Human Capital

A company’s success depends largely on the competence, commitment and motivation of its workforce. In order to recruit and retain qualified employees, STADA offers its staff a wide range of social and financial benefits. 

Relevant topics for STADA’s material assessment:

• Employee engagement and retention
• Employee development
• Occupational health and safety
• Fair working conditions
• Gender equality, diversity and inclusion

Employee engagement and retention

STADA’s personnel policy is managed centrally by the Global Human Resources department at Group headquarters. In this regard, the global functional departments “Talent Management”, “People Analytics” as well as “Compensation & Benefits” lay out the standards, guidelines and processes that are implemented by the international subsidiaries and supplemented in accordance with the conditions specific to the market. In view of a strong centrally managed international HR structure, there are also functional reporting lines from all local HR managers to the global HR management, as well as a global HR management team with local representatives from the largest market regions.

In view of the global Covid-19 pandemic, numerous measures were implemented in 2020 with employee concerns in mind. The focus of these measures was on the safety and health of employees. Measures were initiated globally, adapted to local situations and implemented in accordance with the respective legal requirements. In Germany, a Company Agreement on measures to be taken during the Covid-19 pandemic was adopted. The agreement regulates prevention and protection measures intended to protect both production and production-related employees in particular, who, as far as possible, must work on site at a STADA location despite the crisis situation. Depending on the respective situation, employees with office workstations primarily worked from home and were equipped with the appropriate materials for this purpose.

In 2020, two HR Leadership conferences took place, bringing together HR representatives from headquarters and those responsible for personnel from the larger subsidiaries in order to improve international cooperation. Both conferences were conducted virtually due to the global Covid-19 pandemic. The focus of the event, which takes place twice a year in different countries in which STADA is active, is especially the presentation of global projects.

Actions initiated globally in financial year 2020 included conducting three Pulse Surveys to look at employee commitment, particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic, with above-average results. Global leadership development programs were held virtually and 360-degree feedback was conducted for the STADA Global Leadership Team. Furthermore, in the reporting year, the process of creating and implementing the new SAP-based HR IT environment was continued, enabling the standardization and digitalization of Group-wide HR processes. Following the global roll-out at the end of 2020, the first two modules will be used in all countries. Additional modules will follow in 2021. The Compensation & Benefits department developed and implemented a global Compensation & Benefits policy to ensure clarity, transparency and equal treatment in the relevant areas in the event of inquiries.

As part of the recruitment process, all interviews were conducted virtually, in line with the current Covid-19 pandemic situation. To as great an extent as possible, the onboarding process for new employees also took place only virtually.

Equal opportunities and family-friendly framework conditions are important factors in the success of every company and fundamentally contribute to competitiveness. For this reason, STADA supports its employees in establishing a work-family balance by allowing for flexible work hours, or by granting employees contributions to childcare costs and consultation services on the topic of caring for dependents.

In addition to contributions to childcare costs, STADA’s financial contributions include payments or subsidies for the commute to the workplace, supplementary occupational disability insurance in the chemical industry (BUC) for every employee covered by collective agreements and those covered by similar agreements, the promotion of the ChemiePensionfonds, as well as group accident insurance, which also covers private accidents.

In order to deal responsibly with the labor of each individual employee – one of the Company’s key resources – STADA has, among other things, established Company health management at its headquarters in Bad Vilbel, which helps the workforce stay physically fit. This includes, for example, a fitness room, yoga classes, massage services and sports groups, as well as an annual Health Day held at two locations in Bad Vilbel, all of which was only held in 2020 if possible and in compliance with Covid-19 safety measures.

Also, in line with STADA’s purpose “Caring for people’s health as a trusted partner”, a global digital health challenge was carried out in 2020. The objective of the challenge was to reinforce positive habits for promoting employee health and well-being. More than 3,600 employees worldwide took part in the “One STADA Health Challenge”.

Employee development

STADA attaches great importance to training and development. Particularly against the backdrop of covering its own need for qualified young talent and, with it, securing and strengthening the competitiveness of the Company, STADA makes use of internal promotion and targeted programs. The individual training of employees is defined and coordinated by the respective departments on a needs-oriented basis and in accordance with individual targets.

STADA has a global program for the promotion of talent aligned with the corporate culture and the goal of future growth. In three development cycles, participants are given a comprehensive understanding of STADA’s purpose, values and strategy.

Two global programs are used in the Group with the aim of recruiting and promoting young talent. Over the course of the 24-month “Impact” trainee program, graduates are trained in four functional areas at STADA and prepared for a potential long-term position in the STADA Group. The “Accelerate” program, which was initiated in the reporting year and will be launched in 2021, is targeted toward people with initial work experience and aims to train future managers during a 24-month program.

In 2020, nine people underwent training in different areas of the Company. As part of its development program, the Company also offers students the opportunity to gain practical experience in the pharmaceutical industry with an internship or clerkship.

