Diversity and Talent Management

Diversity as a factor for success

As a leading global company, we are paving the way not only for a sustainable industry, but also for personal success stories. We foster an environment in which mutual trust, respect, and appreciation are coupled with space for creativity, pioneering spirit, and dedication. We are proud of the international composition of our staff from more than 50 countries who work at our locations and headquarters. Their diversity underpins the worldwide success of Heidelberg Materials.

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Employee satisfaction and empowerment is a central pillar of the actions we take as a company. Therefore, in addition to fair remuneration and flexible working models, we also count strengthening diversity, cohesion, and individual qualification opportunities among our HR management principles. Respectful behaviour among co-workers, employee development, and a commitment to a lived feedback culture are essential for us.

To help our employees reach their full potential, we actively promote the development of an inclusive culture at all levels of our organisation. Clearly signposted contact partners are available in the HR and Compliance departments, the works council, and NOW (Network of Women) to assist with any questions relating to discrimination. Employees can approach the relevant people in confidence at any time, and they will follow up any reported incidents promptly and rigorously. Employees can also use the anonymous reporting platform SpeakUp for this purpose.

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As signatories to the Diversity Charter, we have been publicly expressing our respect for diversity since 2013. Our annual, internal Diversity Week celebrates cultural diversity and active inclusion at Heidelberg Materials and aims to further strengthen our focus on diversity.

Women in leadership positions

Heidelberg Materials aims for women to hold 25% of leadership positions worldwide by 2030. The target for Germany is 27% in the first and second leadership levels by 2027.

To further increase the proportion of female professionals, we focus on the targeted recruitment, promotion, and retention of women at all levels of the hierarchy. This includes identifying and actively promoting junior female staff, both via internal programmes and through cross-company mentoring in cooperation with other companies from the Rhine-Neckar metropolitan region. Our efforts are supported by awareness-raising measures relating to equity within the company, as well as targeted mentoring and sponsorship by the Managing Board and senior management.

The global Network of Women (NOW), which was founded in 2011, also ensures more internal networking and promotion. In addition to professional development, the principal aim is to increase awareness throughout the company of the changing demands on working and living environments. Within the framework of Allies of NOW, male employees are also actively involved in promoting gender equality a Heidelberg Materials.

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Improving work-life balance

In order to take societal changes into account, we encourage a good work-life balance through flexible working time models and mobile forms of work. At Heidelberg Materials, careers and alternative working models are not mutually exclusive. Job sharing, for example, is one way of balancing the challenges of a management position with family life. With our international workforce in mind, we also made it possible for our employees to work remotely in other European countries in 2023. We are currently evaluating the extent to which this will be possible on a permanent basis.

Because of the small size of our locations, cooperation with external networks has proven beneficial, for example in terms of children’s day care and holiday programmes or caring for family members. Employees benefit from having easy access to a professional and flexible network at reasonable costs. As part of our FIT for FAMILY initiative, we have also entered into cooperation with day-care centres for the location in Heidelberg, Germany. These arrangements mean we have our own quota of childcare places available to our employees.

Employee Benefits

Attractive remuneration, including regular wage/salary reviews as well as Christmas, holiday, and special annual bonuses, contributions to capital formation, and a company pension plan are standard at Heidelberg Materials. In Germany, we have created a matching model of contributions from the employer and the employees within the framework of the pension scheme. In countries without statutory retirement or health insurance, we support our employees at least in line with local practices.

In order to meet the needs of the different generations working in the company, we have an active generation management strategy. In this context, we offer numerous health management and preventive care measures adapted to regional requirements, ranging from communal sporting activities to vaccination programmes. Sports groups, courses, and our own gym at our headquarters support mental and physical health.

Heidelberg Materials also provides flexible, bureaucracy-free support for all employees facing professional or personal challenges as part of its Employee Assistance Programme. External coaches, psychological support, and crisis intervention experts are available free of charge and on a confidential basis in the event of mental, financial, or legal problems.

To ensure sustainable and flexible mobility for our employees, we also subsidise offers such as the Deutschlandticket, a monthly subscription ticket for public transport, and the JobRad bike leasing programme. In this way, we help our employees to travel with zero emissions and at low cost in their everyday lives.

