Learning and development

• Life-long learning concept
• Focus on virtual learning and digitalization

Learning and development are essential success factors for a strong company culture. The skills and competencies of our employees are critical for profitable growth and lasting success. For this reason, we want to further modernize our learning culture and step up our efforts to promote lifelong, self-directed learning as part of the Best Team Strategy.

This learning culture is based on systematic employee development. In our understanding, there is more to development than a promotion or a job change – it encompasses all forms of further development of personal experience and abilities. We have derived specific day-to-day behavioral standards from our corporate strategy and integrated these into our global Competency Model. In regular development meetings, which are held as part of our annual employee dialogs, employees outline prospects for their individual development together with their leaders and determine specific measures for further training and development, which focus on personal and professional competencies. We have now implemented our employee development concept worldwide using a structured process and appropriate tools and have introduced personal development meetings for all employees.

Our learning activities follow the “70-20-10” philosophy: We apply the elements “learning from experience” (70%), “learning from others” (20%) and “learning through courses and media” (10%). Our learning and development offerings cover a range of learning goals: starting a career, expanding knowledge, personal growth and leadership development. Virtual learning is playing an increasingly important role here. In Asia, a Virtual Week was held for the first time in 2017, where over 1,100 employees from 15 countries virtually discussed topics such digitalization, sustainability and change management. In addition, more and more of our academies in the divisions and functional units, which teach specific professional content, offer virtual training. One example of a successful development measure in the area of virtual learning is Virtual Presence, in which employees learn how to communicate effectively in virtual meetings in an increasingly digital world. Initially offered to leaders, this training will be available to all employees starting in 2018. In North America, we expanded our learning offering with a flexible and efficient new learning platform that offers compact modules for all employees.