional tool for recruiting young skilled workers.

Employees are encouraged and supported for engagement in our corporate networks, including the Women’s Network and the Pride Network. We take a stand as a member of the Diversity Charter and the ‘Chefsache’ initiative and as a participant in the annual Christopher Street Day in Stuttgart.

We also champion issues surrounding gender equality, internationalisation and innovative work culture. In 2020, for example, we adopted the ‘gender star’ in German-language written communication.

In annual employee reviews, we determine how each individual can quickly achieve their personal goals and unlock new perspectives. Our Group-wide competency model forms the basis for job profiles, selection criteria and employee development programmes and is tailored to the various target groups from trainees to top managers. Applying a holistic management development approach that provides managers with orientation in their professional development, we empower our managers to support employees through change processes and secure our Company’s competitiveness in the energy transition.

Launched in 2019, the SP4RK for Pioneers talent development programme combines talent development with innovative business development. In the first phase of the programme, talented individuals from across the Company worked over a period of several months in cross-functional teams on start-up projects to identify strategically relevant business models. We also developed the LernWerk digital learning and development platform, which EnBW employees can use to independently shape their further development. The platform was tested in an initial version at the beginning of 2021 and is to be rolled out in the months ahead.

The guiding principle in leadership development is working in the leadership team around strategic and leadership challenges in a VUCA environment including digitalisation and the fourth industrial revolution. Leadership feedback from superiors, colleagues and direct subordinates helps identify development needs and the suitable individual development measures.

Our Company’s growth goes hand in hand with the personal development of each individual and collective development as a management team. In this connection, we defined a set of eight key competencies in 2020 which we call the Future Skills. These describe what is important to us in addition to professional expertise, and form the new competency model for the management team. In 2021, they will be established in slightly adapted form as a new competency model for all employees throughout EnBW.

Over the course of 2020, in 36 digital workshops as part of the Leadership Development Journey programme, some 235 managers took an in-depth look at future skills, their individual development and today’s leadership needs. In addition, around 1,200 EnBW employees and managers were furthered in their personal development in 2020 with Next Level Leadership virtual training sessions. These placed a major focus on resilience in order to support the employees in the radically changed working situation as a result of the corona pandemic. An additional training programme was specially developed for employees who take on new, agile leadership roles.

Our employees can receive financial support from EnBW for individual further education and training in the amount of 80% of the course and examination fees. This support and targeted skills management are key aims of knowledge and competency management at EnBW.

We believe that regular feedback helps employees, and also our entire organisation, to continuously improve the culture of teamwork, processes and workflows and adapt to changing conditions. To this end, we conduct Group-wide employee satisfaction surveys on an annual basis. This gives employees the opportunity to provide feedback on various aspects of their work.

In the employees target dimension, EnBW tracked the Employee Commitment Index until 2019. This was replaced in 2020 by the People Engagement Index (PEI). PEI expresses employees’ commitment based on their work situation at EnBW and was collated and reported as a key performance indicator for the first time in 2020. The Employee Commitment Index and since 2020 the People Engagement Index (PEI) represent a key performance indicator for management purposes. The PEI allows us to draw conclusions about employee motivation and commitment to their work as well as satisfaction. In future, the employee satisfaction survey will be conducted twice annually.

Flexible working hours play a key role in helping our employees reconcile work with family life. We therefore allow employees to set their working hours from Monday to Friday in consultation with their supervisor between 6:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. (or 8:00 p.m. depending on their occupation and specific responsibilities).

We implement flexible working hours on a trust-based working hours basis, relying on employees’ own responsibility. This is a part and parcel of EnBW’s corporate culture based on mutual trust. Trust-based working hours apply according to location and employment.

In agreement with their supervisors, and depending on their individual work and location, our employees were already able to work from home before the corona pandemic. A further arrangement that already existed for the purpose of location-independent working was the option of mobile working on a permanent basis for one to three days per week. In the current Best Work initiative, employees and works council representatives are jointly developing approaches for flexible and virtual working beyond the corona pandemic. A particular focus of this project is on structuring mobile working, and in particular home working, in the interests of both sides, and on office workplace design in order to meet the needs of locationally flexible and hybrid collaboration. Other issues addressed by the initiative include how working methods, teamwork culture and leadership are likely to change.

At our locations in Karlsruhe, Stuttgart, Esslingen, Biberach, Tuttlingen and Neckarwestheim, we provide what we call ‘Kinderbüros’ (children’s offices). If childcare or school lessons are cancelled at short notice, employees can simply bring children to the office. These include fully equipped PC workstations as well as play facilities for the children.