Through trainee programmes, dual apprenticeship and study partnerships, specialist and managerial development, and professional training, we make targeted investments to enable our employees to gain the best possible qualifications. By offering the option of international work assignments, we can also hold our own in the global labour market.

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Age structure within the Group

Remuneration policy and working time regulation

The remuneration systems at Heidelberg Materials are based on performance and results in accordance with the market standards for internationally operating companies in our sector. Alongside fixed remuneration governed by a collective agreement or an individual work contract, our employees receive variable remuneration elements based on their individual performance and on corporate success. CO₂ reduction is also anchored in our global remuneration systems: the full variable remuneration can only be achieved if both the financial targets and the sustainability target are met. This regulation applies to all members of the Managing Board and to the majority of bonus-eligible employees worldwide.

We consciously aim to achieve a high variable element as part of the total remuneration of our managers in order to directly reflect the connection between personal performance and corporate success. Collective regulations apply to more than half of the Group’s employees. The employees in our foreign subsidiaries benefit from attractive remuneration systems that correspond to the respective local market conditions.

Our working time regulations comply with the legal requirements in effect at our respective locations. We promote adherence to these regulations by means of our whistle-blower system SpeakUp, which employees can use to individually report possible violations (passive monitoring). To enable flexible working time options, we offer models such as flexitime, working time accounts, part-time work, and leaves of absence, for example in the form of a sabbatical, to our employees in many countries. Older employees also have the option of switching to partial retirement.

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Employment and co-determination

Employee co-determination has always been of great importance to us. Statutory, collective bargaining, and company regulations are implemented jointly in close cooperation with employee representatives. These representatives are involved in numerous committees and are informed at an early stage about operational changes. The regulations on notification periods vary worldwide. We comply with the rules in force at local level. In the event of a reorganisation or job cuts, we work in close consultation to achieve a socially responsible solution and, for example, initially examine the possibility of transferring employees within the Group. If this is not feasible, we try to cushion the individual impact through retraining, early-retirement schemes, outplacement, and compensation payments.

Diversity

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United Kingdom: for a FAIR culture in the workplace

Our UK subsidiary identified four key challenges relating to diversity: in addition to an ageing workforce and difficulties in recruiting young talent, these included the insufficient representation of women in the building materials industry, as well as issues related to mental health and workforce resilience.

With these challenges in mind, and in line with the Sustainability Commitments 2030, the FAIR programme was launched in 2021. FAIR stands for “fairness, awareness, inclusion, respect.” The employee networks for women and LGBT+ people also fall under the umbrella of this initiative. A dedicated FAIR committee puts together a varied annual programme, makes recommendations to management, and works with external partners, to increase the attractiveness of Heidelberg Materials as an employer for people with disabilities, for example.

In 2023, the FAIR agenda in the UK included training for first responders in the field of mental health, information on men’s and women’s health, awareness training for managers and executives, and participation in Pride events.

Human resources development

Talent Management

Recognising talent, developing qualified and motivated employees, and retaining them in competition with other companies are at the core of our Group-wide personnel policy. Strategic apprenticeships and employee training as well as new career paths have a key role to play.

A systematic assessment of performance and potential that is standardised across the Group forms the basis for strategic personnel development and successor planning. Superiors and employees discuss target achievement, development opportunities, and prospects within the framework of regular structured appraisal interviews (growth talks). This dialogue also helps to fill key positions worldwide with top-class candidates from within the business.

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Strengthening digital competences

The expansion of digital competences and the further digitalisation of personnel processes and systems are essential. With the global rollout of our new Workday HR system in 2021, we have taken a major step forward in this regard. With more self-service options, data transparency, and many new functionalities for managers and employees, we now cover the core processes of learning, recruitment, remuneration, and talent management digitally. By using external training databases, we also significantly expanded our e-learning offerings on various digitalisation topics in the past year. When it comes to using virtual communication and collaboration tools, we offer both in-house and externally provided training and certification programmes (Microsoft certification tracks), which are in great demand among our employees.

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Education

For Heidelberg Materials, forward-looking HR management means consistently investing in training. With an apprentice retention rate of 68% in Germany, steady growth of qualified young talent is guaranteed. As part of the training programme, interdisciplinary competences are indispensable in addition to technical skills for faultless professional processes. A complete educational offering is ensured through additional training covering professional use of programmes for virtual communication and cooperation, how to deal with new working and living situations on a personal level, and topics of mental health and resilience.

