Foreword
Enhance equal opportunities
Equal opportunities for all
Equal treatment of all employees is an important principle of our corporate policy. The following is an excerpt from our Corporate Compliance Program: “No person is to be unfairly disadvantaged, favored, harassed or ostracized because of race, color, nationality, descent, religion, gender, age, physical characteristics or appearance.”
Promoting equal opportunity is one of the core points of our human resources policy. This means:
Family and career: Equal opportunity for women and men
The joint employee/employer task force “Promoting Equal Opportunity at Bayer” has concentrated on achieving these goals in Germany since it was established in 1990. It is left up to individual foreign subsidiaries to introduce programs and committees tailored to the regional, cultural and legal circumstances existing in their countries. In the United States, for example, Bayer Corporation in 1997 founded the “Bayer Diversity Advisory Council” (BDAC). This committee has the aim of furthering understanding among different cultures within the company, in part through the organization of seminars in which nearly all Bayer Corporation managers and many Bayer staff have so far taken part. In Germany, equal opportunity is addressed in numerous company agreements.
We also help our employees to balance family and career out of self-interest: We do not want to lose qualified female employees when they have a child. The details of this policy are established in Group Works Council agreements such as “Family and Career” and arrangements with family service and childcare facilities that provide pre-school openings for 250 children of Bayer employees at the Leverkusen site. In the United States, Bayer Corporation is a leading employer when it comes to promoting the interests of working mothers.
We further accommodate employees with the offer of “extended” parental leave, as jobs are held open for such employees for up to seven years after the birth of their child. They may also return to the company in a part-time employment relationship. About 2,500 employees in Germany have taken advantage of such offers since 1985. We also offer young mothers and fathers other options for helping to balance family and career, such as part-time employment, flexible working times, annual worktime accounts, jobsharing and teleworking, as well as sabbaticals for longer periods of time.
Women accounted for 26 percent of our workforce on December 31, 2005, compared to only 23 percent at the end of 2003. The share of women in managerial positions, including senior management, at the German sites has steadily increased in recent years: At the end of 2005, women accounted for 14.8 percent of all managers, compared to 12.5 percent two years earlier. The share of female managerial employees at Bayer has increased by about 35 percent over the past ten years. We aim to further increase this percentage in the coming years.
Employment of disabled staff in the company
A further Group Works Council agreement concerns equal opportunity for the severely disabled. Practical experience has shown that it is not possible to achieve the five percent share of disabled employees among the workforce that is required by law in Germany. At the end of 2005, severely disabled employees at Bayer accounted for 3.9 percent of all employees, and we are unlikely to reach the 5 percent mark in the foreseeable future. The company pays an annual equalization charge each time it fails to meet this goal. In 2004/2005, the charge totaled EUR1.1 million. At the same time, in 2004/2005 we awarded contracts with a total volume of EUR440,000 to workshops employing severely disabled employees. No comparable legal requirements exist at our sites outside Germany. Nevertheless, we endeavor to offer employment opportunities to the physically disabled at those locations too.
Vocational training: Giving young people a chance
Bayer has traditionally focused heavily on vocational training programs for young people. Each year on average, about 1,000 youngsters enter such programs at the German sites of Bayer AG and its affiliates. These young people have their own forum in the “Youth and Trainees’ Representation.” A further 300 trainees are employed at sites outside Germany where the dual training system is not in place but comparable systems exist. The company’s German sites offered about 1,400 university graduates from a wide variety of disciplines the opportunity to take part in an internship in 2004/2005. In October 2004, the German magazine Junge Karriere – “Young Career” – awarded us its seal of quality “Fair Company,” thus honoring our fair treatment of interns, who are given adequate compensation for their work and are not placed in full-time positions. We do not attempt to placate university graduates with an internship when they have applied for a regular position.
We offer a permanent employment contract to 100 percent of qualified Bayer trainees. Yet to Bayer, social responsibility also means training more young people than the company is likely to need. In this connection, we founded the air training initiative for the Rhineland area in 2004. As the trainees’ contractual partner, air coordinates and organizes theoretical instruction at the central Bayer training centers while the approximately 100 participating companies assume responsibility for giving the youngsters practical training in their facilities. These companies help pay the overall costs, with Bayer assuming the largest share of the program’s expenses.
In addition, Bayer in 1988 launched a special “jump start” program designed to give disadvantaged youths an opportunity to receive vocational training. Through special qualification measures, we help school graduates whose grades would otherwise be inadequate to prepare for a vocational training course. Through the end of 2005, 812 young people – or 85 percent of all trainees leaving the program – were offered regular training positions by Bayer at its sites in Leverkusen, Dormagen, Krefeld-Uerdingen, Wuppertal-Elberfeld and Brunsbüttel, or by other companies with training facilities.
Our companies in Argentina, Australia, New Zealand and Belgium were listed among the top employers in those countries by respected financial magazines and human resources consultants.
Continuing education: Challenges presented by demographic changes
In view of demographic changes that will result in a growing share of older employees among our workforce, we must actively promote continuing education opportunities for our employees. Throughout the Bayer Group, we spend a total of EUR140 million each year – about 2.3 percent of personnel costs – on continuing education measures.
At the beginning of 2006, the German Minister for Labor and Social Affairs awarded Bayer the “Shaping Employment – Companies Demonstrate Responsibility” award in the category “Prospects for Young People” in recognition of the company’s commitment to vocational training. The jury singled out Bayer for the award because of its program to prepare disadvantaged young people for vocational training courses. In 2004 Bayer was honored by a German children’s charity for the same program.