We provide regularly updated information for our employees and support them in organisational matters, from parental leave to childcare. Advice on choosing the right childcare is also provided. We also provide support in emergency situations. Our emergency service quickly and efficiently arranges alternative care and is generally available for consultation, including with regard to holiday programmes and daycare places.

In addition, EnBW provides daycare for employees’ children in the 0-6 age range in Stuttgart (EnBW City) and Karlsruhe. Our Biberach location provides childcare options for children aged 0-3. The allocation of daycare places is based on available capacity and social criteria.

Nursing care is not just something needed for older people. Anyone can suddenly be affected. Together with our cooperation partner, we offer full and professional counselling on all aspects of care. The service begins with exploring the various care options and extends to specific assistance in negotiations with health insurance providers.

Responsibility for our employees is a core value of corporate management. Recognition of our employees’ right to freedom of association, assembly and collective bargaining (Article 9 (3) of the German Basic Law) is among our self-evident fundamental values.

We safeguard and support the right of employee to individual freedom of association. All employees are guaranteed the right to form, join, remain in or stay out of a trade union without fear of disadvantage or sanction. Employees are free to disclose trade union membership. Freedom of association as we understand it also means that our employees can take part in industrial action provided that it is lawful. We are a company that is bound by collective agreements and aim to work constantly with Verdi, the trade union, to improve the working conditions of our employees. As part of this, at regular intervals, we negotiate comprehensive collective agreements covering matters such as working conditions, working hours and pay commensurate with performance.

We attach great importance to trusting partnership with employee representatives and foster a culture of constructive codetermination. Accordingly, we consider our works councils to be negotiating partners on equal terms. For comprehensive representation of employee interests, the works councils of the core companies in the EnBW Group are organised into divisions across all companies and locations. In addition to the group works council, employee representatives have also formed a body comprising delegates from the (general) works councils of Group companies in the energy sector, the representative of employees with severe disabilities, and the Group youth and trainee representatives. This body is an important liaison and negotiation partner to the employer side in Group-wide co-determination matters and prepares proposals for resolutions of the works councils. It is also the point of contact for the Board of Management.

Employee representatives in general are held in high regard by employees and the Board of Management. The two sides take each other’s concerns seriously, making it possible to achieve constructive collective bargaining solutions in the interests of employees. This also includes forging workplace agreements on matters such as flexible working hours. Employees are thus able to achieve better work-life balance and adapt their working hours to family needs.

The employee representatives have signed a collective agreement with us that rules out redundancies and mass layoffs (the FOKUS agreement). This collective agreement applies to all employees of EnBW’s core companies.

We ensure compliance with all laws applicable to us and our employees. Under section 80 of the Works Constitution Act (BetrVG), employee representatives have an oversight function to ensure that acts of parliament, statutory instruments, accident prevention regulations, collective agreements and workplace agreements are complied with. Together, we work to prevent violations from the outset and, in the event that breaches do arise, also to prevent any recurrence. The focus here is primarily on national employee protection legislation such as the Hours of Work Act (ArbZG). the Federal Leave Act (BurlG), the Protection of Working Mothers Act (MuSchG), the Parental Leave Act (BEEG) and the Continued Payment of Remuneration Act (EFZG), but also on applicable collective agreements such as agreements on general working conditions and on pay that apply to the employment relationships of about 90% of the EnBW workforce.

• Protection of Working Mothers Act (prohibition of employment of pregnant women six weeks before and eight weeks after confinement – 12 weeks after confinement in the case of premature births – with continued payment of remuneration).
• Federal Leave Act (every employee has a statutory right to 20 days of annual leave). We grant all employees ten days in addition to the statutory provision, for a total of 30 days. There is also no obligation to work at Christmas and New Year without the employee being deducted a day’s leave. Employees with severe disabilities have a statutory five days of special leave, to which we add an extra day.
• Continued Payment of Remuneration Act (each employee has a statutory right to continued payment of remuneration for six weeks in the event of illness. At the end of the six weeks, each employee has a statutory right to sickness benefit amounting to the lower of 70% of their gross pay or 90% of their net pay. In addition to the statutory right to sickness benefit (70%), we voluntary supplement employees’ sickness benefit in the amount of the difference between the gross pay from sickness benefit, injury benefit or transitional allowance and the net pay to be calculated on the basis of the continued remuneration amounts (sickness benefit supplement). The sickness benefit supplement is scaled according to length of service.
• Hours of Work Act (regular weekly working hours are 40 hours a week over a five-day week. Our employees have a 36-hour working week. Within this, we grant employees maximum flexibility by allowing them to choose when they work between set start and finish times (Monday to Friday 6am to 7pm).
• Part-Time Employment Act (every employee has a statutory right to part-time employment. This means that employees are able to decide how many hours a week they wish to work.