As a manufacturing Group, occupational safety is always a key element of our training and career development programmes. In addition, we focus our efforts on specialist training and the training of our managers. Our training programmes in virtually every work area are characterised by practical and business-oriented learning and enable our employees to develop their skills in the best possible way.

The Cement Academy of the Competence Center Cement (CCC) offers seminars and training sessions worldwide for the engineers and technicians at our cement plants, while the Aggregates Academy of the Competence Center Aggregates & Asphalt (CCA) provides apprenticeships and employee training in the aggregates business line. Process simulators and various web-based learning programmes, including the multilingual Cement Manufacturing Curriculum, on which more than 3,000 employees are enrolled, are regularly used to supplement our classroom courses.

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Development Programmes

We take pride in the variety of development programmes we are able to offer our talented employees. The Leadership Development Pathway is such an example; holistically designed internally to serve and support our Group and Global functions. The Leadership Development Pathway develops and further strengthens the leadership and management skills of our managers, which in turn fills our leadership pipeline. Our managers are the key enablers contributing to and delivering our strategic targets.

The Leadership Development Pathway is aligned to the needs of the business today and in the future to meet the challenge of complex, ever-evolving and challenging environments. The programme draws upon the very best external and internal leadership trainers and experts to provide high quality training across 4 levels of leadership – junior to senior.

The GROW programme has been specifically designed to deliver critical attitudinal and business specific skills to our cohort of Young Professionals working in Group and Global functions at the Headquarters. It includes training on developing self-awareness and personal capabilities, team awareness and professional capabilities, business skills and acumen, and promotes peer collaboration and networking in 8.5 days of blended learning & reflection spaced over 6 months.
The ELEVATE programme is meticulously crafted to empower emerging and prospective managers at Heidelberg Materials. ELEVATE is also ideal as a refresher. It lays the groundwork with foundational leadership theories while also introducing participants to an array of practical tools and techniques, poised to enhance their capabilities as they begin leadership journey. Furthermore, it provides the opportunity for participant to collaborate with their peers and build a supportive network they can call upon for their entire career. ELEVATE consists of 4 days of blended learning & reflection spaced over 3 months.
The IMPACT programme for middle managers provides top class education on current leadership thinking and aligns this to the leadership and management culture of Heidelberg Materials. Unlocking employees’ potential and getting the best out of the team is the essence of good leadership – participants will explore methods, tools, and theory to help achieve this. They will have the opportunity to enhance their knowledge in collaborative tools and new ways of working. Reflection and critical review is interwoven into personal development meaning. IMPACT is made up by 8.5 days of face-to-face learning spaced over 4-5 months.
The HORIZON programme extends and enhances the professional leadership and management development of Heidelberg Materials senior managers. The learning journey begins with a refocusing on the principles of effective management as the participants move up to managing departments and functions. It then places strategy and change in the spotlight and how this translates into day to day operations before finishing with how they as senior leaders need to consider and support resiliency as a force multiplier in their teams. HORIZON takes place over 5.5 days of face-to-face learning spaced over 6-8 months.

In many of our countries these programmes are replicated offering similar leadership development opportunities tailored to their local needs and cultural fit. In addition to these programmes, all talent and learnings team across the globe are supporting all our employees in their different career stages to promote personal growth and professional development.

Successor planning

To secure and develop the next generation of managers, we are focusing worldwide on increasing our recruitment of university graduates and expanding corresponding advancement programmes. Among other things, we offer extensive, international trainee programmes focusing on technology, sales, finance, HR, and procurement, as well as interdisciplinary posts.

Through a special programme, we also equip highly qualified engineers in the cement business for the next step in their careers. The participants undergo individually tailored training programmes that allow them to gain the necessary knowledge, skills, and experience. Spending time at cement plants in different countries is a key element of the programme’s success.

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Since 2013, Heidelberg Materials has been awarded the trainee seal of the German initiative for career-enhancing and fair trainee programmes each year for our programmes for the advancement of future executives. As members of the Fair Company initiative and holders of the Fair Company seal, we have also made a voluntary commitment to providing fair and attractive working conditions for trainees and young professionals.

Working at Heidelberg Materials

Benefits

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