We collect data Group-wide on the diversity of our workforce in relation to gender and age, and additionally at the Hannover location in relation to nationality. On ethical grounds and in part due to statutory regulations, we do not publish any data on other categories such as religious belief or disability.

At the Hannover location alone, the 1,385 members of staff come from around 40 different nations and thus reflect the international dimension of our business operations. Two different nationalities are represented on our company's seven-person Executive Board.

Breakdown of employees by country in 2017

The proportion of women and men in our total workforce is evenly balanced. Yet women are under-represented on the company's more senior hierarchical levels compared to men. With a view to changing this, we have adopted tools and approaches to support women in their professional development: these include, for example, a mentoring programme aimed at women, seminars for executives that highlight the differences and commonalities in gender-specific communication, advice sessions for parents-to-be covering periods of employment protection, parental leave, part-time working during parental leave etc. and also planning – in terms of both timing and content – for employees returning from parental leave with the aid of flexible arrangements that go well beyond the legal standards. The mentoring programme, in particular, is a highly customised development tool intended to encourage women to contemplate their career opportunities. Another round of this programme was implemented in 2017 – expanded this time to seven mentee-mentor tandems. The programme involves bringing female employees together with experienced senior executives for a period of 12 months to engage in a targeted, regular dialogue. The seven mentees are encouraged to reflect on their professional development to date and to take steps to actively shape their future career. Yet for the participating senior executives too, who in some cases are members of the Executive Board, the role of mentor enables insights to be gained and leads to greater awareness of gender-related issues.

Group-wide, the gender ratio of the 3,251-strong workforce is evenly balanced at 47.2% male and 52.8% female. Of the 91 executives working in Germany, 14 are women, or 15.4%. We missed the targeted ratio of 16.8% for women on the first and second levels of management set by the Executive Board for attainment by 2017. Going forward, we shall make every effort to achieve the new quota set for women for the period from 1 July 2017 to 30 June 2022, which raises the respective target from 16.8% to 18%. Executives have a pivotal role to play in potentially increasing this ratio. It is incumbent upon them to make targeted use of the potential of their female members of staff in day-to-day business and to consciously consider them when filling management positions.

In our personnel statistics a distinction is made between three hierarchical levels: Group Executive, Senior Management and other employees. Of the altogether 3,251 employees Group-wide, 155 (4.8%) belong to the category of Group Executive, 682 (21%) to the category of Senior Management and 2,414 (74.2%) to the category of other employees.