Health and occupational safety

Safety and health protection at work are of tremendous importance for STADA. For this reason, the respective local legal provisions represent the minimum standard for the Group. Their implementation and ongoing improvement is ensured by the local HSE management systems.

In 2020, the programs at all locations to further improve responsibility and awareness of occupational safety at all hierarchical levels and to enhance the occupational safety culture were continued. This included the strengthening of “Near Miss” programs (a program to detect and prevent unsafe behavior/unsafe situations) and integrated HSE/Gemba walk-throughs.

With the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, STADA established a Steering Committee with senior executives that supported the implementation of local protection concepts for both production and sales sites worldwide. Similarly, global reporting of Covid-19 infections has been introduced and the approach in countries regularly coordinated.

In March 2020, STADA introduced mandatory home office work worldwide for several weeks as an immediate measure and flexibly adapted this to the infection situation in the countries on a case-by-case basis during the year based on local conditions. There were also various protective measures, such as the development of occupancy plans for the offices. To further increase employee safety, plexiglas screens were installed as partitions in meeting rooms and open-plan offices. Furthermore, all employees were sent a “health package” with mouth-nose protection masks and health-promoting products.

Extensive measures were taken at all production sites worldwide. In addition to adapting operational procedures to ensure social distancing rules at all workplaces, these also included the obligation to measure the temperatures of all employees and the mandatory requirement to wear mouth/nose protective masks. Further protective measures were introduced with regard to external companies and, depending on the local pandemic situation, extensive possibilities or obligations were introduced for PCR or antigen tests for employees.

In the case of employees who tested positive for Covid-19, operational contacts were identified and quarantined and/or tested for Covid-19 in accordance with local regulations.

Especially in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, active and intensive communication was of utmost importance. Employee surveys conducted in 2020 showed that employees felt that they had been well informed and protected in the workplace.

Important non-financial performance indicators - in the reporting year, as a result of the broad range of measures, it was possible to significantly reduce the number of accidents (accidents >1 lost work day) as compared to 2019:

1) GOST 12.0.230.1-2015 occupational safety and health protection in connection with GOST 12.0.230-2007.
2) All production locations; accident rate calculated for every 200,000 working hours for accidents >1 lost day (not including commuting accidents).
3) Work-related accidents with lost time >24 h per 200,000 working

In 2020, intensive work was also carried out at all sites to ensure that “Safety first” aspect could be experienced. To this end, annual HSE programs are defined and processed for each site. At the global level, accident investigations were harmonized in 2020 so that accident causes can be uniformly identified and processed across all sites.

STADA employees are offered a broad range of programs for general health protection. Coordination of the measures is carried out locally by the respective locations. These include, for example, health days, flu vaccinations, anti-smoking informational events.

Fair working conditions

Throughout the Group, STADA respects the rights of its employees in compliance with local laws.

The Company is committed to the principle of equal treatment and pursues violations of the German Non-Discrimination Act (AGG) with disciplinary consequences. In order to promote protection against discrimination in the workplace, employees at German locations are, for example, instructed in the applicable non-discrimination policy upon entering the Company and an internal complaints office serves as a contact point.

The Company continues to place importance on the fair involvement of employee representatives and expresses a clear commitment to the freedom of association as well as to the right of its workforce to membership in union.

With a view to the safety of employees, the prevention of accidents and emergency situations as well as the planning of emergency measures take on great importance. Within this framework, the Group ensures their safety in the workplace in compliance with current standards. You can find more detailed information on this topic in the sub-chapter “Health, Safety and Environmental Protection”. 

Gender equality, diversity and inclusion

STADA values the diversity of personal qualities, talent and performance within its workforce. The future viability of the Company largely depends on how this diversity is promoted and utilized. As an internationally-active Group with locations in over 30 countries worldwide, cultural diversity is an important part of the Company.

With regard to equal opportunity for women and men, STADA places importance on the balanced representation of both genders. Also, as part of succession planning for managers, the Executive Board ensures an appropriate promotion of female employees for a constant increase in the proportion of women. When it comes to filling management positions, however, the professional and personal qualifications of the candidates, and not their gender, are always at the forefront.

Important non-financial performance indicators

The proportion of women employed in management positions at the Group in 2020 amounted to approximately 52% (previous year: approximately 51%).

There has been a new global definition of gender diversity at STADA since 2019. This definition provides for a division into “upper, middle and lower management levels”. The “upper management level” includes all members of the STADA Global Leadership Team. In this Group, women had a share of 23% in 2020. In financial year 2020, the management levels were divided into “middle” and “lower” management levels for the first time. The middle management level leads the lower management level. The lower management level manages individual employees. For the “middle management levels”, the share of women was 49%. For the “lower management level”, the proportion of women was 57%.