Promoting equal opportunity is one of the core points of our human resources policy. This means:
- offering equal entrance requirements and development opportunities to both genders,
- balancing individual career and life planning while giving consideration to work requirements,
- the same pay for the same performance.
Family and career: Equal opportunity for women and men
The joint employee/employer task force “Promoting Equal Opportunity at Bayer” has concentrated on achieving these goals in Germany since it was established in 1990. It is left up to individual foreign subsidiaries to introduce programs and committees tailored to the regional, cultural and legal circumstances existing in their countries. In the United States, for example, Bayer Corporation in 1997 founded the “Bayer Diversity Advisory Council” (BDAC). This committee has the aim of furthering understanding among different cultures within the company, in part through the organization of seminars in which nearly all Bayer Corporation managers and many Bayer staff have so far taken part. In Germany, equal opportunity is addressed in numerous company agreements.
We also help our employees to balance family and career out of self-interest: We do not want to lose qualified female employees when they have a child. The details of this policy are established in Group Works Council agreements such as “Family and Career” and arrangements with family service and childcare facilities that provide pre-school openings for 250 children of Bayer employees at the Leverkusen site. In the United States, Bayer Corporation is a leading employer when it comes to promoting the interests of working mothers.
We further accommodate employees with the offer of “extended” parental leave, as jobs are held open for such employees for up to seven years after the birth of their child. They may also return to the company in a part-time employment relationship. About 2,500 employees in Germany have taken advantage of such offers since 1985. We also offer young mothers and fathers other options for helping to balance family and career, such as part-time employment, flexible working times, annual worktime accounts, jobsharing and teleworking, as well as sabbaticals for longer periods of time.
Women accounted for 26 percent of our workforce on December 31, 2005, compared to only 23 percent at the end of 2003. The share of women in managerial positions, including senior management, at the German sites has steadily increased in recent years: At the end of 2005, women accounted for 14.8 percent of all managers, compared to 12.5 percent two years earlier. The share of female managerial employees at Bayer has increased by about 35 percent over the past ten years. We aim to further increase this percentage in the coming years.
Employment of disabled staff in the company
A further Group Works Council agreement concerns equal opportunity for the severely disabled. Practical experience has shown that it is not possible to achieve the five percent share of disabled employees among the workforce that is required by law in Germany. At the end of 2005, severely disabled employees at Bayer accounted for 3.9 percent of all employees, and we are unlikely to reach the 5 percent mark in the foreseeable future. The company pays an annual equalization charge each time it fails to meet this goal. In 2004/2005, the charge totaled EUR1.1 million. At the same time, in 2004/2005 we awarded contracts with a total volume of EUR440,000 to workshops employing severely disabled employees. No comparable legal requirements exist at our sites outside Germany. Nevertheless, we endeavor to offer employment opportunities to the physically disabled at those locations too.
Vocational training: Giving young people a chance
Bayer has traditionally focused heavily on vocational training programs for young people. Each year on average, about 1,000 youngsters enter such programs at the German sites of Bayer AG and its affiliates. These young people have their own forum in the “Youth and Trainees’ Representation.” A further 300 trainees are employed at sites outside Germany where the dual training system is not in place but comparable systems exist. The company’s German sites offered about 1,400 university graduates from a wide variety of disciplines the opportunity to take part in an internship in 2004/2005. In October 2004, the German magazine Junge Karriere – “Young Career” – awarded us its seal of quality “Fair Company,” thus honoring our fair treatment of interns, who are given adequate compensation for their work and are not placed in full-time positions. We do not attempt to placate university graduates with an internship when they have applied for a regular position.
We offer a permanent employment contract to 100 percent of qualified Bayer trainees. Yet to Bayer, social responsibility also means training more young people than the company is likely to need. In this connection, we founded the air training initiative for the Rhineland area in 2004. As the trainees’ contractual partner, air coordinates and organizes theoretical instruction at the central Bayer training centers while the approximately 100 participating companies assume responsibility for giving the youngsters practical training in their facilities. These companies help pay the overall costs, with Bayer assuming the largest share of the program’s expenses.
In addition, Bayer in 1988 launched a special “jump start” program designed to give disadvantaged youths an opportunity to receive vocational training. Through special qualification measures, we help school graduates whose grades would otherwise be inadequate to prepare for a vocational training course. Through the end of 2005, 812 young people – or 85 percent of all trainees leaving the program – were offered regular training positions by Bayer at its sites in Leverkusen, Dormagen, Krefeld-Uerdingen, Wuppertal-Elberfeld and Brunsbüttel, or by other companies with training facilities.
Our companies in Argentina, Australia, New Zealand and Belgium were listed among the top employers in those countries by respected financial magazines and human resources consultants.
Continuing education: Challenges presented by demographic changes
In view of demographic changes that will result in a growing share of older employees among our workforce, we must actively promote continuing education opportunities for our employees. Throughout the Bayer Group, we spend a total of EUR140 million each year – about 2.3 percent of personnel costs – on continuing education measures.
At the beginning of 2006, the German Minister for Labor and Social Affairs awarded Bayer the “Shaping Employment – Companies Demonstrate Responsibility” award in the category “Prospects for Young People” in recognition of the company’s commitment to vocational training. The jury singled out Bayer for the award because of its program to prepare disadvantaged young people for vocational training courses. In 2004 Bayer was honored by a German children’s charity for the same program.
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