Merck 2014 Annual Report Download - page 83

78 GROUP MANAGEMENT REPORT → FUNDAMENTAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE GROUP → Employees
Internal talent development and external recruiting
Through the aforementioned approach, the Group aims to bolster
its
performance culture and develop talent in a more targeted
manner.
We succeeded with this again in 2014, expanding our
workforce pool to internally fill management positions when they
become vacant. In 2014, the vast majority of management position
vacancies were also filled by internal candidates. In addition, the
company recruited external executives in order to add new out-
side perspectives to our long-standing in-house expertise.
Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, is using the motto “Make
great things happen” to position itself in the global job market,
which conveys to potential
applicants a sense of what makes the
company
unique: an inspiring, motivating work environment in
which innovations thrive; an en
vironment in which everyone has
the opportunity to apply their
ideas and engagement to benefit
customers and the company,
while at the same time growing as
employees.
Focus areas: Internationality, demographics, gender ratio
In our global markets, we want to hire the right people and retain
them. It is also our goal to anchor knowledge about our growth
markets within the company. Therefore, as part of our diversity
and inclusion strategy, we are focusing on topics such as interna-
tionality, demographics and gender balance.
People from a total of 122 different nations work at Merck
KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany. Only 27 % of our employees are
German citizens and 72 % work outside Germany.
In Germany, several other EU countries, the United States, and
Japan we must prepare ourselves for demographic change. In these
countries, the average age of our employees exceeds 40 – and we
assume that this figure will continue to rise in the coming years.
In Europe, we are addressing these demographic challenges
through various programs. These include adapting workplaces to
the needs of older employees and establishing a health manage-
ment program to maintain their ability to do their jobs. In addi-
tion, the company created the preconditions in 2014 in order to
attract the interest of even more young specialists to the Group
and to retain them.
Women currently make up 41 % of the workforce. Since the
ratio of women to men varies widely across the different regions,
divisions and functions, the company has set itself the goal of
increasing the percentage of female employees wherever they are
underrepresented. Here we take into account the situation that is
typical for the industry as well as regional differences.
A diverse management team
We believe that balanced diversity among management enhances
career advancement opportunities for talented employees while
also helping to provide a broad experience base within the
com-
pany. In addition, it allows for differentiated decision-making,
thereby making a significant contribution to the success of the
company.
As a global company, Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, con-
siders it highly important to have an international management
team. Currently, 60 % of our managers – meaning positions rated
Global Grade 14 and above in our Global Grading System – have
a nationality other than German. Altogether, 67 different nation-
alities are represented in such positions.
The percentage of management positions held by women
(Global Grade 14 and above) is currently 26 % Group- wide. In the
subsidiaries outside Germany, this percentage is higher than at
global headquarters in Darmstadt. Likewise, more women work in
managerial positions in our Pharmaceuticals business than in our
Chemicals business. Certain Group functions such as IT have a
lower percentage of women in management positions. However,
the figures are clearly increasing across the Group as a whole. The
company has reached its strategic goal of raising the percentage
of management positions held by women from 25 % to 30 % and
intends to further increase this percentage by 2016. In order to
achieve this ambition, the Group is implementing numerous
measures at local level. In 2014, we filled two of four divisional
leadership positions with employees who are not from Germany.
In addition, Belén Garijo, a native of Spain, joined the Executive
Board and took over leadership of the Healthcare business sector
of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, at the beginning of 2015.
Workforce diversity
To us, diversity means much more than having a certain gender
ratio and is not only important to us on a managerial level, but
also throughout the entire workforce. Together with a culture of
inclusion, diversity promotes innovation and improves team per-
for
mance. In addition to the Chief Diversity Officer, who is respon-
sible
for strategically managing diversity within the company, we
also established the Diversity Council in 2013. This aims to build
further buy-in for diversity and inclusion within the company. The
council consists of high-ranking managers from all parts of the
company. In 2014, the Diversity Council developed the Diversity
Framework, which bundles the diversity and inclusion strategies.
It focuses on the following topics: recruiting the right people to
work for the company, developing and retaining them, promoting
efficient collaboration, driving innovations and improvements,
and serving customers with diverse needs.