Mercedes 2009 Annual Report Download - page 145

Sustainability |Human Resources |141
Health management and occupational safety. Daimler offers its
workforce a holistic health management system with a focus on
prevention. Our effective, top-quality programs enable us to safe-
guard and improve the health of the men and women who work
for us. These actions have now been implemented at 11 health
management centers located either directly on plant premises
or in their direct vicinity. Our health management system
has also
developed programs for prevention, treatment, and rehabili-
tation. These programs are based on the specific demands placed
on individuals in the workplace. A main focus here in 2009 was
the analysis of job assignments and workstations in
terms of the
associated psychological stress and, where neces
sary, the intro-
duction of appropriate measures aimed at preventing or reducing
psychological pressure.
Our commitment to health management and occupational safety
has been repeatedly honored with various awards – as has the
high quality of the measures we have adopted in this area. For
example, during the year under review, we received the 2009
Corporate Health Award from the Handelsblatt newspaper and
the 2009 Company Health Award from the BKK federal health
insurance association.
In-house training is a top priority. We view training and further
training as indispensable elements to ensure our company’s
long-term business success. At the end of 2009, the Group had
9,151 trainees worldwide. In Germany, we took on 2,341 new
trainees in the year under review (2008: 2,464). Trainees who per-
form well subsequently receive fair job offers; Daimler hired 89%
of its trainees in 2009 (2008:93%).
Lifelong learning for better employee qualifications. To safe-
guard the maintenance and enhancement of workforce capabili-
ties, we rely on independent, individual and interactive learning
throughout our employees’ careers. We also support alternative
forms of learning that are consistently geared toward continuous
educational requirements. Thanks to this approach, our employ-
ees can acquire new knowledge in a manner that is independent
of location or time. All of the numerous training programs
for Group employees and executives are based on globally valid
Daimler standards. In the year under review alone, we invested
€207 million in the training and continuing education of our
employees in Germany alone (2008: €270 million). Each of our
employees received an average of 2.4 days of training in 2009
(2008: 4.4 days). In addition, employees affected by short-time
working arrangements were able to participate in training pro-
grams tailored to their specific needs. Some of the programs in-
volved led to Chamber of Industry and Commerce certificates.
Securing and promoting young talent. In order to ensure
a sufficient supply of engineers, our CAReer training program
focused on talented young people with a technical education,
particularly women. We took on several hundred young people,
with female participants accounting for around 35% of the total
recruitment. In 2010, we intend to once again offer attractive
career opportunities to several hundred trainees and to use
CAReer to recruit highly qualified young people for employment
at our worldwide locations.
In these difficult economic times, it is particularly important
that we remain an attractive employer. To this end, we approach
potential new employees in different ways. For example, we
attend college job fairs, participate in online job markets and
organize our own recruiting events. We have also developed
new creative strategies that foster long-term relationships with
our target groups and strengthen our partnerships with uni-
versities and relevant networks. Our focus here is on highlighting
the opportunities offered by an innovative company in which
young talented individuals can find a meaningful role and help
shape the future of mobility.
A “thank you” to our workforce. The Board of Management
would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our employees
for their dedication and performance, especially in view of the
difficult economic environment. Our employees’ flexibility and
hard work have made the difference. Without this contribution,
our company would not have been able to weather the recent
storm as well as it did. We would also like to thank the employee
representatives at Daimler for their commitment and construc-
tive cooperation over the past year.
The diversity of our workforce reflects the diversity of our customers, suppliers and investors.